EU:MEPs have voted to accept reform of the distribution of seats at the European Parliament despite threats by Italy to veto the plan.
The assembly voted by 378 votes to 154 yesterday with 109 abstentions to support the reform plan, which would see the number of Irish MEPs fall from 13 to 12 from 2009.
Just one Irish MEP, Independent Kathy Sinnott, voted against the plan, which the Government unsuccessfully tried to amend in recent weeks to maintain its existing number of seats.
The proposed redistribution of seats would better reflect the population within the EU and was expected to be agreed at a summit of EU leaders next week in Lisbon alongside the proposed Reform Treaty. But Italy is strongly opposed to the plan and is threatening to use its national veto, a move that could complicate talks on the treaty.
Just two out of 72 Italian MEPs did not oppose the reform proposed by French MEP Alain Lamassoure.
The reform, which would raise the number of lawmakers to 750 from the 736 envisaged under the Nice Treaty, gives France and the UK more MEPs than Italy for the first time. France gets two additional MEPs while the UK gets one extra MEP under a formula created to distribute the 16 extra seats available from 2009.
"There is a certain nostalgia for the time when certain groups of countries were put on an equal footing merely because they were [ EU] founding countries," said socialist MEP Adrian Severin, co-author of the reform plan. "With the EU of 27 states, this is not sustainable anymore."
In contrast to the Italian strategy, the Irish Government has lobbied behind the scenes to try to retain 13 MEPs. However, it has indicated that it will not oppose the final reform plan at next week's summit.
A confidential Government briefing note for all 13 Irish MEPs says that "Ireland's population is at least one million lower than those countries being allocated 13 seats". It says the Republic's case for a 13th seat is based on "projections of future population growth". It notes that the first priority in the reform talks had been to prevent the State's representation from falling to 11 seats.
"We will continue to underline the fact that Ireland's demographic situation is changing. The arguments for an additional Irish seat will continue to strengthen as the gap narrows between our population and, for example, Finland's," it says.
The four Fianna Fáil MEPs, five Fine Gael MEPs and Labour's Proinsias De Rossa voted in favour of the reform. Independent Marian Harkin abstained and Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald did not vote.