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Europe

UK-EU Relations

This fact was correct when it was updated on 24 Sep 2020

What happened to the UK’s seats in the European Parliament?

Some of the UK’s seats have been used to address the under-representation of some member states. That meant five extra MEPs for France and Spain, three for Italy and the Netherlands, two for Ireland, and one each for Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. However, that only accounted for 27 seats. The remaining 46 UK seats have not been redistributed and the Parliament has been reduced to 705 MEPs, from 751. These changes were implemented when the UK left, with member states that gained extra seats having elected reserve candidates at the 2019 elections to take the place of UK MEPs.

For more information please read our European elections and Brexit report.

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