Degressive Proportionality in the European Union. Słomczyński, W. & Życzkowski, K. Technical Report PE 583.117, European Parliament, Committee on Constitutional Affairs, 2017.
Degressive Proportionality in the European Union [link]Paper  abstract   bibtex   
1. Allocating seats in the European Parliament (EP) according to a selected mathematical formula based on the populations of the Member States, allows us to avoid potential problems which may occur with any change in the number of Member States or with any considerable variation of their population. 2. There exists a plethora of mathematical systems for the seats apportionment that agree with the bounds adopted by the Treaties and the rule of degressive proportionality. One of the simplest is the base + prop scheme, known also as the Cambridge Compromise. 3. The Modified Cambridge Compromise (base + power scheme) is better suited in the case of the predicted exit of the United Kingdom from the EU than the original Cambridge Compromise, and results in the minimum transfer of seats in the EP, regardless of the size of the EP, with the rounding method adjusted to the size. 4. Brexit provides a unique opportunity to implement a smooth transition to a new balanced allocation system in such a way that each Member State obtains at least the current number of seats in the EP. Such solutions exist also for an appropriately reduced size of the Parliament. 5. The minimum size of the EP for which such a smooth solution exists in case of the Modified Cambridge Compromise is 721 (according to the current population data). 6. Transition to one of the systems mentioned above will increase the share of representatives for a few of the largest Member States, and will reduce it for the medium-sized ones. Thus, to preserve the overall balance of power in the European Union, one should consider a simultaneous modification of the voting system in the Council of the European Union. For this purpose we recommend the degressive proportional system called the Jagiellonian Compromise that strengthens the voting power of the medium-sized states.

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