IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ers/journl/vxxvy2022i2p145-159.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Implications of Possible Enlargements of the European Union for the Configuration of Power in the European Parliament

Author

Listed:
  • Katarzyna Cegielka
  • Piotr Dniestrzanski
  • Arkadiusz Maciuk
  • Maciej Szczecinski

Abstract

Purpose: The paper aims at simulating the composition of the European Parliament (EP) after possible impending enlargements of the European Union. To this end, a number of scenarios are considered to this end including the accession of the four countries with current candidate status and the three countries which applied for admission to the Community as of March 2022. Approach/Methodology/Design: The analyzed simulations of EP composition were developed using the methods most frequently proposed in the literature, i.e. the parabolic method, the base+prop method and r-DP methods. These methods allocate the seats in concordance with the condition of degressive proportionality. Findings: All the scenarios of the EU enlargement discussed imply an increased total EP representation of the group of countries with low income in terms of GDP per capita, hence their role in the EP increases. This result complies with the idea of the harmonious development of European countries based on cooperation as promoted by the Community. Practical Implications: Eight different scenarios of possible enlargements of the European Union were applied to determine the divisions of seats in the European Parliament. These simulations can underlie the choice of a concrete method of finding the allocation of mandates as an alternative to the current practice of determining the composition of seats by negotiations. Grouping states according to GDP per capita makes it possible to compare the methods employed in the context of their influence on the total quantity of the representation of countries with different levels of affluence. Originality/Value: The added value of this paper is the comparison of results from selected methods in view of possible enlargements of the Community. In particular, it turns out that the base+prop method is the most “neutral” for the countries with the highest GDP per capita, as in the case of Ukraine’s accession.

Suggested Citation

  • Katarzyna Cegielka & Piotr Dniestrzanski & Arkadiusz Maciuk & Maciej Szczecinski, 2022. "The Implications of Possible Enlargements of the European Union for the Configuration of Power in the European Parliament," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(2), pages 145-159.
    • Handle: RePEc:ers:journl:v:xxv:y:2022:i:2:p:145-159
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ersj.eu/journal/2912/download
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Geoffrey Grimmett & Jean-François Laslier & Friedrich Pukelsheim & Victoriano Ramirez Gonzalez & Richard J. Rose & Wojciech Slomczynski & Martin Zachariasen & Karol Życzkowski, 2011. "The allocation between the EU member states of the seats in the European Parliament Cambridge Compromise," Working Papers hal-00609946, HAL.
    2. Katarzyna Cegiełka & Piotr Dniestrzański & Janusz Łyko & Arkadiusz Maciuk & Maciej Szczeciński, 2021. "A neutral core of degressively proportional allocations under lexicographic preferences of agents," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(4), pages 667-685, December.
    3. Florek, Jan, 2012. "A numerical method to determine a degressive proportional distribution of seats in the European Parliament," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 121-129.
    4. Słomczyński, Wojciech & Życzkowski, Karol, 2012. "Mathematical aspects of degressive proportionality," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 94-101.
    5. Ramírez González, V. & Martínez Aroza, J. & Márquez García, A., 2012. "Spline methods for degressive proportionality in the composition of the European Parliament," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 114-120.
    6. Katarzyna Cegiełka & Janusz Łyko & Radosław Rudek, 2019. "Beyond the Cambridge Compromise algorithm towards degressively proportional allocations," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 317-332, June.
    7. Janusz Łyko & Radosław Rudek, 2017. "Operations research methods in political decisions: a case study on the European Parliament composition," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 572-586, December.
    8. Janusz Łyko & Ewa Łyko, 2020. "The Composition of the European Parliament During the 2019–2024 Term in Light of Legal Provisions and the Rules of Fair Distribution," Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics, in: Mehmet Huseyin Bilgin & Hakan Danis & Ender Demir (ed.), Eurasian Economic Perspectives, pages 363-374, Springer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katarzyna Cegiełka & Piotr Dniestrzański & Janusz Łyko & Arkadiusz Maciuk & Maciej Szczeciński, 2021. "A neutral core of degressively proportional allocations under lexicographic preferences of agents," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(4), pages 667-685, December.
    2. Słomczyński, Wojciech & Życzkowski, Karol, 2012. "Mathematical aspects of degressive proportionality," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 94-101.
    3. Janusz Łyko & Radosław Rudek, 2017. "Operations research methods in political decisions: a case study on the European Parliament composition," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 572-586, December.
    4. Katarzyna Cegiełka & Janusz Łyko & Radosław Rudek, 2019. "Beyond the Cambridge Compromise algorithm towards degressively proportional allocations," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 317-332, June.
    5. Blanca L Delgado-Márquez & Michael Kaeding & Antonio Palomares, 2013. "A more balanced composition of the European Parliament with degressive proportionality," European Union Politics, , vol. 14(3), pages 458-471, September.
    6. Ramírez-González, Victoriano, 2012. "Seat distribution in the European Parliament according to the Treaty of Lisbon," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 130-135.
    7. Markus Brill & Jean-François Laslier & Piotr Skowron, 2018. "Multiwinner approval rules as apportionment methods," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 30(3), pages 358-382, July.
    8. Grimmett, G.R. & Oelbermann, K.-F. & Pukelsheim, F., 2012. "A power-weighted variant of the EU27 Cambridge Compromise," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 136-140.
    9. Kellermann, Thomas, 2012. "The minimum-based procedure: A principled way to allocate seats in the European Parliament," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 102-106.
    10. Macé, Antonin & Treibich, Rafael, 2012. "Computing the optimal weights in a utilitarian model of apportionment," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 141-151.
    11. Grimmett, Geoffrey R., 2012. "European apportionment via the Cambridge Compromise," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 68-73.
    12. Zéphirin Nganmeni & Roland Pongou & Bertrand Tchantcho & Jean‐Baptiste Tondji, 2022. "Vaccine and inclusion," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(5), pages 1101-1123, October.
      • Zéphirin Nganmeni & Roland Pongou & Bertrand Tchantcho & Jean-Baptiste Tondji, 2022. "Vaccine and Inclusion," Working Papers 2202E Classification-C62,, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    13. Piotr Dniestrzański & Janusz Łyko, 2015. "The Disproportion Of Allocation Under The Given Boundary Conditions," Economy & Business Journal, International Scientific Publications, Bulgaria, vol. 9(1), pages 118-126.
    14. Laslier, Jean-François, 2012. "Why not proportional?," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 90-93.
    15. Wenruo Lyu & Liang Zhao, 2023. "Axioms and Divisor Methods for a Generalized Apportionment Problem with Relative Equality," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-13, July.
    16. Serafini, Paolo, 2012. "Allocation of the EU Parliament seats via integer linear programming and revised quotas," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 107-113.
    17. G. R. Grimmett & F. Pukelsheim & V. Ram'irez Gonz'alez & W. S{l}omczy'nski & K. .Zyczkowski, 2017. "A 700-seat no-loss composition for the 2019 European Parliament," Papers 1710.03820, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Allocation of seats; European Parliament; European Union; welfarez.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D39 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Other
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ers:journl:v:xxv:y:2022:i:2:p:145-159. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Marios Agiomavritis (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://ersj.eu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.