The enlargement of the European Parliament through the addition of 18 MEPs, including Malta's Joseph Cuschieri, moved another step forward today with a vote in the Constitutional Affairs Committee.

The Committee approved by 16 votes in favour, five against and one abstention, a report drafted by Mendez de Vigo to resolve the problem created because the last European elections took place while Nice Treaty provisions were in force. This established the number of MEPs at 736 - a situation that must now be adapted to conform to the Lisbon Treaty, where a total number of 751 MEPs were agreed.

As Article 5 of the Act of 20 September 1976, concerning the election of Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage, does not allow curtailing an MEP's mandate, the arrival of the 18 new MEPs will bring the total number of members up to 754, three more than stipulated in the Lisbon Treaty, until the next European elections in June 2014.

Twelve countries will get to send new MEPs: Spain will get four new seats; Austria, France and Sweden will get two; Bulgaria, Italy, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and the United Kingdom will have one more MEP. Germany will lose three seats, but only after next European elections in 2014.

The decision must now confirmed in the next Strasbourg plenary, and the Constitutional Affairs Committee has stated that all 18 new MEPs should take up their seats "at the same time in order not to upset the balance of nationalities in the House", so it "urges Member States to complete their election procedures in a pragmatic way as soon as possible".

The European Parliament has said that it is ready to accept that if technical or political difficulties prove insurmountable, indirect election via national parliaments would be an option for choosing the new MEPs, as some countries did not make any provisions for how to elect these new Members during the last European elections.