Absolute majority of members in the European Parliament
- The European Parliament, Strasbourg, 5 May 2009 (Photo: www.kirkhope.org.uk)
Absolutemajority of membersin the European Parliament
Usually the European Parliament takes its decisionsby a simple majority of those memberstaking part in avote. In many cases, for example in the ordinarylegislative procedure,budgetmatters and the so-called "assent procedure," it decides by an absolute majority. This is amajority of all its members, regardless of whether or not all arepresent.
FromJuly2014an absolute majority was 376 of 751 MEPs.
Newenlargements may change these figures again. The size of an absolute majoritymay also change if an MEP place is vacant for some reason.
If MEPs wantto censure theCommission, a two-thirds majorityof those voting, as well as an absolute majority of the members, isneeded.
