The common position which will be taken by the Member States at the conferences on the accession to the Union of Romania and/or Bulgaria regarding the allocation of seats in the European Parliament and the weighting of votes in the European Council and the Council shall be as follows.

1.  If the accession to the  Union of Romania and/or Bulgaria takes place before the entry into force of the European Council Decision referred to in Article I-19(2) of the Constitution, the allocation of seats in the European Parliament throughout the 2004- 2009 parliamentary term will be in accordance with the following table for a Union of 27 Member States.

 

The Treaty of Accession to the Union will therefore, by way of derogation from ArticleI- 19(2) of the Constitution, stipulate that the number of members of the European Parliament may temporarily exceed 736 for the remainder of the 2004 to 2009 Parliamentary term.

2. Without prejudice to Article I-24(2) of the Constitution, the weighting of the votes of Romania and Bulgaria in the European Council and the Council shall be set at 14 and 10 respectively until 31 October 2009.

3. At the time of each accession, the threshold referred to in the Protocol on the transitional provisions relating to the Institutions and bodies of the Union shall be decided by the Council.