BRUSSELS: The European Union's legislature is looking to rejig its seat distribution after Britain departs and is considering allowing some lawmakers to be elected on EU-wide tickets.
Once Britain leaves on March 29 next year, the number of seats could be cut from 751 to 705. All the seats are currently allocated to countries, and Britain has 73.
A European Parliament committee proposed Tuesday that 27 of the British seats be shared across member states that are currently at a relative disadvantage. Spain and France could each gain five more seats, with Italy and the Netherlands gaining three.
It proposed that some seats could in the future be reserved for pan-European lists.
The full European Parliament and the EU's remaining 27 member states will need to agree to the seat redistribution.