Observers

It is conventional for countries acceding to the European Union to send a number of observers to Parliament in advance. The number of observers and their method of appointment (usually by national parliaments) is laid down in the joining countries' Treaties of Accession.

Observers may attend debates and take part by invitation, but they may not vote or exercise other official duties. When the countries then become full member states, these observers become full MEPs for the interim period between accession and the next European elections.

In this way, the agreed maximum of 750 parliamentary seats may temporarily be exceeded. For instance, in 2004, the number of seats in the European Parliament was temporarily raised to 788 to accommodate representatives from the ten states that joined the EU on 1 May, but it was subsequently reduced to 732 following the elections in June.

From September 26, 2005 to December 31, 2006, Bulgaria had 18 observers in Parliament and Romania 35. These were selected from government and opposition parties as agreed by the countries' national parliaments. On January 1, 2007, the observers became MEPs (with some personnel changes).

An upcoming European Parliament report is expected to recommend that North Cypriots be allowed to send observers to the Parliament in a speaking, but non-voting, capacity to represent Turkish Cypriots in an effort to open dialogue and ease their isolation. This could also involve making Turkish an official language. This is opposed by the EPP-ED however and has not been made an official proposal yet.^[1] Currently Cyprus is allocated MEPs based upon the population of the whole of the Island however only Greek Cypriots are sitting in Parliament.