The European Parliament's Constitutional Affairs committee has held a debate on the future allocation of MEPs amid indications that Ireland may lose its bid to secure an extra seat.
Fianna Fáil MEP Brian Crowley has argued that the population figures used by the committee to calculate the allocation of extra seats was out of date.
While independent MEP Kathy Sinnott said that there is a need to acknowledge the role of the smaller member state since larger ones had more power in all areas.
Under a formula proposed to the committee, Spain would get four extra seats; France, Sweden and Austria two; while Britain, Poland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, and Latvia would get one extra seat each.
A Fianna Fáil spokesman said there were bound to be political considerations over the allocation of extra seats. He added that is was unlikely that Britain would accept getting one extra seat while France got two.
The committee is set to vote on the issue on 2 October before it goes to a full vote at a plenary session in Strasbourg on 11 October. The final decision will then be taken by heads of government at an EU summit.
EU leaders recently agreed from 2009 it would expand the European Parliament's representation to 750, giving it an extra 16 seats.
The Irish Government has argued that because the country's population has risen substantially in recent years, our allocation of seats in the parliament should reflect this increase.
