The German Bundestag generally consists of 598 members. Of these, 299 are elected from nominations in the constituencies and the others from Land nominations (Land lists).

If the number of direct mandates a party has won exceeds the number of total mandates calculated for that party, the party shall receive overhang mandates, as they are called. The number of members increases by the number of these additional mandates.

Presently, the European Parliament has 736 seats. As a rule, the number of seats to which the individual member states of the European Union (EU) are entitled depends on population size and is based on the principle of degressive proportionality. Accordingly, the small EU member states have more seats in relation to the number of their population than large member states. Germany thus accounted for the maximum number of 99 seats, Malta received the minimum number of 5 seats. This had been laid down in the Treaty establishing the European Community as revised by the Treaty of Nice and last amended by the Acts of Accession of Bulgaria and Romania. The EU Reform Treaty of Lisbon, which has meanwhile been ratified by all member states and entered into force on 1 December 2009, provides for an upper limit of 751 seats (including the President) with a maximum of 96 seats (Germany) and a minimum of 6 seats (Malta) per member state.
 

Last update: December 2009