The procedure for allocating seats was modified by the 19th Act of 25 November 2011 to amend the Federal Elections Act (Federal Law Gazette I p. 2313). Detailed information to be provided soon.

Legal basis:

Section 6 of the Federal Elections Act (BWG)

See also: Neues Verfahren zur Sitzverteilung im Deutschen Bundestag (New procedure for allocating seats in the German Bundestag - available only in German)

    http://www.bundeswahlleiter.de/de/aktuelle_mitteilungen/downloads/neues_berechnungsverfahren.pdf

In European elections, the 99 seats for the German deputies are distributed in one step. To distribute the seats, the procedure according to Sainte-Laguë/Schepers was used for the first time also in the 2009 European Election.

So far, nominations winning less than 5% of the votes cast in the Federal Republic of Germany have been disregarded in the allocation of seats to German members of the European Parliament. As the Federal Constitutional Court declared the provisions of Section 2 (7) of the European Elections Act invalid on 9 November 2011, the five per cent clause will cease to apply from the 2014 European Election because these provisions are the basis of the restrictive clause.

Legal basis:

 

Section 2 of the European Elections Act (EuWG)

For a comprehensive presentation of all three procedures used in Germany to distribute seats please refer to the following paper (available only in German):

Neues Sitzzuteilungsverfahren bei Bundestags- und Europawahl (PDF, 133 KB) 
 (New procedure for allocating seats in Bundestag and European elections)

Last update: December 2011