The numbers of the EU institutions: seats, members, majorities and terms

Numbers are where a confident candidate loses easy marks: a ceiling mistaken for a current size, a term borrowed from the wrong institution, a majority of votes cast mistaken for a majority of Members. Every figure on this page comes from an official text we read on 26 October 2026, named on its line. Where a figure is our own arithmetic, the page says so.

The master table

The count of 27 Member States is the one the Council uses for its 2026 voting figures (Council Decision (EU, Euratom) 2025/2427, "EU-27").

European Parliament: 720 seats, and the 751 trap

Germany is at the Treaty maximum of 96; Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta are at the minimum of six. The same Decision asks Parliament to propose an updated allocation for 2029-2034 "if possible by the end of 2027" (Art 4), so these figures belong to the current term only.

The European Council and the Council

• European Council: meets twice every six months (Art 15(3) TEU); its President is elected by qualified majority for two and a half years, renewable once (Art 15(5) TEU). Each member may act for at most one other in a vote, and its President and the Commission President do not vote (Art 235(1) TFEU).
• Council: ten configurations (Council Decision 2009/878/EU, as amended by European Council Decision 2010/594/EU); the presidency rotates every six months, Cyprus then Ireland in 2026 (Council Decision (EU) 2016/1316); it meets in Luxembourg in April, June and October (Protocol No 6).
• Qualified majority: 55 % of members, at least 15, representing at least 65 % of the population; a blocking minority of at least four (Art 16(4) TEU). For 2026 the 65 % threshold is 293,905,933 people out of 452,162,974 (Council Decision 2025/2427). The full working is in how qualified majority is calculated.

The Commission: 27 members, and how not to count them

Article 17(5) TEU provides that from 1 November 2014 the Commission consists of members "corresponding to two thirds of the number of Member States, unless the European Council, acting unanimously, decides to alter this number". The European Council did so in Decision 2013/272/EU: the Commission consists of a number of members, including its President and the High Representative, "equal to the number of Member States". Hence 27.

The Commission's College page lists the 2024-2029 College as the President, five Executive Vice-Presidents, the High Representative and Vice-President, and twenty Commissioners: 1 + 5 + 1 + 20 = 27. Not every official summary agrees: Parliament's fact sheet on the Commission (April 2026) describes the same 27 as the President, six Executive Vice-Presidents, the High Representative and 19 Commissioners: the same total, split differently from the College page's five Executive Vice-Presidents and twenty Commissioners. The total of 27 is safe; the split between Executive Vice-Presidents and Commissioners is not, so count from the College page and do not build on Vice-President counts. The common traps guide has more on this.

• Term: five years (Art 17(3) TEU).
• Decisions: by a majority of its Members (Art 250 TFEU); with 27 Members that is 14 (our arithmetic).
• Censure: Parliament may not vote until at least three days after the motion is tabled, and only by open vote; the motion is carried by a two-thirds majority of the votes cast, representing a majority of the component Members (Art 234 TFEU). The Commission then resigns as a body.
• Appointment: the European Council proposes the President by qualified majority, Parliament elects by a majority of its component members, and the European Council appoints the College by qualified majority after Parliament's vote of consent (Art 17(7) TEU).

The courts and the Court of Auditors

• Court of Justice: one judge from each Member State, assisted by Advocates-General, appointed by common accord of the governments for six years (Art 19(2) TEU). Article 252 TFEU still names eight Advocates-General; Council Decision 2013/336/EU raised the number to nine from 1 July 2013 and to eleven from 7 October 2015.
• General Court: "at least one judge per Member State" in the Treaty (Art 19(2) TEU); the Statute sets two judges per Member State as from 1 September 2019 (Art 48, as amended by Regulation 2015/2422).
• Article 255 panel: seven persons give an opinion on candidates before judges and Advocates-General are appointed (Art 255 TFEU).
• Court of Auditors: one national of each Member State (Art 285 TFEU), six-year renewable terms, a President elected for three years (Art 286(2) TFEU).

The majorities, side by side

Other numbers worth having

• Economic and Social Committee and Committee of the Regions: at most 350 members each, five-year renewable terms, chairs elected for two and a half years (Arts 301 to 306 TFEU).
• Parliament's annual session opens on the second Tuesday in March (Art 229 TFEU).
• Committee of inquiry: set up at the request of a quarter of Parliament's component Members (Art 226 TFEU).
• Number of institutions: seven (Art 13(1) TEU). The institutions hub compares them.

Worked example (our own question)

How many seats in the European Parliament are allocated to Germany for the 2024-2029 term? (a) 96; (b) 81; (c) 76; (d) 720.

Answer: (a). Article 3 of European Council Decision (EU) 2023/2061 gives Germany 96, the maximum allowed by Article 14(2) TEU. 81 is France and 76 is Italy; 720 is the whole Parliament. For a timed run at numbers like these, try the daily quiz or the free test. If you are preparing for the 2026 AD6 competition, its page is COM/AD/111/2026.