A power-weighted variant of the EU27 Cambridge Compromise

The Cambridge Compromise composition of the European Parliament allocates five base seats to each Member State's citizenry, and apportions the remaining seats proportionately to population figures using the divisor method with rounding upwards and observing a 96 seat capping. The power-weighted variant avoids the capping step, proceeding instead by a progressive non-linear downweighting of the population figures until the largest State is allocated exactly 96 seats. The pertinent calculations of the variant are described, and its relative constitutional merits are discussed

European Apportionment via the Cambridge Compromise

Seven mathematicians and one political scientist met at the Cambridge Apportionment Meeting in January 2011. They agreed a unanimous recommendation to the European Parliament for its future apportionments between the EU Member States. This is a short factual account of the reasons that led to the Meeting, of its debates and report, and of some of the ensuing Parliamentary debate.Comment: Minor changes. Short analysis added in the final sectio

Degressive representation of Member States in the European Parliament 2019-2024

Primary law of the European Union demands that the allocation of the seats of the European Parliament between the Member States must obey the principle of degressive proportionality. The principle embodies the political aim that the more populous states agree to be underrepresented in order to allow the less populous states to be better represented. This paper reviews four allocation methods achieving this goal: the Cambridge Compromise, the Power Compromise, the Modified Cambridge Compromise, and the 0.5-DPL Method. After a year of committee deliberations, Parliament decreed on 7 February 2018 an allocation of seats for the 2019 elections that realizes degressive proportionality, but otherwise lacks methodological grounding. The allocation emerged from haggling and bargaining behind closed doors

Mathematical aspects of degressive proportionality

We analyze properties of apportionment functions in context of the problem of allocating seats in the European Parliament. Necessary and sufficient conditions for apportionment functions are investigated. Some exemplary families of apportionment functions are specified and the corresponding partitions of the seats in the European Parliament among the Member States of the European Union are presented. Although the choice of the allocation functions is theoretically unlimited, we show that the constraints are so strong that the acceptable functions lead to rather similar solutions.Comment: several minor corrections, revised version 10 pages in two column style, one figure and two tables include

Forecasting the Europe 2020 headline target on education and training. A panel data approach

This analysis aims at proposing simple econometric models that can be used to forecast early leavers from education and training and tertiary education attainment benchmarks up to year 2020. The models are built on the theoretical framework of human capital and optimal schooling decisions and then estimated in a panel setting to better deal with a limited dataset. By looking back at the time period of enrolment and graduation, our approach could be seen as an attempt to identify the determinants that shape the education decisions of young individuals. We construct the forecasts under very simple assumptions about the expected adults’ education attainment and given the determinants of schooling decisions uncovered by our empirical analysis. The forecasts tell us how early school leaving and tertiary education attainment are likely to develop over the next years if nothing changes in terms of policy measures. This very strong assumption provides scope for policy action especially for those countries where the expected developments of model’s determinants are not enough to foresee a positive outcome.JRC.G.3-Econometrics and applied statistic

Divisions of the world according to flows and networks

This EuroBroadMap working paper presents the synthesis obtained by the work package Flows and Networks. Starting from several matrices describing the international system at different periods and from different perspectives (economical, political, financial, etc.), the aim is firstly to produce a relevant partition on a world scale and, secondly, to search if an entity that could be named Europe appears. Results obtained with different methods (dominant flows, Intramax, structural equivalence, centre/ periphery) are then compared

Structural change in Europe's rural regions: Farm livelihoods between subsistence orientation, modernisation and non-farm diversification

The contributions in this edited volume constitute the mini-symposium on 'Structural change in Europe's rural regions - Farm livelihoods between subsistence orientation, modernization and non-farm diversification' at the international conference of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) on 'The New Landscape of Global Agriculture' in Beijing, China, August 16-22, 2009. Table of contents: Can we really talk about structural change? The issue of small-scale farms in rural Poland; Tomasz Wolek (WUDES) ...1-22 The role of farm activities for overcoming rural poverty in Romania; Cosmin Salasan (USAMVB) & Jana Fritzsch (IAMO)...23-41 Comparative Analysis of the contribution of subsistence production to household incomes in five EU New Member States: Lessons learnt; Sophia Davidova (UNIKENT), Lena Fredriksson (UNIKENT), Matthew Gorton (UNEW), Plamen Mishev (UNWE) & Dan Petrovici (UNIKENT)...43-68 The flexibility of family farms in Poland; Swetlana Renner, Heinrich Hockmann, Agata Pieniadz, & Thomas Glauben (IAMO)...69-89 Agriculture and rural structural change: An analysis of the experience of past accessions in selected EU15 regions; Carmen Hubbard & Matthew Gorton (UNEW)...91-112 Expanding biogas production in Germany and Hungary: Good prospects for small scale farms?; Lioudmila Möller (IAMO)...113-133 Impact of topical policies on the future of small-scale farms in Poland - A multiobjective approach; Stefan Wegener (IAMO), Jana Fritzsch (IAMO), Gertrud Buchenrieder (IAMO), Jarmila Curtiss (IPTS), & Sergio Gomez y Paloma (IPTS)...135-160 --

Fair apportionment in the view of the Venice Commission’s recommendation

Abstract The Venice Commission in its Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters specifies that (single-seat) constituencies should be drawn so that the size difference of a constituency’s size from the average should not exceed a fixed limit while its borders must not cross the borders of administrative regions, such as states or counties. Assuming that constituencies are of equal size within each of the administrative regions, the problem is equivalent to the apportionment problem, that is, the proportional allocation of voting districts among the administrative regions. We show that the principle of maximum admissible departure is incompatible with common apportionment properties, such as monotonicity and Hare-quota. When multiple apportionments satisfy the smallest maximum admissible departure property we find a unique apportionment by the repeated application of the property. The allotment such that the differences from the average district size are lexicographically minimized can be found using an efficient algorithm. This apportionment rule is a well-defined allocation mechanism compatible with and derived from the recommendation of the Venice Commission. Finally, we compare this apportionment rule with mainstream mechanisms using data from Hungary, Germany and the United States