The government will give the rightwing PVV Freedom Party an additional seat in the European Parliament if and when the Lisbon Treaty comes into force.

The Netherlands, which currently has 25 MEPs, will have 26 under the Lisbon Treaty. During the tally of June's European elections it was found that the assignment of that extra depends on the exact method of calculation. With one method the seat goes to Geert Wilders' rightwing party, with another to the Animal Rights Party, which currently has no MEP. The cabinet is now agreed that residual seats can only be assigned to parties which already are represented in the parliament.

The European Parliament in Brussels (Photo: flickr / TPCOM)