Sprawiedliwość podziału degresywnie proporcjonalnego
Fairness of degressively proportional distribution

Summary/Abstract: The principle of degressively proportional distribution of seats in the European Parliament has been legally sanctioned under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty. Thus there appeared a solution which defied the perception of justice of distribution according to culturally shaped proportional allocation rules. Previous methods of determining the composition of collegiate bodies generally used the rule of proportional to the population of each constituency, composition of the legal body representing the society. On this basis, there are many socially accepted methods which have been tried and tested. In the field of electoral law regulations the rule of degressive proportionality is a new solution, and as such it still lacks tradition and already shaped approval that may justify its use. This article aims to find justification for this solution as opposed to the socially accep- table methods of distribution of goods and debts. In order to arrive at this argument the article reaches back to Aristotle’s philosophical concept, as well as solutions taken from the Talmud. It turns out that the degressive proportionality falls within the accepted concepts of equitable distribution. It offers an intermediate solution between equal and proportional allocation. There are also legitimate reasons for the use of degressively proportional rule in the process of allocating seats in the European Parliament. The problem is only the lack of unambiguity of the rule and the lack of precise reasoning to determine the boundary conditions at the level set in the Lisbon Treaty. This creates a very high degree of freedom of interpretation, leaving room for political negotiations on the acceptance of specific proposals. This situation has led to the point that, since the legal acceptance of the principle of degressive proportionality, the rule has not been applied in practice. Proposals for the composition of the European Parliament presented at the beginning of 2013 for the term 2014-2019 indicate that over the next five years exceptions to this rule will be approved.

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