BRUSSELS, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The Council of the European Union (EU) on Tuesday set May 23-26, 2019 as the dates for the next European Parliament(EP) elections.

The decision marked the one-year countdown to the first post-Brexit EP elections.

The EP has proposed that 27 of the 73 seats currently allocated to Britain be redistributed to 14 member states "to reflect demographic changes."

The EP also suggested cutting the number of seats from 751 to 705.