It had been the stated desire of the member-state governments to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon before the election so that its articles governing the European Parliament could enter force as of this election. However, this was blocked by the Irish rejection of the treaty in a referendum. Under Lisbon, there would be a somewhat different allocation of seats, with fewer seats eliminated, leading to a slightly different distribution totalling 751 MEPs. Were the Lisbon Treaty to be subsequently ratified, it was planned to give in advance, prior to the next elections, the additional seats to the countries that were to see an increase in representation under the provisions of Lisbon; this would bring the number of MEPs to 754 for a transitional period until 2014.