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The European Parliament is the parliamentary body of the European Union (EU), directly elected by EU citizens once every five years.
Together with the Council of Ministers,
it comprises the legislative branch of the institutions of the Union. It meets in two locations: Brussels and Strasbourg.
The European Parliament cannot initiate legislation, but it can amend or veto it in many policy areas. In certain other policy
areas, it has the right only to be consulted. Parliament also supervises the European Commission, must approve all appointments to it, and can dismiss it with a vote of censure. It
also has the right to control the EU budget.
Apportionment in the European Parliament is not strictly on the basis
of population. Rather, smaller member
states are granted greater representation than population alone would justify.
Other organisations of European countries, such as the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the Western European Union have parliamentary assemblies as well, but the European Parliament is unique
in that it is directly elected by the people and has legislative authority. The members of the parliamentary assemblies of the
OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the Western European Union are appointed by national parliaments.
Composition
The European Parliament represents around 450 million citizens of the European Union. Its members are known as Members of the European Parliament
(MEPs). Since 13 June 2004, there have been 732 MEPs. Elections occur once in every
five years, on the basis of universal adult suffrage. There is not a uniform voting system for the election of MEPs; rather, each member state is free to choose its own system subject to
three restrictions1:
The allocation of seats to each member state is based on the principle of degressive proportionality, so that, while the size
of the population of each country is taken into account, smaller states elect more MEPs than would be strictly justified by their
populations alone. As the number of MEPs granted to each country has arisen from treaty negotiations, there is no precise formula
for the apportionment of seats among member states. No change in this configuration can occur without the unanimous consent of
all governments.
In 2004, the number of seats in the European Parliament was temporarily raised to 788 to accommodate representatives from the
ten states that joined the EU on 1st May, but it will remain fixed at a maximum of
750 even after future enlargements. The most recent elections to the European Parliament were the European elections of 2004, held in
June. These elections were the largest simultaneous transnational elections ever held anywhere in the world, since nearly 400
million citizens were eligible to vote.
Powers and functions
In some respects, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers resemble the upper and lower houses of a bicameral legislature. Neither the European Parliament nor the Council of Ministers may
initiate EU legislation, this power being reserved by the Commission. However, once a proposal for an EU law or directive has
been introduced by the Commission, it must usually receive the approval of both Parliament and Council in order to come into
force.
Parliament may amend and block legislation in those policy areas that fall under the codecision procedure, which currently make up about three quarters of EU legislative acts.
Remaining policy areas fall under either the assent procedure or the consultation procedure; under the former Parliament has power to veto but but not formally
amend proposals, while under the latter it has only a formal right to be consulted. The European Parliament controls the EU
budget, which must be approved by Parliament in order to become law.
The President of the
European Commission is chosen by the European Council, but must
be approved by Parliament before he can assume office. The remaining members of the Commission are then appointed by the
President, subject to approval of Parliament. Other than its president, members of the Commission are not confirmed by the
European Parliament individually; rather, Parliament must either accept or reject the whole Commission en bloc.
The European Parliament exerts a function of democratic supervision over all of the EU's activities, particularly those of the
Commission. In the event that Parliament adopts a motion of censure, the entire Commission must resign (formally, Commissioners
cannot be censored individually). However, a motion of censure must be approved by at least a two-thirds majority in order to
have effect.
Under the proposed new Constitution for Europe, Parliament's powers would be enhanced, with almost
all policy areas coming under co-decision, greater powers of democratic scrutiny for Parliament, and control over the whole EU
budget.
Location
Although Brussels is generally treated as the 'capital' of the European Union, and the two institutions of the EU's executive,
the Commission and the Council of Ministers, both have their seats there, a protocol attached to the Treaty of Amsterdam requires that the European Parliament have
monthly sessions in Strasbourg. Thus the European Parliament is sometimes
informally referred to as the 'Strasbourg Parliament'. For practical reasons, however, preparatory legislative work and committee
meetings take place in Brussels. Moreover, the European Parliamentīs secretariat (administration), which employs the majority of its staff, is
located in Luxembourg.
Parliament only spends four days of each month in Strasbourg in order to take its final, plenary votes. Additional plenary
meetings are held in Brussels. On several occasions, the European Parliament has expressed a wish to be granted the right to
choose for itself the location of its seat, and eliminate the two-seat system, but in the successive treaties, European
governments have continued to reserve this right for themselves.
Organisation
The European Parliament has a number of organs, governing bodies and many committees, and a number of delegations from
external bodies.
The main offices and governing bodies are the:
- President - duties
(http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-019+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y)
- Vice-Presidents - duties
(http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-020+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y)
- Bureau - duties
(http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-022+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y)
- Conference of Presidents - duties
(http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-024+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y)
- Quaestors - duties
(http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-025+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y)
- Conference of Committee Chairmen - description
(http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-026+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y)
- Conference of Delegation Chairmen - description
(http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+RULES-EP+20040720+RULE-027+DOC+XML+V0//EN&HNAV=Y)
List of committees
Internal affairs
- BUDG - Committee on Budgets
- CONT - Committee on Budgetary Control
- ECON - Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
- EMPL - Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
- ENVI - Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
- ITRE - Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
- IMCO - Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection
- TRAN - Committee on Transport and Tourism
- REGI - Committee on Regional Development
- AGRI - Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development
- PECH - Committee on Fisheries
- CULT - Committee on Culture and Education
- JURI - Committee on Legal Affairs
- LIBE - Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
- AFCO - Committee on Constitutional Affairs
- FEMM - Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality
- PETI - Committee on Petitions
External affairs
- AFET - Committee on Foreign Affairs
- DROI - Subcommittee on Human Rights
- SEDE - Subcommittee on Security and Defence
- DEVE - Committee on Development
- INTA - Committee on International Trade
Political groups and parties
The political parties in the European Parliament are organised into a number of political groupings as well as a number of
registered European political parties. However most continue to be members of separate national political parties and discipline
withing European parties and groupings is not rigid. The makeup of the parliament's groups is fluid, and both national
delegations and individual MEPs are free to switch allegiances as they see fit.
European Parliament party groups are distinct from the corresponding European political parties, although they are intimately linked. Usually, the European parties
also have member parties from European countries which are not members of the European Union. At the start of Parliament's sixth
term in 2004 there were seven groups, as well as a number of non-aligned members, known as non-inscrits. As of 21st July, 2004 the composition of the
European Parliament was:
History
The European Coal and Steel
Community (ECSC) established a 'Common Assembly' in September, 1952, its 78 members
drawn from the six national Parliaments of the ECSC's constituent nations. This was expanded in March 1958 to also cover the European
Economic Community and Euratom, and the name European Parliamentary
Assembly was adopted. The body was renamed to the European Parliament in 1962.
In 1979 the parliament's membership was expanded again and its members began to be directly
elected for the first time. Thereafter the membership of the European Parliament has simply expanded whenever new nations have
joined; the membership was adjusted upwards in 1994 after German Reunification. Recent treaties, including the Treaty of Nice and the proposed Treaty establishing a
Constitution for Europe, set a cap on membership at 750.
Footnotes
- These requirements were imposed by Council Decision 2002/772/EC, which is binding on all member states.
External links
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