The European Parliament
The European Parliament has 730 members and has been
directly elected since 1979.
The number of
European parliamentary seats allocated to each members state is
dependent on their size. Germany is the largest with 99 and Malta
is the smallest with five.
Parliamentary elections are held every five
years and every EU citizen who is registered as a voter is entitled
to vote. The European Parliament expresses the democratic will of
the Union's 450 million citizens, and sees itself as the "guardian
of the European interest and of citizens rights". The legitimacy of
the European Parliament has increased significantly over the last
two decades, mainly due to the increased legislative power given to
it under major treaty reform.
Originally the European Parliament had few
powers and was seen mainly as a consultative body. However, over
the years and with the introduction of the
'co-decision' procedure (see EU decision-making below)
it has acquired greater influences over the legislative
process. The European Parliament now acts, in a
number of areas, as co-legislator with the European council.
What does Parliament
do?
The parliament has three main roles:
- It shares with the Council the power to
legislate. The fact that it is a directly elected body helps
guarantee the democratic legitimacy of European law.
- It exercises democratic supervision over
all EU institutions and in particular the Commission. It has the
power to approve or reject the nomination of Commissioners, and it
has the right to censure the Commission as a whole.
- It shares with the Council authority
over the EU budget and can therefore influence EU spending. At the
end of the procedure. It adopts or rejects the budget in its
entirety.
Current political makeup of the
Parliament
Click here
to download a table, in Word format, giving the current
political makeup of the European parliament following the last
European elections in 2004.
Most activity in the European Parliament is
not focused on national representation, but is channelled via
individual political groups which are Transnational in character
and which receive and administer political funds.
MEPs sit in the chamber in their political
groups, rather than their national delegations. Currently there
are seven political groups plus some 'non-attached'
members.
These political groups include members
from over one hundred national political parties.
Click here
to see your Amicus MEPs.
