European Parliament
What does the European Parliament do?
The members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are elected directly for a five year term by the populations of the member states.
The elections use a system of proportional representation. The next elections for the European Parliament take place in 2009. There are currently 732 MEPS (the UK has 78). The elected MEPs sit in seven political groups and not as national delegations.
Like national parliaments, much of the work is done in smaller committees of MEPs, which prepare reports for consideration by the full Parliament. These full or “plenary” sessions are held in either Strasbourg or Brussels. In these sessions MEPs review proposals in the light of these committee reports and move to an agreed position on each proposal.
MEPs must
- consider most of the laws proposed by the Commission before submission to the Council of Ministers
- monitor the actions of other EU bodies
- approve the EU’s budget.
They can also hold the Commission to account.
There are three main formal decision-making processes through which the Parliament is involved in the enactment of the EU’s legal instruments: consultation, assent, and co-decision.
With consultation, the Parliament must be consulted but its view will not be binding on the Council which has the final decision-making power. Key areas for consultation include agriculture, competition, discrimination, tax and legal migration.
The assent procedure requires the Council of Ministers to obtain the Parliament’s agreement before taking certain decisions, for instance a decision on the accession of new member states, on the conclusion of certain international agreements, and the imposition of sanctions on a Member State in serious and persistent breach of fundamental rights.
Under the co-decision procedure, Parliament legislates jointly with the Council of Ministers. They may meet in “conciliation committees” to resolve differences and agree a joint text.
The co-decision procedure applies to most areas of legislation, notably the internal market, citizenship rights and free movement of labour, employment and social policy, environmental and consumer protection, development co-operation, visa and asylum policy and illegal immigration.