How the European Parliament works

The Parliament forms one half of the European Unions legislature. With the Council, it shares power to draft and pass legislation proposed by the Commission, mostly using co-decision. There are 2 readings or debates for each act of legislation. This procedure, which produces Regulations and Directives, will extend to many new areas under the proposed Treaty of Lisbon, and hence increase the power and relevance of the Parliament. The European Parliament is intended to be the political driving force of the EU.

The Parliament also has the power to reject or censure the Commission and the EU budget. With the Council, it is the budgetary authority for the EU. Parliament can also set up committees of enquiry, examine citizen petitions, and develop policy initiatives.

Although MEPs are elected on a national basis, they sit according to political groups rather than their nationality. Each country has a set number of seats. The current numbers were set in the Treaty of Nice. The Lisbon Treaty would reduce the number of MEPs.

President

The President of the European Parliament carries out the role of speaker in parliament and represents it externally. The president and vice presidents are elected by MEPs in a secret ballot every two and a half years.

Conference of Presidents

The President, the Chairmen of Political groups, along with independent representatives without voting rights, form the Conference of Presidents. It organizes all work of the Parliament and parliamentary bodies. The Conference can be questioned by any MEP.

Conference decisions are by consensus or a weighted vote based on the number of MEPs in a political group. It meets fortnightly, in camera. But minutes are distributed to all members of the Parliament.

Logistics

There is a lot of work involved in running a continuous Parliament, both in Brussels and Strasbourg.

The Bureau

• Responsible for internal running of Parliament
• Appoints Secretary –General
• Decides on political funding of political groups in Parliament
• Can be questioned by any MEP
• Meets fortnightly

Secretariat

• Under the Bureau, lead by the Secretary-General
• The Secretariat organizes Parliamentary work
• Plenary meetings one week each month

College of Quaestors

• Looks after MEPs and their working conditions

Committees

The 20 standing committees prepare Parliament Plenary sessions, prepare reports on legislative proposals referred to Parliament, and consider and propose amendments to directives and regulations drawn up by the Commission, which are also referred to the Council.

Standing committees

• Foreign Affairs – Human Rights, Security and Defence
• Development
• International Trade
• Budgets
• Budgetary control
• Economic and monetary affairs
• Employment and Social affairs
• Environment, Public Health and Food safety
• Industry, Research and Energy
• Internal market and consumer protection
• Transport and tourism
• Regional development
• Agriculture and rural development
• Fisheries
• Culture and Education
• Legal affairs
• Civil liberties, Justice and Home affairs
• Constitutional affairs
• Women’s rights and gender equality
• Petitions
• Climate change (temporary committee)

The Chairmen and 4 vice chairs are elected for 2.5 years. The committees meet in public once or twice a month, following plenary sessions.

Parliamentary Groups

MEPs in Parliament are organized into seven different parliamentary groups. MEPs are seated in Parliament by group, rather than by country. The two largest groups are the European People's Party-European Democrats (EPP-ED) and the Party of European Socialists (PES). These two groups have dominated the Parliament for much of its life, continuously holding between 50 and 70 percent of the seats together. No single group has ever held a majority in Parliament.

The current groupings are:

For a group to be recognized, it needs 20 MEPs from six different countries (this will rise to 25 MEPs from seven different countries from June 2009). Recognised groups receive financial subsidies from the parliament and guaranteed seats on Committees, creating an incentive for the formation of groups.

There are over 30 MEPs who are not attached to any group and they form the so called non-attached group.

For more information visit the European Parliament's official site.