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The European Parliament
The European Parliament is one of the most important institutions of the EU and has a lot of influence. The Members of the European Parliament are known as MEPs. Of all the EU institutions the MEPs are the only ones who are directly elected to take their seats – they represent the citizens of the EU.
The European parliament has its own president. It has the job of helping to make new laws. They meet in two buildings, one in Brussels and one in Strasbourg.
Hemicycle of the European Parliament in Strasburg
Home page of the European Parliament Website here
A Democratic Institution
The European Parliament is the only EU institution to which the citizens of the EU directly elect its members. It is here that the EU Citizen has direct access to the EU via their representatives the MEPs (Ministers of the European Parliament).
The first direct elections to the European Parliament were held in 1979. At that stage the EP was often referred to to as ‘ just a talking shop’ but now it have a lot more power and influence.
See here to see the European Parliament in action – alive broadcastof the debates. These are not always on so check the time to see when the next one is happening.
Because the MEPs are directly elected to the European parliament we say it has ‘Democratic Legitimacy’.
MEPs and the Party Groups
Members of the European Parliament
European citizens are represented at EU level by their MEPs. These are elected every 5 years.
MEPs sit together in Party Groups. These are organised not by nationality but by shared political views. Being a member of a Party Group gives the MEP privilages.
The maximum number of MEPs is 751 and the number of MEPs per country is be between 6 and 96.
You can contact you MEP directly as a citizen of the EU. See here for how to do this
Citizens can also send a petition to the European Parliament – see here
And MEPs can be contacted directly by the citizens of the EU.
See here for a diagram of the OLP (scroll to bottom for a flow chart)
The European Parliament has its own President.
The European Parliament has its own President.
The European Parliament President is elected for a term of two and a half years, this is half the term of each European Parliament as they face election every five years. They can be re-elected for another term.
The role is ceremonial, but he or she also represents the European Parliament in public.
See here for more about the role of the President of the European Parliament
How the European Parliament works
The European Parliament will debate new laws or set up committees to look at them. It can ask for information from the Commission and the Council. And most important of all, the EP has equal rights to the Council to approve new law – this process is called ‘The Ordinary Legislative Procedure’ or ‘OLP’.
The Plenary Sessions
This is what everyone thinks of when they think of a parliament in action. All the members in one place – in this case the Hemicycle – debating on a topic. This part of the EPs work is divided between Brussels and Strasbourg – they have a building with a Hemicycle in both places.
The Ordinary Legislative Procedure
The Ordinary Legislative Procedure is the name given to the way the European Parliament approves or does not approve new EU laws.
Other powers
The choice of Commissioners must be approved by the EP. The EU Budget must also be approved by ther EP. It also has a general oversight role.
Committees
Most of the work of the EP is done in Committees. MEPs will try to get onto the committee that most closely relates to their own interests.
When the Committee is finished it presents its final idea as a document which is called An Opinion. This probably started out as an Opinion written by an individual MEP. In fact, if this was your MEP he or she might have been using information that you sent them to write this original.
The Opinion is then shown to the rest of the European Parliament – this is called ‘Referring the Opinion to Plenary’ – that is sending it to all the MEPs who then discuss it together in the Hemicycle.
The EP can also set up a ‘Committee of Enquiry’ to investigate a specific issue.
Where is it?
The European Parliament moves between Brussels and Strasbourg.
The Parliament holds its Pleanary meetings, also called Sessions, in both Strasbourg and Brussels. The room they hold these sessions in is called the Hemicycle. There is also an administrative office in Luxembourg.
Those weeks when the European Parliament is in Session are called Red Weeks because they are marked in red on the annual EP Calendar – see here for the 2012 Calendar. (See here for the full list).
Strasbourg
European Parliament Strasbourg
Address:
Allée du Printemps
BP 1024/F
67070 Strasbourg Cedex
FRANCE
Map – see here
Brussels
European Parliament Brussels
Rue Wiertz/Weirtzstraat 60
1047 Bruxelles/Brussels BELGIQUE/BELGIË
Map – see here
Luxembourg
European Parliament Offices Luxembourg
Plateau du Kirchberg
BP 1601
2929 Luxembourg
LUXEMBOURG
The Ordinary Legislative Procedure
The Ordinary Legislative Procedure is the name given to the way the European Parliament approves or does not approve new EU laws. Essentially what it does is to force the European Council to take the views of the EP seriously and to respect its opinion. The two institutions must negotiate to find a way to agree. It is a bit complicated!!
The Law Passes Easily…
A new law is proposed by the European Commission, the Parliament examines it and gives their view – called an Opinion – then it goes to the European Council who examine it and give their view – called a Common Position.
At this stage it goes back to the Parliament for final approval. If the Parliament agrees it accepts the ‘Common Position’ and the law is sent back again to the European Council for the final stage where it is adopted.
That is if it all goes smoothly! In theory it should because of all the previous discussions about it, no-one should be caught by surprise, and everyone is trying to reach agreement.
However – sometimes there is still disagreement, in which case..
A new law is proposed by the European Commission, the Parliament examines it and gives their view – called an Opinion – then it goes to the European Council who examine it and give their view – called a Common Position.
At this stage it goes back to the Parliament for a final approval. But the Parliament is not happy with it, and makes changes to it. That is it ‘Amends the Common Position’.
This requires more negotiation to take place between the EP and the Council, so they set up what is called a ‘Consiliation Committee’. Their job is to find agreement.
If they do – happy days – the Committee ‘Agrees a Joint Text’ and the new law is passed (again going back to the Council for the final stage).
The Law gets Rejected…
If the Conciliation Committee doesn’t find a way to agree then the law is not approved and it is abandoned. Everyone tries to avoid this.
(So, the law could also be abandoned if the Conciliation Committee can’t agree a Joint Text or if the EP rejects the original European Council Common Position).
The EP could prevent important laws from being passed and therefore it has influence at every stage of the making of these new laws – no one can risk ignoring their opinion.