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The European Parliament

a talking shop or a real parliament

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What is the European Parliament?A - Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent the citizens of the member states and are elected every five years. Parliament enacts EU laws

(jointly with the Council of Ministers), establishes the EU budget (jointly with the Council of Ministers) and

supervises the Commission as it implements EU policy. MEPS work within pan-European political groups

representative of their national political parties

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What do parliaments do?

• Legitimation and representation• Recruitment and socialisation• Elective• Legislation• Influence and scrutinise the executive

– The European Parliament does a lot of these things, but some essential functions are missing

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How does the EP compare with national parliaments

• There is no government and opposition• Elections do not involve a transfer of power from

one government to another• It is not the law making institution of the EU• It does not have a permanent seat

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Who sits in the European Parliament?

• 785 Members of the European Parliament• Directly elected by the electorate of the member

states of the European Union ( since 1979)• eligibility to stand: variations still exist, but

Maastricht Treaty stipulated – ‘Union citizens [should be able] to vote and stand as

candidates in EP elections regardless of where they resided in the EU

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Members of the European Parliament (MEPs)

• with enlargement, the EU could expand to … million; however, the number of MEPs has been limited to 700, in Amsterdam Treaty, Art. 198, TEC)

• distribution of seats among member states: as in diagram opposite

• MEPs by Member State and political group – sixth parliamentary term, 2006: Web Link

EU members population MEPs now New MepsGermany 82 99 99Britain 59.2 87 74France 59 87 74Italy 57.6 87 74Spain 39.4 64 52Netherlands 15.8 31 25Greece 10.5 25 20Belgium 10.2 25 20Portugal 10 25 20Sw eden 8.9 22 18Austria 8.1 21 17Denmark 5.3 16 13Finland 5.2 16 13Ireland 3.7 15 12Luxembourg 0.4 6 6Poland 38.7 - 52Romania 22.5 - 35Czech Republic 10.3 - 20Hungary 10.1 - 20Bulgaria 8.2 - 17Slovakia 5.4 - 13Lithuania 3.7 - 12Latvia 2.4 - 8Slovenia 2 - 7Estonia 1.4 - 6Cyprus 0.8 - 6Malta 0.4 - 5

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How is the European Parliament organised?

• MEPs are encouraged to join transnational political groups – there are usually seven to nine political groups– 29 MEPs from one state can form a group; 23 from two states, -

but …– Since the recent enlargement ( 2004) 19 MEPs drawn from at least

5 member states is necessary to form a group– Number of political groups varies but one can identifiy three large

groupings: • Socialists• Christian Democrats• Liberals

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B      DK     

D     

GR    

SP   

FR     

IRL      IT LUX NE AU

     PO FI SW UK Tota

PPE-DE 6 1 53 9 28 21 5 34 2 9 7 9 5 7 36 232

PSE 5 3 35 9 24 22 1 16 2 6 7 12 3 6 30 181

ELDR 5 6     3   1 8 1 8     5 4 11 52

Verts/ALE 7   4   4 9 2 2 1 4 2   2 2 6 45

GUE/NGL   1 7 7 4 11   6   1   2 1 3   43

UEN   1       3 6 10       2       22

EDD   4       9       3         2 18

NI 2       1 12   11     5       2 33

Total 25 16 99 25 64 87 15 87 6 31 21 25 16 22 87 626

Members of the European parliament5th term 1999 – 20046th Term: web link

By political group and country

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What does the European Parliament do?

• Actually - we need to look firstly at what the European Parliament does not do

– it does not form a government– it does not enact laws– it does not raise revenue

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So, what does the European Parliament do?

• The powers of the Parliament can be usefully examined under three headings

– legislative powers– budgetary powers– supervisory powers

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The ‘powers’ of the European Parliament

• Legislative powers:– put simply, the EP has the right to say NO! - in an

increasing number of areas

• Changes:– in an increasing number of areas the EP shares law-

making power with the Council of Ministers• Procedures:

– assent; co-operation procedure; co-decision procedure

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The ‘powers’ of the European Parliament

• Budgetary powers– since 1970, the EP and the Council are the EC’s joint

budgetary authority, sharing responsibility for EC spending but not for raising revenue

– repeated clashes between the two institutions in the 70s and 80s

– since 1988, inter-institutional agreements contain a framework for a five year financial perspective, and an annual ceiling for expenditure (1.27% of EU states’ GNP)

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The ‘powers’ of the European Parliament

• Supervisory powers– scrutinises work of the Commission: i.e. make

the Commission accountable to Parliament• since 1981 the EP has voted on the investiture of the newly

appointed Commission, formalized in TEU, 1993 (Art. 214.2); thus investiture hearings took place in 1995 for the first time.

• convening temporary committees of inquiry, to investigate ‘ alleged contraventions or maladministration in the implementation of Community law

– of the Council: parliamentary questions

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Problems for the European Parliament

• the monthly road-show• the linguistic muddle• MEPs - image, on the gravy-train… submit

expenses, but what output to show for it?