WHAT IS THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ? The EP is the institution of democratic expression of the European Union . It controls and represents more than 500 million citizens of the 28 countries that make up the Union. It was founded originally as a CZECH Common Assembly on 18 April 1951 in Strasbourg. On 30 March 1962 the Assembly changes name in the European Parliament! Members: 751 members (MEPs) President: Antonio Tajani It has three locations: Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg Every five years since 1979, elections are held simultaneously in all member states to elect MEPs.

1 POWERS AND FUNCTIONS BUDGET POWER Since the 1970 and 1975 Treaties, Parliament’s role in the budgetary process has been enhanced. The Lisbon Treaty gave Parliament an equal say within the Council and in the entire EU budget. The exercise of budgetary powers consists in establishing both the overall amount and the distribution of the annual EU expenditure , the revenue necessary to cover it, and in exercising control over the implementation of the budget. The European Parliament every year in December, establishes the following year's budget. The draft budget submitted by the Commission, is examined jointly by Parliament and the Council but Parliament has also the power to reject THE PROJECT, for important reasons. In this case, the budgetary process must start over. what is it about? What does the Parliament do?

2 CONTROL POWER It performs a democratic control on all E.U. istitutions; It elects the president of the European Commission and approves the Commission organs; It may vote a censure forcing the commission to resign; It examines petitions of citizens and starts investigations; It discusses the monetary policy with the European Central Bank; It carries out election monitoring.

3 LEGISLATIVE POWER COMPOSITION PLENARY SESSIONS The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers jointly approve the laws proposed by the European Commission. The European Parliament can request the Commission to propose appropriate legislation through recommendations. PLENARY SESSIONS Plenary sessions are where committees and political groups present the results of their work, but only the EU representatives participate in decision making. They are open to the public and all its resolutions and debates are published in the EU Official Journal. COMPOSITION The political groups decide which issues will be discussed in plenary and propose amendments to the committee reports to be put to the vote. Members vote regardless of their political group. The President of the EP (with14 vice-presidents) opens the sitting with a speech and directs the voting procedure.

PROCEDURE Parliament meets in plenary sessions once a month (except August) in Strasburg for a part-session of 4 days (additional part-sessions are held in Brussels). During the sessions, the MEPs debate and vote on the texts submitted. MEPs can raise any subject they deem important at plenary and they can also ask to the European Commission to submit a proposal of some issues that they think requires community legislation. THE AGENDA Parliament's annual calendar of work is adopted each year in plenary. The ‘plenary agenda’ indicates all the questions that have to be followed by a vote resolution.

POLLING DAY ELECTORAL SYSTEM The members of the European parliament are democratically elected by universal suffrage every five years. According to the rules, in the elections of deputies, it is appropriate to resort to a form of proportional representation. The system ensures that if a party gets 20% of the votes, it will also have about 20% of the seats, so in this way all political parties, from largest to smallest, have the possibility to send to the European Parliament a number of representatives. Every country has the freedom to decide on many other important aspects of the voting procedure. For example, some countries divide their territory into regional constituencies, while others consist of a single constituency. POLLING DAY The EU countries have different traditions to vote and each can fix the exact date of the election on a four-day period from Thursday (day on which the vote usually takes place in the UK and the Netherlands) to Sunday ( when the citizens of most other countries vote).

These are all member states of the European Parliament and the number of the members they can elect according to their population. So some states have more influence than others.

POLITICAL PARTIES European political parties are organizations with members from several member states who share a common political goal. Their role is to contribute to forming a European awareness and express the political will of people living in the EU. To be recognized. a political group must be composed of at least 25 deputies elected in seven Member States (at least a quarter of the countries). It is an obstacle but ensures that each group is representative of a fair share of European public opinion.