By Rasheed Ahmed,
The European Parliament is an important forum for political debate and
decision- making at the EU level. The Members of the European
Parliament are directly elected by voters in all Member States to represent
people’s interests with regard to EU law-making and to make sure other EU
institutions are working democratically. The European Parliament is the
EU's law-making body. It is directly elected by EU voters every 5 years.
The last elections were in May 2019.
? Role: Directly-elected EU body with legislative, supervisory, and
budgetary responsibilities
? Members: 705 MEPs (Members of the European Parliament)
? President: David Sassoli is the president of European Parliament
? Established in: 1952 as Common Assembly of the European Coal
and Steel Community, 1962 as European Parliament, first direct
elections in 1979
? Location: Strasbourg (France), Brussels (Belgium), Luxembourg
? Since 1979, it has been directly elected every five years by European
Union citizens, using universal suffrage. Voter turnout for
parliamentary elections has decreased at each election after 1979
until 2019, when the voter turnout increased by 8 percentage points
and went above 50% for the first time since 1994. Voting age is 18 in
all member states except Malta and Austria, where it is 16, and
Greece, where it is 17.
? Although the European Parliament has legislative power, as does the
Council, it does not formally possess legislative initiative (which is the
prerogative of the European Commission, as most national
parliaments of European Union member states do. The Parliament is
the "first institution" of the EU (mentioned first in the treaties having
ceremonial precedence over all authority at European level), and
shares equal legislative and budgetary powers with the Council.
The Parliament has 3 main roles.
Legislative
? Passing EU laws, together with the Council of the EU, based on European
Commission proposals
? Deciding on international agreements
? Deciding on enlargements
? Reviewing the Commission's work program and asking it to propose
legislation
Supervisory
? Democratic scrutiny of all EU institutions
? Electing the Commission President and approving the Commission as a
body. Possibility of voting a motion of censure, obliging the Commission to
resign
? Granting discharge, i.e. approving the way EU budgets have been spent
? Examining citizens' petitions and setting up inquiries
? Discussing monetary policy with the European Central Bank
? Questioning Commission and Council
? Election observations
Budgetary
? Establishing the EU budget, together with the Council
? Approving the EU's long-term budget, the "Multiannual Financial
Framework"
Composite The European Parliament is made up of 751 Members elected in
the 28 Member States of the enlarged European Union. Since1979.
But in the election held in May 2019 elected members are 705 because
United Kingdom did not participated in Election
