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In Europe
 The
European Parliament:
The
Voice of the People
What first began in 1952 as a coming-together
of state representatives in a supervisory role is today
the world's biggest multinational parliament. The European
Parliament has, over the years, grown to become a parliament
of 736 elected Members with serious legislative, budgetary
and decision-making powers.
It was under the Single European Act of
1986 that the Parliament was first given substantial
legislative power, operating in close co-operation with
the Council. The Maastricht Treaty in 1991 further saw
the European Parliament fully incorporated in a co-decision-making
procedure with the European Council. The Parliament
now enjoys co-decision powers in major areas of EU lawmaking,
including health, education, transport and the completion
of the internal market. The Parliament plays an active
role in monitoring activities within the European Commission
and the European Council, and is closely involved in
appointing the Commission as well as discharging the
EU's annual budget. Subsequent Treaties have all reinforced
the role of the Parliament and widened the scope of
its decision making powers.
In years to come the European Parliament
will continue to grow in influence and numbers, although
control measures will be implemented under Lisbon to prevent expansion of the Parliament to excessive numbers, implementing a limit of 750 members.
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs)
were first elected by direct universal suffrage in 1979;
European elections have been held ever since at five-year
intervals - the last one being in June 2009. A common set of
election rules apply throughout Europe: all MEPs are
elected under a system of proportional representation;
every citizen has a right to vote at 18; equality of
men and women is guaranteed and the principle of the
secret ballot is written into European election law.
Additionally, every citizen of an EU member state who
lives in another country of the EU may vote or stand
for election in their country of residence. Parliament
thus expresses the democratic will of the Union's 492
million citizens and represents their interests in the
creation of European laws.
Organisation
The European Parliament meets and debates in public.
Its decisions, positions and proceedings are published
in the Official Journal of the European Union and are
publicly available.
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Jim with a visitors group on the steps of the European Parliament in Brussels |
MEPs spend one week each month at a plenary
session in the Parliament's official seat in Strasbourg,
when Parliament meets in full session. Additionally,
two-day plenary sessions are held in Brussels about
six times a year. Two weeks in every month are set aside
for meetings of Parliament's Committees in Brussels.
The remaining week is devoted to meetings of the political
groups - see: the political groups -
during which they consider reports from Parliament's
committees in light of their political views and decide
their voting intention before the plenary sittings.
With the assistance of translators and
interpreters, Parliament works in all the official languages
of the Union. From January 2007 Irish Romanian and Bulgarian
became the newest official languages of the EU bringing
the total number to 23 - the others being: Czech, Danish,
Dutch, English, Estonian, Finish, French, German, Greek,
Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish,
Portuguese, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish. The
European Parliament's General Secretariat, or civil
service, responsible for translation and interpretation
amongst other things, is located in Luxembourg; for
practical reasons, however, a number of officials and
the staff of political groups work in Brussels.
The Presidency,
Bureau and Conference of Presidents
A Parliamentary President, who oversees Parliamentary
activities as well as representing the European Parliament
on the international scene, is elected from amongst
his or her colleagues (usually) for a period of two
and a half years at the beginning and middle of each
five-year parliamentary term. He or she presides over
its plenary sittings and chairs the meetings of the
Bureau and Conference of Presidents.
The Bureau is the regulatory body responsible
for Parliament's budget and for administrative, organisational
and staff matters. In addition to the President and
fourteen Vice-Presidents, it includes, attending in
a consultative capacity, the five Quaestors, who are
responsible for administrative matters relating directly
to MEPs. Jim was elected as a Questor of the European Parliament this year, a position he will hold for two and a half years.
The Conference of Presidents is made
up of the President of Parliament and the political
group chairmen. As the body responsible for Parliament's
political organisation, it establishes the size and
terms of reference of parliamentary committees and delegations,
decides on the distribution of seats in the Chamber
and draws up the timetable and agenda for plenary sessions.
Regarding the work of the committees and plenary-session
agendas, it considers the recommendations of the Conference
of Committee Chairmen.
The political
groups
The vast majority of MEPs sit in political groups in
the Chamber, not in national delegations. The political
group system in the European Parliament is a very specific
and special one. Instead of sticking with national interests,
MEPs from political parties across the EU come together
in supranational groupings, representing common interests.
Parliament currently has seven political groups. Each
political group has a chairman, a bureau and a secretariat.
Those Members who do not belong to any of the political
groups are known as 'non-attached Members'.
Jim and his four Fine Gael colleagues
are members of the largest political group in the European
Parliament, The European People's Party
and European Democrats, or EPP-ED. The EPP-ED currently
brings together 265 members from 27 countries. A political
group must comprise a minimum of 19 members from 5 different
EU countries.
The political groups are vital to the
running of the European Parliament: they decide what
issues will be dealt with at the plenary, through their
membership of the Conference of Committee Chairmen,
they can also table amendments to reports that will
be voted on during the plenary and before the session
they decide which position the political group will
take; however, no member can be forced to vote in a
particular way.
"Group co-ordinators" play an
important role, providing a point of contact within
their political groups for specific policy issues and
organising support within committees when it comes to
voting on reports. Each political group appoints
a chairman, or in some cases two. The influence of the
groups is reflected in the fact that they put forward
the candidates for all the important posts including
the EP president, vice-presidents, committee chairmen
and the Quaestors.
The parliamentary
committees
Parliament's standing committees do the preparatory
work for the plenary sessions. MEPs usually sit on two
committees, being a Full Member on one and a Substitute
Member on the other. Each committee appoints a chairman
and vice-chairmen (who form the Conference of Committee
Chairmen) and has a secretariat.
The committees draw up and adopt reports
on legislative proposals and own-initiative reports.
They also prepare opinions on the reports being drawn-up
by other standing committees.
When matters of political importance require
it, Parliament can set up temporary committees and committees
of inquiry. These committees work for a set period of
time and to a rigid mandate.
In addition to the above, Members may
also sit on joint parliamentary committees, which maintain
relations with the national parliaments of EU applicant
countries, and interparliamentary delegations, which
maintain relations with parliaments in other non-EU
states.
The secretariat
Under the authority of the Secretary-General some 4,000+
officials, recruited by competition from all the countries
of the EU, work in the service of the European Parliament.
Political groups have their own staff and Members of
the European Parliament their own assistants.
The European Parliament has to work within
the constraints of multilingualism - which accounts
for about one third of its staff and a large percentage
of its budget - and the fact of having three places
of work - Strasbourg, Brussels and Luxembourg. Running
the European Parliament costs 2.6 euros per year per
EU inhabitant; (equivalent to 1.2% of the EU's total
budget).
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