3.4 The European Parliament

The main features of the European Parliament (EP) are:

• The EP is intended to bring a measure of democratic control and accountability other Community institutions.
• It is a directly elected body, since 1979. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are elected for 5 years and belong to broad political groups (see below). Elections have occurred in 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999 and 2004. The next is June 2009. A member state's number of MEPs partly reflects population size.
• The President is elected for 2 ½ years.
• The EP has 20 full standing committees (see below).
• The EP's powers have increased over the years and are now:
• Legislative powers:
• Power to amend legislation through 2 readings.
• The right to adopt legislation in 15 areas of EU business, including the environment, research and the single market.
• The right to ratify international agreements and the admission of new member states.
• The right to be consulted on agriculture and trade policy.
• The right to be consulted and make recommendations on CFSP.
• The right to be consulted on cooperation between the justice and home affairs authorities of the member states, and to make recommendations to the Council.
• Budget powers:
• Power to amend spending priorities in most areas, except agriculture.
• Right to reject the budget.
• Checks the Commission's management of the budget and has the power to refuse budget clearance.
• Supervisory powers:
• The right to approve the Commission.
• Power to veto nomination of the Commission President and the right to be consulted on appointments to the Commission.
• Power to censure the Commission and force it to resign (as in 1999); also to question the Commission, the Council of the EU and the president of the Central Bank.The right to set up committees of inquiry to investigate maladministration in the implementation of EU law.
• Power to appoint the European Ombudsman.
• Power to receive petitions from citizens.
• The EP can scrutinise and amend all proposals for legislation under a variety of procedures:
• Assent procedure: was introduced by the SEA to give the EP the right of veto over certain important decisions taken by the Council of Ministers.
• Consultation procedure: usually reserved for the simplest form of one-stage consultation between the EP and the Council of Ministers.
• Cooperation procedure: was introduced by the SEA and allows the EP to be consulted twice before a legislative measure is enacted. It was developed as the co-decision procedure (q.v.) in the Maastricht Treaty and, under the Treaty of Amsterdam has been largely superseded by the co-decision procedure
• Co-decision procedure: was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty and allows the EP to veto a legislative measure it cannot agree on with the Council of Ministers.
• In a simplified form the co-decision procedure works as follows:
• The Commission submits a proposed piece of legislation.
• Parliament, acting by absolute majority, gives its opinion to the Council.
• If Parliament does not suggest amendments, the Council decides by qualified majority voting.
• If Parliament rejects the proposal, it does not become law.
• If Parliament suggests amendments, the Council & the Commission consider these.
• If the Commission accepts the amendments, the Council may also accept them, acting by qualified majority voting.
• If the Commission rejects Parliament's amendments, the Council must act unanimously if it wishes to accept them.
• If the Council does not accept the amendments, the "conciliation committee" (consisting of equal numbers of Council and Parliament representatives) is convened, with the Commission participating.
• If the conciliation committee cannot agree a text, the proposal lapses.
• If the conciliation committee agrees the text, the Council (by qualified majority) & the Parliament must both vote in favour or the proposal lapses.

Some key dates are:

• 1952: the "supervisory" Assembly of the ECSC, the EP's predecessor, was set up under the Treaty of Paris (1951). Members nominated by their national parliaments.
• 1958: the ECSC's competences were extended to the EEC and Euratom and the first session of the new "European Parliamentary Assembly" was in March 1958. The powers were described as "advisory" as well as "supervisory".
• 1962: The term "Parliament" was adopted.
• 1979: the members of the European Parliament were directly elected for the first time.
• The 1986 SEA formalised the use of the words "European Parliament" and introduced the assent and cooperation procedures.
• The Maastricht Treaty (1992) widened the EP's powers; the co-decision procedure was introduced.
• The Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) significantly widened the EP's powers; the cooperation procedure was effectively superseded by the co-decision procedure, which was extended to 27 new fields including employment and social policy.
• March 1999: the EP flexed its muscles and sacked the entire Commission (by a carried censure motion).
• The Treaty of Nice (2001) extended the EP's powers and reallocated the number of seats in readiness for enlargement.
• May 2004: accession of 10 new countries.
• June 2004: last EP election.
• January 2007: accession of Romania and Bulgaria.
• 2009: the next election.

Presidents of the European Parliament and precursor institutions (1952-date)

Sources: Office for official publications of the European Communities, The European Parliament, 2002, and Timothy Bainbridge, The Penguin Companion to the European Union (3^rd edition), Penguin books, 2002, updated.

Committees of the European Parliament (20)

Source: Dod's Eurosource 2007, Dod's Parliamentary Communications, 2006.

Current membership numbers (MEPs) of the European Parliament

Sources: Dod's Eurosource 2007, Dod's Parliamentary Communications, 2006, updated.

Political groups in the European Parliament (latest affiliations), EU 27

Notes:

• EPP/ED: European People's Party and European Democrats. Right-of-centre MEPs from all member states - mainly Christian Democrats, UK Conservatives, Spanish Popular Party and the French UDF.
• PES: Party of European Socialists. Left-of-centre MEPs from all EU states.
• ALDE: The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, includes the ELDR group (European Liberal, Democratic and Reformist group).
• Greens/EFA: Greens and European Free Alliance.
• EU/NGL: European United Left and the Nordic Green Left.
• UEN: the Union for a Europe of Nations Group.
• ID: The Independence and Democracy Group, comprising eurosceptic MPs.
• NA: The Independents, not affiliated to any group.

RL, April 2008