European Parliament
The European Parliament is the parliamentary body of the European Union.
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2 Party Groups in the European Parliament 3 Representation 4 External Link |
Introduction
Other organisations of European countries, like the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the Western European Union have parliamentary assemblies as well, but the European Parliament is unique in that it is directly elected by the people and has legislative power. The members of the parliamentary assemblies of the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the Western European Union are appointed by national parliaments.
Although the two institutions of the EU's executive, the European Commission and the European Council, both have their seats in Brussels, a protocol attached to the Treaty of Amsterdam requires the European Parliament to have monthly sessions in Strasbourg. For practical reasons, however, all preparatory legislative work and committee meetings of the parliament take place in Brussels. The parliament only spends four days per month in Strasbourg in order to take the final, plenary votes. Additional plenary meetings are held in Brussels. On several occasions parliament has expressed a wish to choose itself the location of its seat, but in the successive treaties, including the newest Treaty of Nice, European governments keep reserving this right for themselves.
The parties and makeup of the Parliament as of its fifth term (1999-2004):
The European parliament represents 374 million citizens of the European Union; starting with the eastern expansion in 2004 this will increase to 450 million people. There are at the moment 626 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), with a proportionally larger representation for smaller member states. This number will increase in 2004 as well.
As of 2003 (pre-accession), the member states have the following representation:
Elections to the parliament are held using various forms of proportional representation, as selected by the member states.
These forms include regional and national lists and single transferable vote.
Party Groups in the European Parliament
Note: the European Parliament party groups are distinct from the corresponding political parties, although they are intimately linked. Usually, the European parties also have member parties from European countries which are not members of the European Union.Representation
According to the planned European constitution these figures will change as follows:
Country population MEPs population/MEP relative weight
Luxembourg 0,4 6 66667 1.00
Malta 0,4 5 80000 0.83
Cyprus 0,8 6 133333 0.50
Estonia 1,4 6 233333 0.28
Slovenia 2,0 7 285714 0.23
Latvia 2,4 9 266667 0.25
Ireland 3,7 13 284615 0.23
Lithuania 3,7 13 284615 0.23
Finland 5,2 14 371429 0.18
Denmark 5,3 14 378571 0.18
Slovakia 5,4 14 385714 0.17
Austria 8,1 18 450000 0.15
Sweden 8,9 19 468421 0.14
Portugal 9,9 24 412500 0.16
Hungary 10,0 24 416667 0.16
Belgium 10,2 24 425000 0.16
Czech Republic 10,3 24 429167 0.16
Greece 10,6 24 441667 0.15
Netherlands 15,8 27 585185 0.11
Poland 38,6 54 714815 0.09
Spain 39,4 54 729630 0.09
Italy 57,7 78 739744 0.09
France 59,1 78 757692 0.09
United Kingdom 59,4 78 761538 0.09
Germany 82,0 99 828283 0.08
In this table population is given in millions, population/MEP measures how many inhabitants are represented by one MEP, and relative weight measures how much a single vote is represented relative to votes from Luxembourg. E.g., the vote of a German citizen has only 8% as much weight as has the vote of someone from Luxembourg.Elections
The next elections will be held in 2004.
