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Directly elected by EU voters every 5 years, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent the people. Parliament is one of the EU’s main law-making institutions, along with the Council.

The European Parliament has three main roles.

    debates and passes European laws, with the Council
    scrutinises other EU institutions, particularly the Commission, to make sure they are working democratically
    debates and adopts the EU's budget, with the Council.

Passing European laws

In many areas, such as consumer protection and the environment, Parliament works together with the Council (representing national governments) to decide on the content of EU laws and officially adopt them. This process is called 'co-decision'.

Under the Lisbon Treaty, the range of policies covered by co-decision has increased, giving Parliament more power to influence the content of laws in areas including agriculture, energy policy, immigration and EU funds.

Parliament must also give its permission for other important decisions, such as allowing new countries to join the EU.
Democratic supervision

Parliament exercises influence over other European institutions in several ways.

When a new Commission is appointed, its 27 members – one from each EU country – cannot take up office until Parliament has approved them. If the Members of the European Parliament disapprove of a nominee, they can reject the entire slate.

Parliament can also call on the Commission to resign during its period in office. This is called a 'motion of censure'.

Parliament keeps check on the Commission by examining reports it produces and by questioning Commissioners. Its committees play an important part here.

MEPs look at petitions from citizens and sets up committees of inquiry.

When national leaders meet for European Council summits, Parliament gives its opinion on the topics on the agenda.
Supervising the budget

Parliament adopts the EU’s annual budget with the Council.

Parliament has a committee that monitors how the budget is spent, and every year passes judgement on the Commission's handling of the previous year's budget.
Composition

The number of MEPs each country has is roughly in proportion to its population. No country can have fewer than 6 or more than 96 MEPs.

MEPs are grouped by political affiliation, not by nationality.

Find your MEP
Location

The European Parliament has three places of work – Brussels (Belgium), Luxembourg and Strasbourg (France).

Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices (the ‘General Secretariat’).

Meetings of the whole Parliament (‘plenary sessions’) take place in Strasbourg and in Brussels. Committee meetings are also held in Brussels.