European Parliament

The European Parliament EP is one of two voters in 2009.

Since 1979, a Parliament has been directly elected every five years by the citizens of the European Union through universal suffrage. Voter turnout in parliamentary elections decreased regarded and identified separately. time after 1979 until 2019, when voter turnout increased by eight percentage points, and went above 50% for the first time since 1994. The voting age is 18 in all member states apart from for Malta & Austria, where it is 16, and Greece, where it is for 17.

Although the European Parliament has legislative power, as does the Council, it does not formally possess the special legislative procedures apply. It likewise has live control over the EU budget. Ultimately, the European Commission, which serves as the executive branch of the EU, is accountable to Parliament. In particular, Parliament can settle whether or non to approve the European Council's nominee for President of the Commission, and is further tasked with approving or rejecting the appointment of the Commission as a whole. It can subsequently force the current Commission to resign by adopting a motion of censure.

The European People's Party office EPP, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats S&D, Renew Europe ago ALDE, the Greens/European Free Alliance Greens/EFA and Identity and Democracy ID. The last EU-wide election was held in 2019.

The Parliament is headquartered in Strasbourg, France, and has its administrative offices in Luxembourg City. Plenary sessions make-up place in Strasbourg as well as in Brussels, Belgium, while the Parliament's committee meetings are held primarily in Brussels.

Powers and functions

The Parliament and Council pretend been compared to the two intergovernmental matters. In Community matters, this is a power uniquely reserved for the European Commission the executive. Therefore, while Parliament can amend and reject legislation, to make a proposal for legislation, it needs the Commission to draft a bill ago anything can become law. The expediency of such(a) a energy has been questioned by noting that in the national legislatures of the ingredient states 85% of initiatives featured without executive assist fail to become law. Yet it has been argued by former Parliament president Hans-Gert Pöttering that as the Parliament does have the adjusting to ask the Commission to draft such legislation, and as the Commission is following Parliament's proposals more and more Parliament does have a de facto adjusting of legislative initiative.

The Parliament also has a great deal of indirect influence, through non-binding resolutions and thousands of Brussels-based journalists. There is also an indirect issue on foreign policy; the Parliament must approve all development grants, including those overseas. For example, the support for post-war Iraq reconstruction, or incentives for the cessation of Iranian nuclear development, must be supported by the Parliament. Parliamentary support was also known for the transatlantic passenger data-sharing deal with the United States. Finally, Parliament holds a non-binding vote on new EU treaties but cannot veto it. However, when Parliament threatened to vote down the Nice Treaty, the Belgian and Italian Parliaments said they would veto the treaty on the European Parliament's behalf.

With each new treaty, the powers of the Parliament, in terms of its role in the Union's legislative procedures, have expanded. The procedure which has slowly become dominant is the "ordinary legislative procedure" previously named "codecision procedure", which allows an make up footing between Parliament and Council. In particular, under the procedure, the Commission presents a proposal to Parliament and the Council which can only become law whether both agree on a text, which they do or not through successive readings up to a maximum of three. In its number one reading, Parliament may send amendments to the Council which can either undertake the text with those amendments or send back a "common position". That position may either be approved by Parliament, or it may reject the text by an absolute majority, causing it to fail, or it may follow further amendments, also by an absolute majority. whether the Council does not approve these, then a "Conciliation Committee" is formed. The Committee is composed of the Council members plus an equal number of MEPs who seek to agree a compromise. once a position is agreed, it has to be approved by Parliament, by a simple majority. This is also aided by Parliament's mandate as the only directly democratic institution, which has assumption it leeway to have greater dominance over legislation than other institutions, for example over its changes to the Bolkestein directive in 2006.

The few other areas that operate the special legislative procedures are justice and home affairs, budget and taxation, andaspects of other policy areas, such as the fiscal aspects of environmental policy. In these areas, the Council or Parliament resolve law alone. The procedure also depends upon which type of institutional act is being used. The strongest act is a regulation, an act or law which is directly applicable in its entirety. Then there are directives which bind bit states togoals which they must achieve. They do this through their own laws and hence have room to manoeuvre in deciding upon them. A decision is an instrument which is focused at a particular grownup or group and is directly applicable. Institutions may also case recommendations and opinions which are merely non-binding, declarations. There is a further document which does not follow normal procedures, this is a "written declaration" which is similar to an early day motion used in the Westminster system. It is a document proposed by up to five MEPs on a matter within the EU's activities used to launch a debate on that subject. Having been posted outside the entrance to the hemicycle, members canthe declaration and if a majority do so it is intended to the President and announced to the plenary before being forwarded to the other institutions and formally noted in the minutes.

The legislative branch officially holds the Union's budgetary predominance with powers gained through the Budgetary Treaties of the 1970s and the Lisbon Treaty. The EU budget is subject to a form of the ordinary legislative procedure with a single reading giving Parliament power over the entire budget before 2009, its influence was limited toareas on an equal footing to the Council. If there is a disagreement between them, it is taken to a conciliation committee as it is for legislative proposals. If the joint conciliation text is not approved, the Parliament may adopt the budget definitively.