European Parliament

European Parliament An elected institution of the European Union with its seat in Strasburg. Originally, its members were appointees of the parliaments of the EC member states, but since 1979 they have been elected directly every five years by universal suffrage. Treaties signed in 1970 and 1975 gave the European Parliament (EP) important powers over budgetary and constitutional matters, and through the Single European Act of 1986 it assumed greater powers through the cooperation procedure: accordingly, a number of decisions made by the European Council needed to have the assent of the EP. This right was extended by the Maastricht Treaty, which gave the European Parliament the right of co-decision in substantial areas of legislation. On issues affecting the common market, for instance, the EP now had the upper hand in its search for a compromise with the Council.

The EP's powers have been extended in the Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice. However, it was still hampered by the requirement that all decisions under the co-decision procedure had to be approved by an overall majority of members. This prevented the emergence of traditional political fault-lines, as the need for large majorities precluded the establishment of traditional opposition and governing camps. This, and the inability to impose taxation, have made the Parliament relatively obscure and seemingly insignificant to its voters. As a result, since 1979 voter participation in European elections has declined steadily. However, declining voter participation affected most mature democratic systems. Overall, EP continued to enjoy legitimacy as the only democratically elected organ of the EU.

The 2004 elections to the EP were the first to be held in an enlarged community of 25 member states. This posed great challenges, as the EP had to absorb a large number of new parties, which were not used to the EP's particular ways of working. More importantly, many post-communist parties were founded on very different ideals than the parties already established within the EP. This made the formation of cross-party parliamentary groups more difficult. Finally, since every Member of the EP had the right to speak in their own language, the EP elected in 2004 required a vastly inflated administrative apparatus, notably of translating staff.

http://www.europarl.eu.int

European integration