How is the European parliament structured?

President

The President is elected for a renewable term of two and a half years, i.e. half the lifetime of a Parliament. The President represents the European Parliament vis-à-vis the outside world and in its relations with the other Community institutions.

President's Roles

- Assisted by 14 Vice-Presidents, the President oversees all the work of the Parliament and its constituent bodies (Bureau and Conference of Presidents), as well as the debates in plenary. Twelve plenary part-sessions are held each year in Strasbourg and six more in Brussels.

- The President ensures that Parliament’s Rules of Procedure are adhered to and, through his arbitration, guarantees that all the activities of the institution and its constituent bodies run smoothly.

- The President is the representative of Parliament in legal affairs and in all external relations. S/he delivers an opinion on all major international issues and makes recommendations designed to strengthen the European Union.

- At the beginning of every European Council meeting (summit) the President of the European Parliament sets out Parliament’s point of view and its concerns as regards the items on the agenda and other subjects.

- After the European Union’s budget has been adopted by Parliament at second reading, the President signs it, rendering it operational.

- The EP President and the President of the Council both sign all legislative acts adopted under codecision.

Members

The European Parliament is made up of 736 Members elected in the 27 Member States of the enlarged European Union. Since 1979 MEPs have been elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year period.

Each Member State decides on the form its election will take, but follows identical democratic groundrules: equality of the sexes and a secret ballot. In all Member States, the voting age is 18, with the exception of Austria, where it is 16. European elections are already governed by a number of common principles: direct universal suffrage, proportional representation and a five-year renewable term.

The seats are, as a general rule, shared out proportionately to the population of each Member State. Each Member State has a set number of seats, the maximum being 99 and the minimum five.

Equality of men and women: the proportion of women in the European Parliament has risen steadily. At present slightly over one third of MEPs are women.

Members of the European Parliament (MEP) divide their time between Brussels, Strasbourg and their constituencies. In Brussels they attend meetings of the parliamentary committees and political groups, and additional plenary sittings. In Strasbourg they attend 12 plenary sittings. In parallel with these activities they must also, of course, devote time to their constituencies.

The Members of the European Parliament are grouped by political affinity and not by nationality.

They exercise their mandate in an independent fashion.

Members of the European Parliament, whose powers have become more and more extensive, influence every area of the day to day life of the European public: the environment, consumer protection and transport, as well as education, culture, health etc.

The new Statute for MEPs entered into force on 14 July 2009. The new Statute makes the terms and conditions of MEPs' work more transparent and introduces a common salary for all Members paid from the EU budget.