How is the European parliament structured?

President's Role

- 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.

Political Groups

The Members of the European Parliament sit in political groups – they are not organised by nationality, but by political affiliation. There are currently 7 political groups in the European Parliament, which are:

- Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats)
- Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament
- Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
- Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance
- European Conservatives and Reformists Group
- Confederal Group of the European United Left - Nordic Green Left
- Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group

Each takes care of its own internal organisation by appointing a chair (or two co-chairs in the case of some groups), a bureau and a secretariat.

The places assigned to Members in the Chamber are decided by political affiliation, from left to right, by agreement with the group chairmen.

25 Members are needed to form a political group, and at least one-quarter of the Member States must be represented within the group. Members may not belong to more than one political group.

Some Members do not belong to any political group and are known as non-attached Members.

Before every vote in plenary the political groups scrutinise the reports drawn up by the parliamentary committees and table amendments to them.

The position adopted by the political group is arrived at by discussion within the group. No Member can be forced to vote in a particular way.