European Parliament
The European Parliament first met on the 10th of September 1952 as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community. It began with just 78 appointed parliamentarians drawn from national parliaments, holding no legislative power. This consultative body was designed to counterbalance executive authority while providing democratic legitimacy to the new community. Leaders hoped difficulties with Britain would be resolved to allow the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to perform legislative tasks. The wording of the ECSC Treaty demonstrated leaders' desire for more than a normal consultative assembly by allowing direct election and using the term representatives of the people. Its early importance was highlighted when the Assembly drew up the draft treaty to establish a European Political Community. By this document, the Ad Hoc Assembly was established on the 13th of September 1952 with extra members. After the failure of the negotiated and proposed European Defence Community due to a French parliament veto, the project was dropped. Instead, the European Economic Community and Euratom were established in 1958 by the Treaties of Rome. The Common Assembly was shared by all three communities which had separate executives and renamed itself the European Parliamentary Assembly. The first meeting was held on the 19th of March 1958 having been set up in Luxembourg City. It elected Schuman as its president and on the 13th of May it rearranged itself to sit according to political ideology rather than nationality. This is seen as the birth of the modern European Parliament, with Parliament's 50 years celebrations being held in March 2008 rather than 2002. The three communities merged their remaining organs as the European Communities in 1967, and the body's name was changed to the current European Parliament in 1962. In 1970 the Parliament was granted power over areas of the Communities' budget, which were expanded to the whole budget in 1975. Under the Rome Treaties, the Parliament should have become elected. However, the Council was required to agree a uniform voting system beforehand, which it failed to do. The Parliament threatened to take the Council to the European Court of Justice; this led to a compromise whereby the Council would agree to elections, but with each Member State using its own electoral system, leaving the issue of a uniform voting systems to be decided at a later date. For its sessions the assembly, and later the parliament, until 1999 convened in the same premises as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: the House of Europe until 1977, and the Palace of Europe until 1999.
The European Parliament shares equal legislative and budgetary powers with the Council except on a few issues where special legislative procedures apply. It is protocol terms the first institution of the European Union mentioned first in its treaties and having ceremonial precedence over the other EU institutions. The procedure which has slowly become dominant is the ordinary legislative procedure previously named codecision procedure which provides an equal 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 if both agree on a text which they do or not through successive readings up to a maximum of three. In its first reading Parliament may send amendments to the Council which can either adopt 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 adopt further amendments also by an absolute majority. If the Council does not approve these then a Conciliation Committee is formed. The committee is composed of 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 given it leeway to have greater control over legislation than other institutions for example over its changes to the Bolkestein directive in 2006. In practice most legislation is adopted at the first reading stage after the Parliament and the Council having set out their initial positions then negotiate a compromise text. These negotiations take place in so-called trilogue meetings in which the Commission is also present. A notable example was on the Bolkestein directive in 2006 when the Parliament voted by a large majority for over 400 amendments that changed the fundamental principle of the law. The Financial Times described it in the following terms: In 2007 for the first time Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini included Parliament in talks on the second Schengen Information System even though in this field at the time MEPs only needed to be consulted on parts of the package. After that experiment Frattini indicated he would like to include Parliament in all justice and criminal matters informally pre-empting the new powers they were due to gain in 2009 as part of the Treaty of Lisbon.
Since 1979 the European Parliament has been directly elected every five years by the citizens of the European Union through universal suffrage. Voter turnout in parliamentary elections decreased each time after 1979 until 2019 when voter turnout increased by eight percentage points and rose above 50% for the first time since 1994. The voting age is 18 in all EU member states except for Malta Belgium Austria and Germany where it is 16 and Greece where it is 17. The most recent Union-wide elections to the European Parliament were the European elections of 2019 held from 23 to the 26th of May 2019. They were the largest simultaneous transnational elections ever held anywhere in the world. The first session of the ninth parliament started the 2nd of July 2019. Elections have taken place directly in every member state every five years since 1979 there have been ten elections. When a nation joins mid-term a by-election is held in that country to elect its representatives. This has happened six times most recently when Croatia joined in 2013. Elections take place on over a four-day period from a Thursday to a Sunday each Member State votes on the day of its choice. Member States choose their electoral system within common guidelines notably that the suffrage must be universal and that seats are allocated by proportional representation. Seats are allocated to member states according to their population since 2014 with no state having more than 96 but no fewer than 6 to maintain proportionality. Representation is currently limited to a maximum of 96 seats and a minimum of 6 seats per state and the seats are distributed according to degressive proportionality i.e. the larger the state the more citizens are represented per MEP. As a result Maltese and Luxembourgish voters have roughly 10x more influence per voter than citizens of the six largest countries. Germany 80.9 million inhabitants has 96 seats previously 99 seats i.e. one seat for 843,000 inhabitants. Malta 0.4 million inhabitants has 6 seats i.e. one seat for 70,000 inhabitants. The new system implemented under the Lisbon Treaty including revising the seating well before elections was intended to avoid political horse trading when the allocations have to be revised to reflect demographic changes.
Ultimately the European Commission which serves as the executive branch of the EU is accountable to Parliament. In particular Parliament can decide whether or not 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 Parliament had always had the right to dismiss the European Commission in a vote of censure but it initially had no role in its appointment. In the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht the Member States gave the Parliament the right to approve or reject an incoming Commission. In the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam they gave it the right to approve or reject an incoming Commission President subsequently in the Treaty of Lisbon describing Parliament's vote as the election of the President and requiring the European Council to make its proposal to Parliament in light of the results of the European elections. In 1999 the Parliament forced the resignation of the Santer Commission. The Parliament had refused to approve the Community budget over allegations of fraud and mis-management in the commission. The two main parties took on a government-opposition dynamic for the first time during the crisis which ended in the Commission resigning en masse the first of any forced resignation in the face of an impending censure from the Parliament. As described above when the Barroso Commission was put forward the Parliament forced the proposal to be withdrawn and changed to be more acceptable to Parliament. That pressure was seen as an important sign by some of the evolving nature of the Parliament and its ability to make the Commission accountable rather than being a rubber stamp for candidates. Furthermore in voting on the Commission MEPs also vote along party lines rather than national lines despite frequent pressure from national governments on their MEPs.
The president of the European Parliament is the body's speaker and presides over the multi-party chamber. The current President of the European Parliament is Roberta Metsola who was elected in January 2022. The President is essentially the speaker of the Parliament and presides over the plenary when it is in session. The President's signature is required for all acts adopted by co-decision including the EU budget. The President is also responsible for representing the Parliament externally including in legal matters and for the application of the rules of procedure. The President is elected for two-and-a-half-year terms meaning two elections per parliamentary term. The Parliament elects 14 Vice-Presidents who chair debates when the President is not in the chamber. There are a number of bodies responsible for the running of Parliament. The two main ones are the Bureau which is responsible for budgetary and administration issues and is composed of the President and the Vice-Presidents and the Conference of Presidents which is the political governing body and is composed of the President of the Parliament and the leaders of each of the Parliament's political groups. Looking after the financial and administrative interests of members are five Quaestors. The Parliament has 20 Standing Committees ranging in size from 25 to 88 MEPs each reflecting the political make-up of the whole Parliament including a chair a bureau and secretariat. They meet twice a month in public to draw up amend to adopt legislative proposals and reports to be presented to the plenary. The rapporteurs for a committee are supposed to present the view of the committee although notably this has not always been the case: in the events leading to the resignation of the Santer Commission the rapporteur went against the Budgetary Control Committee's narrow vote to discharge the budget and urged the Parliament to reject it. The Parliament can also set up sub-committees e.g. the Subcommittee on Human Rights and temporary committees to deal with a specific topic e.g. the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in Democratic Processes in the European Union 2020, 23.
Speakers in the European Parliament are entitled to speak in any of the 24 official languages of the European Union ranging from French and German to Maltese and Irish. Simultaneous interpreting is offered in all plenary sessions and all final texts of legislation are translated. With twenty-four languages the European Parliament is the most multilingual parliament in the world and the biggest employer of interpreters in the world employing 350 full-time and 400 freelancers when there is higher demand. Citizens may also address the Parliament in Basque Catalan/Valencian and Galician. Usually a language is translated from a foreign tongue into a translator's native tongue. Due to the large number of languages some being minor ones since 1995 interpreting is sometimes done the opposite way out of an interpreter's native tongue the retour system. In addition a speech in a minor language may be interpreted through a third language for lack of interpreters relay interpreting for example when interpreting out of Estonian into Maltese. Due to the complexity of the issues interpretation is not word for word. Instead interpreters have to convey the political meaning of a speech regardless of their own views. This requires detailed understanding of the politics and terms of the Parliament involving a great deal of preparation beforehand e.g. reading the documents in question. Difficulty can often arise when MEPs use profanities jokes and word play or speak too fast. While some see speaking their native language as an important part of their identity and can speak more fluently in debates interpretation and its cost has been criticised by some. A 2006 report by Alexander Stubb MEP highlighted that by only using English French and German costs could be reduced from €118,000 per day for 21 languages then Romanian Bulgarian and Croatian having not yet been included to €8,900 per day.
In 2022 four people were arrested because of corruption. This came to be known as the Qatar corruption scandal at the European Parliament. Law enforcement authorities in Belgium Italy and Greece seized €1.5 million in cash confiscated computers and mobile phones and charged four individuals with the alleged offences: Eva Kaili Antonio Panzeri an Italian former MEP Francesco Giorgi and Luca Visentini. Later also Niccolò Figà-Talamanca Marc Tarabella and Andrea Cozzolino were arrested. In 2023 Belgian MEP Marie Arena was charged and in 2025 two more women: Elisabetta Gualmini and Alessandra Moretti. The former British MEP Nathan Gill UKIP and later the Leader of the Reform UK party in Wales pleaded guilty on Friday the 26th of September 2025 to eight counts of bribery under the UK's Bribery Act 2010. He had taken payments to speak in the European Parliament to promote Russian interests in particular in relation to Ukraine. A January 2024 report published by investigative outlet Follow the Money found that 1 in 4 EU lawmakers have been implicated in judicial cases or scandals. Out of 253 cases highlighted in the report only 23 have resulted in convictions. There are also ongoing concerns related to allegations that members of the European Parliament were illegally or unethically influenced by Russia such concerns have been raised several times in 2023 and 2024 and dubbed Russiagate. The European Parliament revised its rules of procedure and its code of conduct in September 2023 placing six main obligations on MEPs: To make a detailed Declaration of private interests including those from the 3 years prior to their election When total external income exceeds €5,000 all the entities from which their income is received to be disclosed With regard to conflicts of interest to resolved or declare them Not to engage in paid lobbying activities linked to the EU's decision-making process To meet only with interested parties who sign up to the EU's Transparency Register and to make disclosure of such meetings and also of meetings held with representatives of third country diplomats To make a Declaration of all assets and liabilities at the beginning and again at the end of every term of office.
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Common questions
When did the European Parliament first meet?
The European Parliament first met on the 10th of September 1952 as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community. It began with just 78 appointed parliamentarians drawn from national parliaments holding no legislative power.
How often are elections held for the European Parliament?
Elections take place directly in every member state every five years since 1979 there have been ten elections. The most recent Union-wide elections to the European Parliament were the European elections of 2019 held from 23 to the 26th of May 2019.
Who is the current President of the European Parliament?
The current President of the European Parliament is Roberta Metsola who was elected in January 2022. The President is essentially the speaker of the Parliament and presides over the plenary when it is in session.
What happened during the Qatar corruption scandal at the European Parliament?
In 2022 four people were arrested because of corruption which came to be known as the Qatar corruption scandal at the European Parliament. Law enforcement authorities seized €1.5 million in cash and charged individuals including Eva Kaili Antonio Panzeri Francesco Giorgi and Luca Visentini.
When did the European Parliament gain direct election powers?
Since 1979 the European Parliament has been directly elected every five years by the citizens of the European Union through universal suffrage. Voter turnout in parliamentary elections decreased each time after 1979 until 2019 when voter turnout increased by eight percentage points and rose above 50% for the first time since 1994.