EP

European Parliament (EP)

The directly elected assembly of the European Community (EC). It has limited legislative competence: it has the right of scrutiny and supervision of EC executives, and participates in the legislative and budgetary processes. The European Parliament is made up of 626 MEPs from the European Union (EU). These politicians are directly elected by the peoples of Europe in elections held every five years. MEPs represent their local constituencies in the EU.

For further information, see the Europa website: .

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directive

+ European Union

The European Parliament (EP) is the only supranational institution whose members are democratically elected by direct universal suffrage. It represents the people of the member states. EP, which is elected every five years, is involved in drafting numerous laws (directives, regulations etc.) that affect the daily life of every citizen (co-legislator).

The Lisbon Treaty makes EP a stronger lawmaker by bringing over 40 new fields within the co-decision procedure (now called ordinary legislative procedure), under which EP has equal rights with the Council of the European Union. These areas include agriculture, energy security, immigration, justice and home affairs, health and structural funds.

MEPs will also have to give their consent to a whole range of international agreements negotiated by the Union, in areas such as international trade.

For further information, see:

• Practice note, The European Union after the Treaty of Lisbon.

• PLC EU, EU Toolkit: EU institutions.