European Parliament

Parliament of the European Union (EU), which meets in Strasbourg, France, and Brussels, Belgium. Members are elected for a five-year term. The number of seats in the parliament is related to the number of EU members - after the accession of ten new countries to the EU in 2004 the number of seats rose from 626 to 732. The president of the European Parliament is Pat Cox (from 1999).

Originally merely consultative, the European Parliament became directly elected in 1979, and later assumed increased powers. Though still not a true legislative body, under a co-decision legislative procedure introduced by the 1992 Maastricht Treaty (and extended by the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty), the European Parliament has been placed on an equal footing with the Council of the European Union in the adoption of legislation in many areas, with proposals requiring the agreement of both institutions. It can also dismiss the whole European Commission (which it threatened to do in January 1999) by a two-thirds majority, and reject the EU budget in its entirety. It also has an important role in overseeing EU spending, questioning EU commissioners and national ministers, and approving international agreements. In addition, it appoints an ombudsman to consider complaints from citizens concerning maladministration by EU bodies. It is the only EU institution that meets and deliberates in public.

Full sittings are held one week each month in Strasbourg, to amend and vote on draft legislation and policy. Most of the standing and subcommittees, which prepare the work of full sessions, meet in Brussels, where additional two-day full parliamentary sessions are also held. The seat of the Parliament's secretariat, or civil service, is in Luxembourg, though many of its officials are based in Brussels.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) do not sit in national delegations in the Parliament, but in multinational political groups. In the 1999 European Parliament elections, right-wing and centre-right parties made significant gains at the expense of the left-of-centre groups. The centre-right European People's Party and European Democrats' Group (which included the UK Conservative Party MEPs) won 233 seats, the Socialist Group (including UK Labour MEPs) 180, the Liberal Group (in which UK Liberal Democrats are the largest element) 51, the Green/European Free Alliance Group (including UK Green, Welsh Plaid Cymru, and Scottish Nationalist MEPs) 48, and the European United Left/Nordic Green Left Group 42.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are paid the same salary as members of their national parliaments. They also receive allowances and expenses in accordance with established rates for all MEPs. The pay and expenses of MEPs was under review by EU leaders in mid-2000, with the objective of establishing a standard EU-wide salary for MEPs. The EU Parliament's budget for 2000 was £610 million/$975 million. It is 1% of the total EU budget and covers building costs and the costs of all staff in the European Parliament, which employs 3,850 people, a third of whom work in the linguistic services covering the EU's 11 working languages.

In July 2000, members of the European Parliament, meeting in their new building in Strasbourg for the first time, elected Nicole Fontaine, a French conservative, as their president.

In July 2001, the European Parliament threw out a European takeover directive that would have harmonized takeover rules and boosted shareholders' powers, despite it having been 12 years in the making. It therefore appeared increasingly unlikely that the 2005 deadline for a common market for financial services in the European Union would be attainable.