European Parliament

Information about the European Parliament.

The European Parliament is an institution that takes charge representing all the member states of the Union. 

Legidos directly for the voters of the EU every five years, the deputies to the European Parliament represent the citizens. The Parliament is one of the principal legislative institutions of the EU together with the Advice of the European Union (" the Advice ").

The principal functions of the European Parliament are three: 

- to debate and to approve, together with the Advice, the legislation of the EU.

 - to submit to control for other institutions of the EU, especially to the Commission, to guarantee his democratic functioning. 

- to debate and to adopt, together with the Advice, the budget of the EU. The Parliament supervises the labor of the Commission by means of the examination of the reports that this one elaborates and the questions to the commissioners.

 His commissions recover here an important paper. The deputies to the European Parliament examine the requests of the citizens and can create commissions of investigation. When the national leaders meet in the summits of the European Advice, the Parliament gives his opinion about the topics that are going to treat. 

The number of deputies to the European Parliament with whom it counts every country is, in general lines, proportional to his population. The Agreement of Lisbon establishes that no country can have less than 6 deputies not any more of 96. The deputies to the European Parliament gather in crowds for political affinities, not for nationalities. The labor of the European Parliament develops in three headquarters: Brussels (Belgium), Luxembourg and Strasbourg (France). Approves the legislation of the EU In many areas, as the protection of the consumers and the environment, the Parliament and the Advice (at representation of the national governments) they are employed together to decide the content of the legislation of the EU and to adopt her officially. This process is named a " legislative ordinary procedure " (before named "codecisión").

With the Agreement of Lisbon there has increased the number of areas of action regulated by the new legislative ordinary procedure, which gives to the Parliament more power to influence the content of the legislation relative to aspects as the agriculture, the energy policy, the immigration and the funds of the EU. In addition, the approval of the Parliament is needed for certain important decisions, since allowing that new countries should begin to form a part of the EU.