European Parliament Composition

European Parliament Composition

Composition and Election

Content about European Parliament Composition from the publication “The ABC of European Union law” (2010, European Union) by Klaus-Dieter Borchardt.

Since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009, the European Parliament has had 754 seats. This exceeds the maximum of 751 Members laid down in the TEU (Article 14(2)), but must be accepted for the 2009-14 legislative period, as the MEPs elected in June cannot lose their seats. However, the maximum number of Members must be adhered to at the next elections in 2014. These are allocated to the Member States so that although each Member from a highly populated Member State represents more citizens than every Member from a State with a low population, no State with a lower population has more seats than a State with a higher population. As a general rule, the minimum number of seats per Member State is six, and the maximum 96, but, owing to the late entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, an exception has been made for Germany in the 2009-14 legislative period, permitting it to continue to have 99 Members (MEPs elected in June 2009 cannot lose their seats because of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty) .

Context of European Parliament Composition in the European Union

The exact composition has yet to be determined by the Council. This should have been done in time for the direct elections to the European Parliament in June 2009. However, since the Lisbon Treaty did not enter into force before the elections in June 2009, the new rules on the composition of the European Parliament could not be applied to the 2009-14 legislative period. Instead, the distribution of seats resulting from the accession of Bulgaria and Romania applied for these elections to the European Parliament. Upon the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009, the number of Members rose by 18 to 754, with the new Members coming from 12 different Member States.

More about European Parliament Composition in the European Union

The composition of the European Parliament is shown in graphic form below; this is the situation in the current 2009-14 legislative period. The changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty are indicated.

Other Aspects

The President, Vice-Presidents and Quaestors make up the Bureau, which is elected by Parliament for terms of two and a half years. Another body, the Conference of Presidents, also includes the chairs of the political groups. It is responsible for the organisation of Parliament’s work, and relations with the other EU institutions and with non-Union institutions.

Details

Up to 1979, representatives in the European Parliament were selected from the membership of national parliaments and delegated by them to the European Parliament. The direct general election of MEPs by the peoples of the Member States was provided for in the Treaties themselves, but the first direct elections were not held until June 1979, a number of earlier initiatives having been fruitless. Elections are now held every five years, which corresponds to the length of a ‘legislative period’. Following decades of efforts, a uniform electoral procedure was finally introduced by the act concerning the election of representatives of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage of 20 September 1976, as last amended by Council decision of 25 June and 23 September 2002 (known as the Direct Elections Act). Under this act, each Member State lays down its own election procedure, but must apply the same basic democratic rules: direct general election, proportional representation, free and secret ballots, minimum age (for the right to vote, this is 18 in all Member States except Austria, where the voting age was reduced to 16), renewable five-year term of office, incompatibilities (MEPs may not hold two offices at the same time, e.g. the office of judge, public prosecutor, Minister; they are also subject to the laws of their country, which may further limit their ability to hold more than one post or office), election date and equality between men and women. In some countries (Belgium, Greece and Luxembourg), voting is compulsory. In addition, a statute for Members of the European Parliament came into force on 14 July 2009. This new statute makes the terms and conditions of MEPs’ work more transparent and contains clear rules. It also introduces a uniform salary for all MEPs, which is paid from the EU budget.

Now that it is directly elected, Parliament enjoys democratic legitimacy and can truly claim to represent the citizens of the EU Member States. But the mere existence of a directly elected Parliament cannot satisfy the fundamental requirement of a democratic constitution, which is that all public autho rity must emanate from the people. That does not only mean that the decisionmaking process must be transparent and the decision-making institutions representative; parliamentary control is required, and Parliament must lend legitimacy to the Union institutions involved in the decision-making process. A great deal of progress has been made in this area over recent years. Not only have the rights of Parliament been continually extended, but the Treaty of Lisbon has explicitly established the obligation for EU action to adhere to the principle of representative democracy. As a result, all citizens of the Union are directly represented in Parliament and entitled to participate actively in the EU’s democratic life. The underlying objective of this is that decisions at EU level are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen. The political parties at EU level are to contribute to the shaping of a European identity and to articulate the will of the Union’s citizens. If there is any deficit to the current democratic model of the EU, it is that the European Parliament, unlike the true parliaments in a parliamentary democracy, does not elect a government that answers to it.


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