Abstract
The European parliament is the parliamentary body of the Union; it can be defined as the expression of the democratic will of all the 450 million citizens of the union in 25 states since 2004. Currently there are 732 members, called the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). The allocation of seats to each member state is based on the principal of “digressive proportionality” in order to not disadvantage the smaller countries. Its origins go back to September 1952 with the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which established a common assembly with the members of the six founder countries (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburg). Then in 1958 the name of “European Assembly” was adopted and it takes into account the European Economic Community and Euratom. In 1979 the “European Parliament” (renamed in 1962) became the only institution elected by direct universal suffrage every five years. Since then, the membership of the parliament has simply expanded every time new countries entered into the Union. The European Parliament meets in two locations: Strasbourg and Brussels.
What are the roles, the powers of this institution? What are its weaknesses? What does it concretely do for the Union? This essay will discuss the role of the European Parliament, then why this role is so weak and finally the positive contribution that it has brought to the European Union.
First of all, we are going to see the three major roles that are assigned to the European Parliament: Since the Maastricht treaty in 1992, the Parliament has a legislative power, which is shared with the council of ministers. Currently, the most ordinary method for adopting a European legislation is ‘codecision' (two thirds of European laws are both adopted by the European Parliament and the Council); it put the European Parliament and the council on an equal footing in a lot of areas but in some fields (for example agriculture, economic policy, visas and immigration), only the Council has the right to legislate, but it has to take into account the Parliament's opinion. The Parliament's agreement is also necessary for certain essential decisions, such as allowing new countries to join the European Union. So, it can adopt European laws (decisions, regulations, directives) but it has also the power to reject or amend the contents of the European legislation. Thanks to this power; the democratic legitimacy of the texts adopted can be preserved.
The European Parliament also shares the budgetary authority with the Council. It has the right to increase or to reduce the community expenditure without the approval of the Commission, it can redistribute the spending, it also has the power to reject the whole annual budget or any supplementary budget and finally it has the exclusive right to approve or not the way in which the Commission spends the money voted in the budget.
