Reading 1

Read the text for useful vocabulary. Don’t forget useful connectors, collocations and derived forms
of useful words (e.g. legislative adj à legislature n)


The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union
(EU). Together with the Council of the European Union (the Council) and the European Commission, it
exercises the legislative function of the EU. The Parliament is composed of 751 members, who
represent the second-largest democratic electorate in the world (after the Parliament of India).


It has been directly elected every five years by universal suffrage since 1979. However, voter
turnout at European Parliament elections has fallen consecutively at each election since that date,
and has been under 50% since 1999.


Although the European Parliament has legislative power that the Council and Commission do not
possess, it does not formally possess legislative initiative, as most national parliaments of
European Union member states do. The Parliament is the "first institution" of the EU (mentioned
first in the treaties, having ceremonial precedence over all authority at European level), and
shares equal legislative and budgetary powers with the Council (except in a few areas where the
special legislative procedures apply). It likewise has equal control over the EU budget. Finally,
the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, is accountable to Parliament. In particular,
Parliament elects the President of the Commission, and approves (or rejects) the appointment of the
Commission as a whole. It can subsequently force the Commission as a body to resign by adopting a
motion of censure.


The President of the European Parliament (Parliament's speaker) is Antonio Tajani (EPP), elected in
January 2017. He presides over a multi-party chamber, the two largest groups being the Group of the
European People's Party (EPP) and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D). The
last union-wide elections were the 2014 elections.


The European Parliament has three places of work – Brussels (Belgium), the city of Luxembourg
(Luxembourg) and Strasbourg (France). Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices (the
"General Secretariat"). Meetings of the whole Parliament ("plenary sessions") take place in
Strasbourg and in Brussels. Committee meetings are held in Brussels.

The Parliament and Council have been compared to the two chambers of a bicameral legislature.
However, there are some differences from national legislatures; for example, neither the Parliament
nor the Council have the power of legislative initiative (except for the fact that the Council has
the power in some intergovernmental matters). In Community matters, this is a power uniquely
reserved for the European Commission (the executive). Therefore, while Parliament can amend and
reject legislation, to make a proposal for legislation, it needs the Commission to draft a bill
before anything can become law.^ The value of such a power has been questioned by noting that in
the national legislatures of the member states 85% of initiatives introduced without executive
support fail to become law. Yet it has been argued by former Parliament president Hans-Gert
Pöttering that as the Parliament does have the right to ask the Commission to draft such
legislation, and as the Commission is following Parliament's proposals more and more Parliament
does have a de facto right of legislative initiative.


The Parliament also has a great deal of indirect influence, through non-binding resolutions and
committee hearings, as a "pan-European soapbox" with the ear of thousands of Brussels-based
journalists. There is also an indirect effect on foreign policy; the Parliament must approve all
development grants, including those overseas. For example, the support for post-war Iraq
reconstruction, or incentives for the cessation of Iranian nuclear development, must be supported
by the Parliament. Parliamentary support was also required for the transatlantic passenger
data-sharing deal with the United States. Finally, Parliament holds a non-binding vote on new EU
treaties but cannot veto it. However, when Parliament threatened to vote down the Nice Treaty, the
Belgian and Italian Parliaments said they would veto the treaty on the European Parliament's
behalf.


The parliamentarians are known in English as Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). They are
elected every five years by universal adult suffrage and sit according to political allegiance;
about a third are women. Before 1979 they were appointed by their national parliaments.


Under the Lisbon Treaty, seats are allocated to each state according to population and the maximum
number of members is set at 751 (however, as the President cannot vote while in the chair there
will only be 750 voting members at any one time).^


The seats are distributed according to "degressive proportionality", i.e., the larger the state,
the more citizens are represented per MEP. As a result, Maltese and Luxembourgish voters have
roughly 10x more influence per voter than citizens of the six large countries.

As of 2014, Germany (80.9 million inhabitants) has 96 seats (previously 99 seats), i.e. one seat
for 843,000 inhabitants. Malta (0.4 million inhabitants) has 6 seats, i.e. one seat for 70,000
inhabitants.


The new system implemented under the Lisbon Treaty, including revising the seating well before
elections, was intended to avoid political horse trading when the allocations have to be revised to
reflect demographic changes.^


Pursuant to this apportionment, the constituencies are formed. In six EU member states (Belgium,
France, Ireland, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom), the national territory is divided into a
number of constituencies. In the remaining member states, the whole country forms a single
constituency. All member states hold elections to the European Parliament using various forms of
proportional representation.

^

The European Council is the group of heads of state or government of the EU member states. It meets
four times a year to define the Union's policy agenda and give impetus to integration. The
President of the European Council is the person responsible for chairing and driving forward the
work of the institution, which has been described as the highest political body of the European
Union.


The Council of the European Union (informally known as the Council of Ministers or just the
Council) is a body holding legislative and some limited executive powers and is thus the main
decision making body of the Union. Its Presidency rotates between the states every six months, but
every three Presidencies now cooperate on a common programme. This body is separate from the
European Council, which is a similar body, but is composed of national leaders.^


The Council is composed of twenty-eight national ministers (one per state). However the Council
meets in various forms depending upon the topic. For example, if agriculture is being discussed,
the Council will be composed of each national minister for agriculture. They represent their
governments and are accountable to their national political systems. Votes are taken either by
majority or unanimity with votes allocated according to population. In these various forms they
share the legislative and budgetary power of the Parliament, and also lead the Common Foreign and
Security Policy.


The European Commission is the executive arm of the Union. It is a body composed of one appointee
from each state, currently twenty-eight, but is designed to be independent of national interests.
The body is responsible for drafting all law of the European Union and has the ability to propose
new laws (bills). It also deals with the day-to-day running of the Union and has the duty of
upholding the law and treaties (in this role it is known as the "Guardian of the Treaties").


The Commission is led by a President who is nominated by the Council (in practice the European
Council) and approved by Parliament. The remaining 27 Commissioners are nominated by member-states,
in consultation with the President, and have their portfolios assigned by the President. The
Council then adopts this list of nominee-Commissioners. The Council’s adoption of the Commission is
not an area which requires the decision to be unanimous, their acceptance is arrived at according
to the rules for qualified majority voting. The European Parliament then interviews and casts its
vote upon the Commissioners. The interviews of individual nominees are conducted separately, in
contrast to Parliament’s vote of approval which must be cast on the Commission as a whole without
the ability to accept or reject individual Commissioners. Once approval has been obtained from the
Parliament the Commissioners can take office.


The Court of Justice of the European Union is the EU's judicial branch. It is responsible for
interpreting EU law and treaties. It comprises the main chamber: Court of Justice, the General
Court and the Civil Service Tribunal.


The European Central Bank is the central bank for the eurozone (the states which have adopted the
euro) and thus controls monetary policy in that area with an agenda to maintain price stability.


It is at the centre of the European System of Central Banks which comprises all EU national banks.
The bank is governed by a board of national bank governors and a President.


The European Court of Auditors, despite its name, has no judicial powers. It ensures that taxpayer
funds from the budget of the European Union have been correctly spent. The court provides an audit
report for each financial year to the Council and Parliament. The Parliament uses this to decide
whether to approve the Commission's handling of the budget. The Court also gives opinions and
proposals on financial legislation and anti-fraud actions.

The Court of Auditors was set up in 1975. It was created as an independent institution due to the
sensitivity of the issue of fraud in the Union (the anti-fraud agency, OLAF, is also built on its
independence). It is composed of one member from each state appointed by the Council every six
years. Every three years one of them is elected as the president of the court.