Explain to us the role of the European Parliament

The European Parliament is the legislative body of the European Union. It is made up of deputies elected by direct universal suffrage every five years. What is his role ? What are his powers?

With its future 720 MEPs, compared to 705 currently, the European Parliament is the institution which represents the citizens of the Member States. Formerly a simple consultative body, since 2007 and the signing of the Lisbon Treaty, it has played a real role as co-legislator. It has the power to modify proposed laws that are written by the European Commission.

The other co-legislator is the Council of the European Union, the institution which therefore represents and defends the interests of the 27 governments. For a law to enter into force, Parliament and the Council must adopt future European legislation in the same terms.

MEPs also have the mission of validating the European Union budget and ensuring its proper execution. Another important element is the MEPs who elect by majority the president of the European Commission, as well as the European commissioners chosen by the member states. Parliament also has the power to dismiss them via a motion of censure. The case has occurred only once, with the fall of the Commission led by Jacques Santer in 1999.

When choosing for the presidency of the Commission, the person must be chosen by the 27 heads of state and government, taking into account the result of the European elections. If the right has been placed in the lead by European citizens, then the person is normally chosen from this political family. This was the case for Ursula Von der Leyen in 2019, a member of the German conservative party.

Over the past five years, with the Covid crisis, the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, heads of state and government have repeatedly bypassed Parliament, using a sort of European 49.3. This was the case for purchasing, for example, vaccines jointly or for capping the price of gas without going through a vote.

The Council has also reopened in recent months, in the home stretch of the mandate, several negotiations, such as that on platform workers, which had nevertheless been closed with Parliament. Under pressure, MEPs accepted compromises that were sometimes far removed from their mandate.

But from mandate to mandate, and we have seen this in the current one, MEPs have also specialized in more and more areas. We can cite in particular health, with expertise and a major contribution to the development of European policies.