European Parliament

• What is the European Parliament?

  The European Parliament (EP) is the legislative and oversight body of the European Union (EU), and the only body of the EU whose members are directly elected by the EU citizens. It was founded in 1958.

• What are the tasks of the European Parliament?

  The European Parliament (EP) has three primary tasks:

  • It passes EU laws.
  • It passes the EU budget, that is, it decides how much money is to be used for which topics and measures in the EU.
  • It monitors and provides oversight for the work of the European Commission.
• Who sits in the European Parliament?

  Currently the European Parliament (EP) has 705 representatives in total from all of the EU member states.

  The population of the EU member states determines how many people can be elected into the European Parliament from the individual EU member states in each election. Right now, Germany has 96 seats in the EP.

• Who makes up the European Parliament?

  Currently the European Parliament (EP) has 705 representatives in total from all of the EU member states. The representatives of the European Parliament (EP) make “party families,” called political groups, regardless of their nationality. Some representatives do not belong to any party group; in this case they are considered “non-attached.”

  Right now the following seven political groups are represented in the EP:

  • Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats)
  • Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament
  • Renew Europe Group
  • Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance
  • European Conservatives and Reformists Group
  • Identity and Democracy Group
  • The Left group in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL

  More information on the political groups

• How are votes distributed after the election?

  The number of valid votes that are submitted decides the number of seats each party or political group receives in the European Parliament.

• Are laws passed by the European Parliament also valid in Germany?

  Laws passed by the European Parliament (EP) are officially called EU Directives and EU Regulations. They also impact our life in Germany and Berlin.

  EU Regulations apply in all EU member states immediately after passage. Deadlines are set for the EU member states to implement EU Directives.

  How does legislation work between the EU and the national levels? An explanatory video

• Does it matter for the distribution of seats in the European Parliament if I vote in Germany or in my country of origin?

  To make sure smaller member states have sufficient representation in the European Union, the distribution of seats in the European Parliament (EP) was carried out to the benefit of smaller countries. More representatives in total are elected from larger countries, but the number of seats does not increase proportionally to the population of these countries.
  Small EU countries therefore have more representatives relative to their population size than large EU countries have. In practical terms, this means, for example, that each representative from Malta represents around 67,000 eligible voters while each German representative represents around 850,000 eligible voters.

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