European Parliament

The European Parliament is the legislative arm of the European Union, responsible for adopting EU laws in cooperation with the Council of the European Union, approving the EU budget, and exercising democratic oversight over other EU institutions and agencies. It represents the interests of EU citizens by debating and amending legislative proposals, adopting resolutions on a wide range of policy areas such as trade, climate, digital rights, and foreign affairs, and holding the European Commission accountable through motions of censure and approval of commissioners. Its work is conducted in plenary sessions, committee meetings, and political group gatherings, where members scrutinise legislation, question executives, and shape the Union’s policy direction.

The Parliament comprises 705 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) elected directly by voters from the 27 EU member states, with seats allocated according to degressive proportionality to ensure fair representation of both large and small populations. Its official places of work are Strasbourg for monthly plenary sessions, Brussels for committee work and additional plenary sessions, and Luxembourg for the Secretariat General that provides administrative and linguistic support. Proceedings are conducted in the EU’s 24 official languages, requiring extensive translation and interpretation services to guarantee that all members can participate fully and that documents are accessible to the public across the Union.

A distinguishing attribute of the European Parliament is that it is the only EU institution whose members are chosen by direct universal suffrage, giving it a unique democratic legitimacy within the Union’s institutional framework. It holds significant legislative power through the ordinary legislative procedure, allowing it to amend and adopt laws alongside the Council, and it possesses the authority to reject or approve the EU budget, thereby influencing the Union’s financial priorities. Structurally, the Parliament is an integral institution of the European Union, not a subsidiary of any parent entity, and operates under its own Rules of Procedure while being supported by the Secretariat General, which manages its day‑to‑day administration, multilingual services, and technical infrastructure. In November 2022, the Parliament’s website experienced a temporary disruption due to a distributed denial‑of‑service attack claimed by a pro‑Kremlin hacktivist group linked to the Killnet collective, an incident that was mitigated by its IT teams within approximately two hours.