EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

E.U Law: European Parliament



E.U Law: European Parliament

European Parliament

The European Parliament (EP) is elected by the citizens of the European Union to represent their interests. Its origins date back to the 50's and the founding treaties, and since 1979 its members are directly elected by the citizens they represent. Elections are held every five years, and all EU citizens have the right to vote and stand for election, regardless of where in the EU where they live. The last elections were held in June 2009. (Wood 2007: 45)Thus, the Parliament expresses the democratic will of the more than 490 million EU citizens and represents their interests in discussions with other EU institutions. The current Parliament has 736 members from all 27 EU countries.

The development of the role of the European parliament with relation to Europeans institutions

It controls the action of the Community authorities. It does so through the appeal for annulment directed against acts of EU institutions, but it can also be seized for failure to act, when the EU authorities have not acted as they should have done. At the request of the national court, it assesses the validity of Community acts. (Weatherill 2005:41)The preliminary ruling made by the national court may indeed question the Court of Justice not only the interpretation of Community law but also on the validity of acts of secondary Community law.

The European Parliament is involved in developing some guidelines for certain regulations under the ordinary legislative procedure and approve the Commission President elected by the European Council, and the composition of the Commission. It may force her to resign by a motion of censure(Watson 2004: 54). He participated in the vote of the budget of the EU and has the last word to say non-compulsory expenditure. Other European organizations, such as the OSCE , the Council of Europe and the Western European Union ( WEU ) have parliamentary assemblies whose members are appointed by national parliaments, but they share a are not institutions of the European Union, on the other hand they have no legislative power. The European Parliament is the only directly elected by citizens and to have jurisdiction. In some ways, the Council of Ministers and Parliament rooms resemble high and low for a bicameral (Laan 2003). However, with few exceptions, and unlike national parliaments, neither Parliament nor the Council may be initiated by legislation, that power being reserved to the Commission (Article 17-2 of the Treaty on European Union) .

Legislative power is shared between the Council of Ministers and Parliament, the European Commission also plays a role. According to the procedure of co -called "ordinary legislative procedure, legislative acts are adopted jointly by Parliament and the Council on a proposal from the Commission (TFUE 289 and 251). Since the Treaty of Lisbon this procedure has become the general case and covers almost all the sectors by incorporating policies of police and judicial cooperation. The remaining areas fall under the cooperation procedure and the procedure of consultation (the Parliament ...