It was the 8th Parliamentary Election since the first direct elections in 1979
The European Parliament has 751 seats and represents citizens of the 28 countries in the European Union.
Country
|
No of MEP’s
|
Austria
|
18
|
Belgium
|
21
|
Bulgaria
|
17
|
Croatia
|
11
|
Cyprus
|
06
|
Czech Republic
|
21
|
Denmark
|
13
|
Estonia
|
06
|
Finland
|
13
|
France
|
74
|
Germany
|
96
|
Greece
|
21
|
Hungary
|
21
|
Ireland
|
11
|
Italy
|
73
|
Latvia
|
08
|
Lithuania
|
11
|
Luxembourg
|
06
|
Malta
|
06
|
Netherlands
|
26
|
Poland
|
51
|
Portugal
|
21
|
Romania
|
32
|
Slovakia
|
13
|
Slovenia
|
08
|
Spain
|
54
|
Sweden
|
20
|
United Kingdom
|
73
|
Total
|
751
|
Its members, known as MEPs, negotiate laws with national governments and help decide how the budget is spent.
The European Parliament has three places of work – Brussels (Belgium),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, which sits in Brussels and Strasbourg, is the only directly-elected EU body.
When the European Parliament was first established, MEPs were appointed by member states from members of their own national parliaments.
Since 1979, however, MEPs have been elected by direct universal suffrage.
Each Member State establishes its own way of electing their MEPs, and in some states the electoral system has changed over time and across regions.
Once elected, members usually join one of the 7 groups in the parliament -
- Left
- Socialist
- Green
- Liberal
- European People's Party(EPP)
- Conservative
- Europe of Freedom & Democracy (EFD)
- Others
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