2014 European Parliament Election May 22-25,2014

 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