roles and weaknesses of the european parliament
The European Parliament is often said to be weak, to lack power, to be a marginal institution of the European Union (the EU). ... Even though the parliament is the only institution whose members are directly elected by the European citizens, the EU is often criticized because of its democratic deficit. Nevertheless, the European Parliament is still a useful institution of the EU since its role and powers are increasing. The purpose of this essay is to work out the reasons why the only directly elected international assembly (John McCormick, Understanding the European Union, A Concise Introduction, ch 4, The European Parliament) is so weak, and look for its positive contribution to the EU. We are going, first of all to analyse the role and organisation of the European parliament so as to understand its weaknesses. ... 163 Since 1979, the members of the European Parliament (MEP’s) are directly elected by universal suffrage by the EU’s citizens. ... Germany, whose population is the largest in Europe, has got 99 seats in the Parliament; and the Luxembourg, the smallest country, employs six MEP’s. ... However, the main parties were only five in 2002 As we can see, the European Parliament reflects the opinion of the European citizens since its members are directly elected. ... But what are the actual role and power of the European Parliament? The institution handles three main roles which have been set in the treaties from Rome to Nice (the treaty of Nice has not yet been ratified). ... This procedure, which applies for three quarters of the EU legislation, means that the parliament has the power to cancel any legislation if no agreement is reached with the council of minister. ... For example, only opinion is asked to the parliament for taxation legislation. Then, the second role of the European Parliament is the adoption of the annual budget of the community. ... The final adoption is the task of the parliament. The implementation of the budget is controlled by the Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary control. Thus, the Council of ministers and the European parliament have got the budgetary authority of the EU. ... The European parliament owns the power to sack the commission with a two thirds majority by a vote of censure, to approve the appointments of the commissioners and supervise their work. As a consequence, in some way, the EP has got a slight control over the commission since the latter is answerable to the parliament.