Welcome back! I hope your excitement is growing for our trip to Brussels. Today we will introduce our next stop on our trip…

We will be heading to the EU parliament to learn a little more about the elected part of the EU governing system. The parliament elections are held every 5 years and are democratically elected by the citizens of the EU. Different spectrums of political life are represented in the parliament through the elected parliamentarians and they form coalitions similar to nation based parliaments. The number of MEPs is roughly proportionate to each country’s population and the new standing of the parliament is shown in the image below that reflects the impact of Brexit on the composition of the parliament. 

 The parliament has 3 main roles: legislative, supervisory and budgetary. 

Some of the activities that the parliament carries out includes: Passing EU laws with the European commission and the Council of the EU, establishing the EU budget with the council, and providing democratic scrutiny on all EU institutions. 

For more information check out this link https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/institutions-bodies/european-parliament_en

You as a citizen or resident of the EU can also petition the EU to act. So, if there are things you would like to change about the EU, use your rights and petition for change! Don’t forget that you also directly vote for  the European parliament every 5 years, so you can make the changes you want.