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Member of the European Parliament |
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007) |
A Member of the European Parliament (English abbreviation MEP)1 is a member of the European Union's legislative body, the European Parliament. MEPs are the European Union's equivalents of a country's national legislators, known in the United Kingdom as MPs. Another term is Euro-deputy, more common in countries like France, Italy, Spain or Portugal. For a list of the current members see Members of the European Parliament 2004-2009.
When Parliament was first established, MEPs were appointed by member states from members of their own national parliament. Since 1979, however, MEPs have been elected by direct universal suffrage. Each country establishes their own way of electing their MEPs and in some countries the electoral system has changed over time and across regions.
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Since 1 January 2007 (when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU), there have been 785 MEPs, due to fall back to 734 at next elections in 2009. (Unless the Treaty of Lisbon comes into force by then, in which case there will be 751 MEPs, and each member state would have at least six and at most 96.) Elections occur once every five years, on the basis of universal adult suffrage. There is no uniform voting system for the election of MEPs; rather, each member state is free to choose its own system, subject to three restrictions:
The allocation of seats to each member state is based on the principle of degressive proportionality, so that, while the size of the population of each country is taken into account, smaller states elect more MEPs than would be strictly justified by their populations alone. As the number of MEPs granted to each country has arisen from treaty negotiations, there is no precise formula for the apportionment of seats among member states. No change in this configuration can occur without the unanimous consent of all governments.
The most recent elections to the European Parliament were the European elections of 2004, held in June of that year. They were the largest simultaneous transnational elections ever held anywhere in the world, since nearly 400 million citizens were eligible to vote.
The European Parliament has a high turnover of members compared to some national parliaments. For instance, after the 2004 elections, the majority of elected members had not been members in the prior parliamentary session, though that could largely be put down to the recent enlargement. Only four of them (Pottering, Friedrich, Wurtz, & Bonde) have served continuously since the first elections in 1979.
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All but 14 MEPs are members of cross-nationality political groups, organised according to political allegiance. For instance, the UK's Labour MEPs are members of the Party of European Socialists, and all Conservative MEPs except one (Roger Helmer) are members of the European People's Party - European Democrats.
However, Group discipline is laxer than most national parliaments, with national delegations and individual members sometimes voting against the Group 'line' on particular issues. Furthermore, the position taken by a Group on any given issue is determined by discussion within the Group, not handed down by the party leadership. Individual 'back-bench' MEPs do therefore have considerable influence over the development of policy within the Parliament.
Aside from Group politics, individual members are also guaranteed a number of other powers and rights within the Parliament:
Being an MEP is a full-time job. One week in each month is taken up with the Parliament's session in Strasbourg, and much of the remaining three weeks by committee, Group, or Parliament sessions in Brussels.
On top of all this is the need to keep in touch with constituents at home. The problems of having to travel frequently between Parliament and constituency, familiar to most national MPs, are compounded in the case of MEPs because the distances are usually larger. Parliamentary affairs leave only a couple of days each week for MEPs to spend time in their constituencies, during which time they must deal with individual constituents, local organisations, local and national politicians, businesses, trade unions, and so on. Because of these pressures, many MEPs have a substantial staff to help them to respond.
Some MEPs choose to make their family home in Brussels rather than in their home country, to avoid family obligations competing with other pressures in the limited time that members are able to spend in their constituency.
Because MEPs sit in a Parliament with powers over fewer subjects than national parliaments, their public profile in their home country is typically lower than that of national parliamentarians, at least those of the latter who are ministers or opposition spokesmen.
MEPs are paid exactly the same salary as a member of the lower House of their own national parliament. As a result, there is a wide range of salaries in the European Parliament. In 2002, Italian MEPs earned €130,000, while Spanish MEPs earned barely a quarter of that at €32,000. 2
However, in July 2005 the Council agreed to a single statute for all MEPs, following a proposal by the Parliament. Thus, from the first day of the parliamentary term starting in 2009, all MEPs will receive a basic monthly salary of €7,000. This has been calculated as 38.5% of an European Court judge's salary. The much-criticised expenses arrangements will also be reformed. 3
Commentators in several member states (most notably Denmark, Sweden and the UK) have accused MEPs of taking advantage of generous expense allowances for personal profit. These criticisms typically centre on two areas:citation needed
With regard to the amount paid, these are roughly equivalent to those paid to British MPs. As of 2002:
With regard to the manner in which it is paid, complaints are often raised about the fact that MEPs' flights to and from Brussels are paid at a flat rate, regardless of the expenditure actually incurred. The price paid is for economy travel, not first-classcitation needed, but nevertheless this value often amounts to more than the actual price of travel, even if there are no "budget" airlines serving Brussels.
Another area of concern is the fact that MEPs' accounts are currently audited on a spot-check basis, not a universal one. Feeling this to be insufficient, some members voluntarily submit their accounts for a full independent audit annually. All UK Labour MEPs have done so since 2000, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats since 2008.
Parliament repeatedly expressed a will to reform its salary and expenses package. After various failed attempts, agreement with the Council was finally agreed in July 2005. The new arrangements will apply with the convening of the new Parliament following the elections scheduled in June 2009.
In 2008 a reporter named Thomas Meier was thrown out of the EU parliament by security. His offence was filming Euro MP’s lining up at 7.45 am on a Friday to claim their daily attendance allowance, before leaving for the weekend. This upset some members who pointed out that the requirement to sign in the morning (a stricter requirement than in national parliaments) is to prove that an extra night's accomodation was needed in Brussels.
Members declare their financial interests, which are published annually in a register and available on the Internet.
Under the protocol on the privileges and immunities of the European Union, MEPs in their home country receive the same immunities as their own national parliamentarians. In other member states, MEPs are immune from detention and from legal proceedings, except when caught in the act of committing an offence. This immunity may be waived by application to the European Parliament by the authorities of the country in question.
Around a third of MEPs have previously held national parliamentary mandates, and over 10% have ministerial experience at a national level. Among the 177 MEPs with such experience elected in 1999 were six prime ministers and three former members of the European Commission. Many more MEPs have held office at a regional level in their home countries.
Current MEPs also include former judges, trade union leaders, media personalities, actors, soldiers, singers, athletes, and political activists.
Many outgoing MEPs move into other political office. A remarkably high proportion of European countries' recent heads of government have previously served in the Parliament.
The so-called "dual mandate"—in which an individual is a member of both his or her national parliament and the European Parliament, is officially discouraged and has been prohibited by a number of EU countries, most recently Italy. Still, a small and dwindling number of members do hold a dual mandate, such as MEPs Baroness Ludford and Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (both UK Liberal Democrats who also sit in the House of Lords). Notably, Ian Paisley once held a "triple mandate" as an MEP, MP in the House of Commons, and MLA in the Northern Ireland Assembly simultaneously.
The proportion of MEPs elected in 2004 who were female was 30.2 percent (in 1979 it was just 16.5 percent), a higher percentage than most national parliaments. This figure varies considerably among the various national delegations, however. Of UK members, for instance, approaching half of the Labour MEPs are female, compared to only one Conservative member.
The oldest member is Giovanni Berlinguer, born in 1924; the former communist was present at the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The youngest is Dimitar Stoyanov, born in 1983, who joined the parliament in 2007.
There are numerous notable figures in the Parliament, for example;
Former members;
It is conventional for countries acceding to the European Union to send a number of observers to Parliament in advance. The number of observers and their method of appointment (usually by national parliaments) is laid down in the joining countries' Treaties of Accession.
Observers may attend debates and take part by invitation, but they may not vote or exercise other official duties. When the countries then become full member states, these observers become full MEPs for the interim period between accession and the next European elections.
In this way, the agreed maximum of 750 parliamentary seats may temporarily be exceeded. For instance, in 2004, the number of seats in the European Parliament was temporarily raised to 788 to accommodate representatives from the ten states that joined the EU on 1 May, but it was subsequently reduced to 732 following the elections in June.
From 26 September 2005 to 31 December 2006, Bulgaria had 18 observers in Parliament and Romania 35. These were selected from government and opposition parties as agreed by the countries' national parliaments. On 1 January 2007, the observers became MEPs (with some personnel changes).
An upcoming European Parliament report is expected to recommend that North Cypriots be allowed to send observers to the Parliament in a speaking, but non-voting, capacity to represent Turkish Cypriots in an effort to open dialogue and ease their isolation. This could also involve making Turkish an official language. This is opposed by the European People's Party–European Democrats (EPP-ED) however and has not been made an official proposal yet.4 Currently Cyprus is allocated MEPs based upon the population of the whole of the island, but only Greek Cypriots sit in Parliament.
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