A brief guide to the European Parliament
The European Parliament is the legislative branch of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. It is directly elected, and made up of 705 members representing all EU countries.
The European Parliament decides upon EU legislation, including the multiannual budget, together with the Council of the European Union (EU member state governments). Read more about the European Parliament’s powers.
The European Parliament holds other EU institutions, like the European Commission, to account. It elects the President of the European Commission and plays a key role in vetting Commissioners-designate through individual hearings.
The composition of the Parliament
Following European elections in May 2019, the new Parliament held its constituent session on 2 July and voted the European Commission into office on 27 November.
MEPs elected Roberta Metsola (EPP, MT) on 18 January 2022, to succeed David Sassoli (S&D, IT) as the President of the Parliament. They also voted 14 Vice-Presidents and 5 Quaestors into office.
All elected offices in the Parliament (the President, Vice-Presidents, Quaestors, Committee and Delegation Chairs and Vice-Chairs) are for two and half years. Elections for these positions are held at the start of the five-year term and half-way through.
The process to elect the European Parliament’s President and other office holders is set out in Rules 14 to 18 of Parliament’s Rules of Procedure. Their respective duties are set out in Rules 22 to 32.
Parliament’s committees
Who coordinates the committees’ work?
What are political groups and how are they formed?
What are the requirements to form a political group?
How are political groups funded?
Who are the political group chairs and how are they elected?
Who are the political group coordinators in committees and how are they elected?
How are the credentials of new MEPs verified?
Parliament’s composition changed in 2020 due to Brexit
On 1 February 2020, following the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, Parliament’s composition changed from 751 MEPs to 705 MEPs. Of the UK’s 73 seats, 27 were redistributed to Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Romania, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Slovakia, Finland, Croatia, and Estonia. The remaining 46 seats were kept in reserve for potential future enlargements.
See the current seat breakdown per country and per political group here.
Parliament elected the new Commission
Following the 2019 European elections, member states nominated Ursula von der Leyen (EPP, DE) as a candidate for the post of Commission President, taking into account the results of the elections. The new Commission President was elected on 16 July 2019 by an absolute majority (half of the component members plus one). Read more.
Public hearings of candidates for the European Commission
The 26 Commissioners-designate were put forward by their respective member states and by Commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen. Before winning the approval of Parliament on 27 November 2019, MEPs assessed whether the candidates were suitable for the job in individual public hearings in the EP committees that deal with the candidates’ areas of responsibility.
Detailed information and videos of the hearings are available on the Commissioners-designate hearings 2019 website.
Read more about the commitments made by Commissioners-designate during the hearings.