The 785-member Parliament, elected every five years by the citizens of the EU on an electoral roll, is the second largest democratic electorate in the world, as well as the largest trans-national democratic electorate, at 492 million. The Parliament’s authority is limited to the capabilities granted upon the European community by EU member states. Although Parliament is the first institution of the EU, the European Council, the EU’s main decision-making body, has greater authority over legislation and also shares roles with Parliament in managing the EU budget.

The EP’s official seat is located in Strasbourg, France, and also meets in the Leopold complex in Brussels, Belgium. The Secretariat of Parliament, EP’s administrative body, is located in Luxembourg. As president of the EP, Hans-Gert Pöttering, elected in January 2007, oversees a multi-party legislative chamber. The two largest groups of Parliament include the European People’s Party European Democrats and the Party of European Socialists. The last EU elections were the parliamentary elections of 2004. In 2007, Bulgaria and Romania were the latest additions to the EU, and the next parliamentary elections will be held in 2009.

Parliament was previously known as the Common Assembly, of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), comprising 78 representatives, without legislative powers, from the national parliaments of member states. The Assembly members were directly elected for the first time in 1979, when Parliament held its first session and elected Simone Veil as its president, the first female president of Parliament since the Common Assembly’s establishment. In 1984, Parliament drafted a treaty with a view to establish the EU, which was not adopted but parts of which were later implemented by other treaties. The institution began holding votes on proposed Commission presidents from the 1980s.

Parliament was situated in Strasbourg, while the European Commission and European Council were placed in Brussels. In 1985, a second chamber was built in Brussels because Parliament wanted to be closer to the Commission and Council. The Council decided in 1992 for Parliament to remain in Strasbourg but should conduct part of its sessions in Brussels, which was rejected by Parliament until the Treaty of Amsterdam.