Richard Ashworth

About The European Parliament

1. An Overview Of The Parliament
2. The Work Of The European Parliament
3. EU Legislation
4. History of the European Parliament

The Work Of The European Parliament

Each MEP sits on at least one main committee and holds a substitute seat on a secondary committee. This allows them to develop expertise in particular areas and deal more efficiently with proposals.

With each proposal MEPs will consider how it affects their country as a whole and in particular the region they were elected to represent. MEPs will discuss the proposals with their own delegation and with MEPs from the political Group their delegation is a member of. For example, the British Conservatives are grouped together with other centre-right parties from across the EU under the membership of the EPP/ED (European Peoples Party and European Democrats).

Obviously, delegations do not always agree with the wider political Group. When it comes to voting, the Whips Office of a delegation (responsible for keeping check on voting records) will produce a separate voting list from that of the Group for MEPs to follow.

The EPP/ED is the largest Group in the EP with 267 MEPs. The Socialist Group is the second largest with 201 MEPs followed by the Liberal and Democrats Group with 88 MEPs.