The European Parliament

This chapter examines the European Parliament (EP), and its role within the institutional system of the European Union (EU). Unlike the bodies covered in the previous two chapters, the Commission and the EU Council, the EP has only fairly recently assumed prominence in the EU's governing structures. The first section of the chapter outlines the origins of the Parliament as an essentially marginal institution within the developing structures of European cooperation. The following section then reviews in detail the significant increases in powers experienced by the EP in recent times, and discusses how these have transformed the importance of the chamber. After that, the chapter goes on to examine the complex internal politics of the EP, namely its membership, organization, and working practices. Finally, the chapter considers the 'electoral connection'—in other words, the links between the EP and the European public. The general conclusion is that the European Parliament has been strikingly successful in gaining more powers, but far less successful in linking the EU to the peoples of Europe.