The European Parliament

The European Parliament is unique European Union institution. The present parliament has 785 members from all 27 EU countries (nearly one third of them are women), represents the European Unions citizens and is directly elected by them1. Since 1979 its members have been directly elected by the people they represent. The Members of the European Parliament are grouped by political affinity and not by nationality2. The seats are, as a general rule, shared out proportionately to the population of each Member State. Each Member State has a set number of seats, the maximum being 99 and the minimum five.…