European Parliament

is a directly elected legislative body of the European Union, which shares the power to adopt, amend and supplement legislative proposals and the power to adopt the European Union budget on an equal footing with the Council of the European Union. The European Parliament has supervisory role in the work of the Commission and other EU bodies and also a key role in cooperating  with the national parliaments of the EU Member States, in accordance with the Lisbon Treaty and the Resolutions on relations between the European Parliament and national parliaments (2008/2120 (INI)), 2013/2185 (INI), two networks for interparliamentary cooperation have been set up:

-        The platform for EU Interpaliamentary Exchange - IPEX and

-        European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation - ECPRD.

 
The European Parliament is one of the leading advocates of fundamental human rights and democracy in the EU, outside the euro area and
globally. In implementing its policies and programs in accordance with the Treaty on European Union, the European Union is founded on respect for the following values:

Every year, for outstanding work in the field of human rights, regardless of territorial boundaries and citizenship, the European Union awards either an individual or a group or organization or otherwise categorized entity an award called the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

 

The organizational structure of the European Parliament, acting in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament, consists of:
 
- the President
 
is elected for a renewable term of two and a half years. The President represents the European Parliament vis-à-vis the outside world and in its relations with the other EU institutions, supervises the work and debates of Parliament itself, ensures compliance with Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament, signs all regularly adopted legislative transcripts and the budget.
 
- Members of the Parliament
 
are directly elected in the 27 Member States of the European Union for a five-year term. The European Parliament currently has 705 Members. The number of Members of ecah Member State depends on the population of that country. For the period from 2019 to 2024, Slovenia is represented by 8 members of the European Parliament.
 
- political groups
 
are set up and organized by Members. 23 Members are needed to set up one political group. Each Member may belong to only one political group, but may also remain independent and not belong to any of the groups. In the term of office from 2019-2024, 7 political groups have been established;
1. Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats)
2. Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament
3. Renew Europe Group,
4. The Greens / European Free Alliance,
5. Identity and Democracy Group,
6. Group of European Conservatives and Reformists,
7. Group of the Left in the European Parliament - GUE / NGL.
 

- committees
 
MEPs are divided into specialized standing committees, which are responsible for preparing plenary sessions. There are 20 standing committees. Each committee consists of 25 to 81 members, including the chairman, the bureau and the secretariat. Parliament also have the right to set up temporary or investigative committees if there is a need to address specific or investigative issues;
 
- delegations
 
are the official groups of Members responsible for relations and dialogue with non-EU countries. The European Parliament has several types of delegations:
1. delegations to official inter-parliamentary committees,
2. delegations to multilateral parliamentary assemblies,
3. delegations for relations with another country or group of countries;
 
- political bodies are
 
1. Conference of Presidents; responsible for the organization of work in Parliament (eg plenary agenda, Members' seats), legislative planning, relations with other bodies and institutions of the European Union and other tasks set out in the Rules of Procedure. The conference consists of the President of Parliament, the chairmen of the political groups and the representatives of the non-attached Members.
2. The Bureau shall be the body responsible for administrative, financial, organizational, staffing and all other matters concerning the internal functioning of Parliament. The Bureau consists of the President of Parliament, 14 Vice-Presidents and six Quaestors.
3. The College of Quaestors shall be the body responsible for administrative and financial matters. It consists of six Members who are also members of the Bureau.
4. The Conference of Committee Chairs is the body responsible for consolidating cooperation between the various parliamentary committees (eg advising on disagreements between committees, making recommendations on committee work) and for other tasks delegated to the Conference by the Bureau and Conference of Presidents. The Conference of Committee Chairs shall be composed of representatives of all standing and temporary committees.
5. The Conference of Delegation Chairs shall be the body responsible for coordinating the work of all 44 standing delegations. It consists of all the chairs of the standing delegations and three committees working in the field of international relations:  
intergroups,
 
are set up to informally exchange views on specific issues and to promote contacts between Members and civil society. Intergroups acting in accordance with the internal rules adopted by the Conference of Presidents are not parliamentary bodies and therefore do not express the opinion of Parliament itself. In 2019, the Conference of Presidents approved the following list of intergroups:
 

 
The official seat of the European Parliament is in Strasbourg, but sessions are also held in Brussels, while the Secretariat operates in Luxembourg.


                                Picture: European Parliament in Strasbourg
 


Source: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/slovenia/sl/do%C5%BEivi-evropo/obi%C5%A1%C4%8Dite-evropski-parlament#shadowbox/5/


Environmental legislation and the European Parliament
 
The European Parliament has an important role in co-shaping EU environmental legislation. In its eighth term, it addressed legislation stemming from the Circular Economy Action Plan (on waste, batteries, end-of-life vehicles, landfilling, etc.), climate change (ratification of the Paris Agreement, distribution of efforts, land use accounting, changes land use and forestry in the Union's commitments on climate change, the reform of the European Emissions Trading Scheme, etc.) and much more.
 
Parliament has also repeatedly expressed the view that better implementation of legislation is a key priority. In a 2013 resolution on better delivering the benefits of EU environmental action and building confidence through better knowledge and responsiveness, it criticized the unsatisfactory implementation of environmental law in the Member States and made several recommendations for more effective implementation, such as disseminating best practice among Member States and among regional and local authorities. In its position on the current environmental action program, it emphasized the need for stricter enforcement of EU environmental legislation. It also called for greater security for investments in support of environmental policy and efforts to combat climate change, and for greater consideration of environmental issues in other policies.