An animated guide to the essential facts about Members of the European Parliament.

What is an MEP?

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/11910595/v007-0015-en.srt

This is a Member of  the European Parliament, an MEP.

There are 751 of them representing  the European Union’s 500 million citizens.

They all work at the European Parliament,

the equivalent of national parliaments  at European level.

They can be adult men or women who go  into politics to represent their fellow citizens.

They must stand the test of elections  which are held every five years.

If they emerge victorious,  they can pack their bags

and head off to Brussels,  where most of their work will be done.

Every month the MEP will go to Strasbourg  for a week or so,

because that’s where the big debates  are held and the big decisions are made.

The MEPs all meet there for four days  of intensive discussions and votes.

But most of the time they work in Brussels.

What, so they can become experts  in chocolate and fries, you ask?

No, no, to use their expertise  in several of the EU’s areas of work.

It can be finance, the environment,  agriculture, transport...

MEPs can choose from among  a total of around twenty committees.

These are meetings where a smaller group  of MEPs gather around a particular theme.

There are also meetings bringing together  MEPs of different nationalities

And finally, the work of an MEP is done  also on the ground, outside the Parliament.

They regularly go back  to their constituency, their country,

to meet the fellow citizens  they represent in the European Parliament.