EuroparlTV shows you how the only directly elected EU institution has turned from a little forum for discussing legislation into a powerful player over the course of the last 25 years.

Power to the People

The European Parliament in Strasbourg  has travelled a long way

since the days when it was  little more than a forum

for discussing legislation initiated  and approved elsewhere in the EU system.

With each new EU treaty  in the past 25 years -

Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon -

Parliament has accumulated  more and more powers:

legislative, budgetary, powers of scrutiny.

Nonetheless, many people  still see the Parliament

as the least powerful  of all the EU's institutions.

How can it be powerful, they ask, if it  doesn't do what national parliaments do -

initiate legislation  that affects our day-to-day lives?

That function falls to  the European Commission,

although a mechanism exists in Parliament

to prompt them to initiate laws  in certain areas.

But beyond that the list of powers  that the Parliament has is extensive.

From approving laws  that it considers to be good

to rejecting, or at least amending, laws  that it considers to be bad for EU citizens.

Parliament is the only EU institution  that's directly elected.

In a Union that puts democracy first,  that's an important clout.

co-decision rights  in the vast majority of legislation

with the Council or with  Member States have increased hugely.

It can amend or reject outright  legislation advanced by the Commission

in the diverse areas that  we all have a growing interest in:

economic governance, immigration,  energy, transport, the environment,

and consumer protection,  to name but a few.

Witness the Commission's  ill-fated attempts to join ACTA,

an international agreement,  the Commission said,

to stop piracy and intellectual property theft.

A huge majority of MEPs felt it would  expose individuals to intrusive data raids

MEPs are on equal footing  with the Council

in passing the EU's budget, which currently  stands at around 135 billion euros per year.

They're involved in the preparation  of the budget in committee rooms like this.

They monitor its implementation and  they sign it off, 'discharge it', in the jargon,

but only when they're happy  with the way it's implemented.

Parliament and the Council  also have the final say

on the long-term work programme  of the EU,

rejecting, accepting, negotiating  its seven-year budget.

Under Lisbon, Parliament elects  the President of the Commission,

strengthening its democratic legitimacy.

with due regard to the results  of the European elections.

Parliament can also move  a motion of censure

against the Commission  and ultimately fire it.

So far, not one of eight such motions  put forward has been adopted.

In 1999 the Commission headed  by Jacques Santer stepped down

Parliament has the power to elect  the European Ombudsman or -woman,

It must also be consulted before  the president and executive board

of the European Central Bank  are appointed.

And back to people power,  since the Parliament's power

ultimately rests with  the people who elect it.

And the people's power to change anything

ultimately rests with the Parliament,  at least in the EU context.

So, any EU citizens,  organisation or company

can make a petition to Parliament,  demanding change to existing law

or new law altogether.  Or they can launch a Citizens' Initiative,

as long as it fits within EU competences.