Member of the European Parliament

A Member of the European Parliament (English abbreviation MEP) is a member of the European Union's directly-elected legislative body, the European Parliament. MEPs are the European equivalents of a country's national parliamentary members, known as MPs in English; hence, the term Euro-MP is used colloquially in English.

MEPs within the Parliament

Virtually all MEPs are members of cross-nationality political groups, organised according to political allegiance. For instance, the UK's Labour MEPs are members of the Group of the Party of European Socialists, and Conservative MEPs are members of the European People's Party - European Democrats.

Related Topics:
UK - Labour - Group of the Party of European Socialists - Conservative - European People's Party - European Democrats

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However, there are considerable differences between this Group structure and most national parliaments' party structure. The rules of the Parliament state that "no member shall receive a binding mandate", and as a result, Group discipline is far laxer than most party political discipline, with national delegations and individual members sometimes voting against the Group 'line' on particular issues. Furthermore, the position taken by a Group on any given issue is determined by discussion within the Group, not handed down by the party leadership. Individual 'back-bench' MEPs do therefore have considerable influence over the development of policy within the Parliament.

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Aside from Group politics, individual members are also guaranteed a number of other powers and rights within the Parliament:

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• the right to table a motion for resolution;
• the right to put questions to the leaders of the Parliament, the European Council, the Council of Ministers and the Commission;
• the right to table an amendment to any text in committee;
• the right to make explanations of vote;
• the right to raise points of order;
• the right to move the inadmissibility of a matter.