What you should know now

• The origins and evolution of the European Parliament and its powers.
• How the Parliament portrays itself.
• Why the MEPs travel between Brussels and Strasbourg.
• What the powers of the Parliament are.
• How the Parliament can influence the drafting of the law proposals.
• What the role of the Parliament in the ordinary legislative procedure is.
• What the composition of the Parliament is.
• How many political groups in the Parliament are.
• What Committees do.

Further Reading

Corbett, R. (2002). European Parliament’s role in closer EU integration [Electronic version]. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Déloye, Y. and Bruter, M.l (Eds.). (2007). Encyclopaedia of European elections. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Hix, S. (Ed.). (2007). Democratic politics in the European Parliament. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Jacobs, F., Corbett, R., and Shackleton, M. (2000). The European Parliament (4^th ed). London: Harper.

Judge, D., and Earnshaw, D. (2003). The European Parliament. London: Palgrave.

Kreppel, A. (2002). The European Parliament and supranational party system: a study in institutional development  [Electronic version]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

O’Brennan, J., & Raunio, T. (2007). National parliaments within the enlarged European Union: from ‘victims’ of integration to competitive actors? London: Routledge.

Shackleton, M. (2011, May 12). The European Parliament: the major winner of the Lisbon Treaty? Lecture given at Maastricht University. Retrieved January 31, 2013.

Smith, J. (1999). Europe’s elected parliament. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press for the University Association for Contemporary European Studies.