The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union, it adopts European legislation, following a proposal by the European Commission. The Parliament is composed of 705 members (MEPs), due to rise to 720 after the June 2024 European elections. It represents the second-largest democratic electorate in the world, with an electorate of 375 million eligible voters in 2009.
The president of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU). The president of the Commission leads a cabinet of Commissioners, referred to as the College. The president is empowered to allocate portfolios among, reshuffle, or dismiss Commissioners as necessary. The College directs the commission's civil service, sets the policy agenda and determines the legislative proposals it produces. The commission is the only body that can propose or draft bills to become EU laws.
Diana Paulette Wallis, is a British former Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber. Wallis was first elected in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and in 2009. She resigned her seat in January 2012 and went on to pursue academic, legal and mediation-related activities.
David Martin is a Scottish politician who has served as co-convener of the Citizens' Assembly of Scotland since 2019. A member of the Scottish Labour Party, he was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1984 to 2019, having first represented the Lothians constituency until 1999 and then for the Scotland constituency. He was the United Kingdom's longest serving MEP and the second longest serving MEP in the whole European Parliament.
The president of the European Parliament presides over the debates and activities of the European Parliament. They also represent the Parliament within the European Union (EU) and internationally. The president's signature is required for laws initiated under co-decision and the EU budget.
Alojz "Lojze" Peterle is a Slovenian politician. He is a member of New Slovenia, part of the European People's Party. He served as Prime Minister of Slovenia from 1990 to 1992, Leader of the Christian Democrats from the founding of the party in 1990 until it merged with the Slovenian People's Party in 2000, and was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1994 and again in 2000. He was a Member of the National Assembly from 1996 to 2004, and a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2019.
Dimitrios Papadimoulis is a Greek politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) as a member of The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL.
Mairead McGuinness is an Irish politician serving as the European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union since October 2020. A member of Fine Gael, she previously served as First Vice-President of the European Parliament from 2017 to 2020. She served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for East from 2004 to 2014 and for Midlands–North-West from 2014 to 2020, making her Ireland's longest serving MEP. In the European Parliament, she sat with the European People's Party (EPP).
Martin Schulz is a German politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany from 1994 to 2017 and a Member of the Bundestag (MdB) from 2017 to 2021. During his tenure he was Leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats from 2004 to 2012, President of the European Parliament from 2012 to 2017 and Leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2017 to 2018.
Manfred Weber is a German politician who has served as President of the European People's Party (EPP) since 2022 and as Leader of the EPP Group in the European Parliament since 2014. He has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany since 2004. He is a member of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), part of the European People's Party.
The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making these the biggest trans-national elections in history. An additional 18 observers were pre-elected.
Spain is a European Parliament constituency for elections in the European Union covering the member state of Spain. It is currently represented by 59 Members of the European Parliament and is the second largest European Parliament constituency in terms of geographic area after France, as well as the third most populated after Germany and France.
The seventh European Parliament was elected in the 2009 elections and lasted until the 2014 elections.
The sixth European Parliament was the sixth five-year term of the elected European Parliament. It began on Tuesday 20 July 2004 in Strasbourg following the 2004 elections and ended after the 2009 elections.
The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) is a soft Eurosceptic, anti-federalist political group of the European Parliament. The ECR is the parliamentary group of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party European political party (formerly known as the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe or Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, but also includes MEPs from four other European parties and thirteen MEPs without European party affiliation.
The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014.
The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) is the political group in the European Parliament of the Party of European Socialists (PES). The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats was officially founded as a Socialist Group on 29 June 1953, which makes it the second oldest political group in the European Parliament after Renew Europe (Renew). It adopted its present-day name on 23 June 2009. Centre-left in orientation, the group mostly comprises social-democratic parties and is affiliated with the Progressive Alliance and Socialist International.
Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy was a Eurosceptic and populist political group in the European Parliament. The EFDD group was a continuation for the Eighth European Parliament of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD) group that existed during the Seventh European Parliament, with significant changes to group membership.
The Spitzenkandidat process is the method of linking the choice of President of the Commission to the outcome of the European Parliament elections, by having each major European Political Party nominating their candidate for Commission President prior to the Parliamentary elections. The Spitzenkandidat of the largest party would then have a mandate to assume the Commission Presidency. This process was first run in 2014, and its legitimacy was contested by some of the members of the European Council.
The ninth European Parliament was elected during the 2019 elections and is slated to remain in session until the forthcoming 2024 elections.
