7th European Parliament

Seventh European Parliament

Duration: 14 July 2009 –

President (1st ½): Jerzy Buzek
Commission: Barroso
Largest party: EPP (265 of 736)
MEPs: 736
Elections: June 2009
Governing treaty Nice[nb 1]
Treaty of Lisbon[nb 2]

<Sixth
European Union

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
the European Union

The Seventh European Parliament is the seventh five-year term of the elected European Parliament. It began on Tuesday 14 July 2009 in Strasbourg[1] following the 2009 elections and will end after the 2014 elections.

Contents

Major events

Activity

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Source
Reports [2]
Resolutions and positions [3]
Parliamentary questions [4]
Written declarations [5]

Major resolutions and positions

Resolution/position number Procedure number Notes

Committees

Summary

Type Number Sources Notes
Standing committee [6]
Temporary committee [7]
Committee of enquiry [8]

Temporary committees

Code Committee Report Sources

Committees of enquiry

Code Committee Report Sources

Delegations

Type Number Sources
Europe delegations [9]
Non-Europe delegations [10]
Ad-hoc delegations [11]

Political groups

See membership below for details of size
Group name Acronym Seats Percent Chairs Vice-Presidents
  European People's Party (Christian Democrats) EPP 265 36% Joseph Daul 5
  Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats S&D 184 25% Martin Schulz 5
  Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe ALDE 84 11.4% Guy Verhofstadt 2
  The Greens–European Free Alliance GREENS/EFA 55 7.5% Rebecca Harms
Daniel Cohn-Bendit
1
  European Conservatives and Reformists ECR 54 7.3% Michał Kamiński 0[nb 3]
  European United Left–Nordic Green Left GUE-NGL 35 4.8% Lothar Bisky 0
  Europe of Freedom and Democracy EFD 32 4.3% Nigel Farage
Francesco Speroni
0
  Non-Inscrits[nb 4] NA 27 3.7% --- 1[nb 3]

Members in groups by country

Political group[2]
Country
EPP S&D ALDE Greens-EFA ECR EUL-NGL EFD NI MEPs
Austria 6 4 2 3 17
Belgium 5 5 5 5 1 2 22
Bulgaria 6 4 5 2 17
Cyprus 2 2 2 6
Czech Republic 2 7 9 4 22
Denmark 1 4 3 2 1 2 13
Estonia 1 1 3 1 6
Finland 4 2 4 2 1 13
France 29 14 6 14 5 1 3 72
Germany 42 23 12 14 8 99
Greece 8 8 1 3 2 22
Hungary 14 4 1 3 22
Ireland 4 3 4 1 12
Italy 35 21 7 9 72
Latvia 3 1 1 1 1 1 8
Lithuania 4 3 2 1 2 12
Luxembourg 3 1 1 1 6
Malta 2 3 5
Netherlands 5 3 6 3 1 2 1 4 25
Poland 28 7 15 50
Portugal 10 7 5 22
Romania 14 11 5 3 33
Slovakia 6 5 1 1 13
Slovenia 3 2 2 7
Spain 23 21 2 2 1 1 50
Sweden 5 5 4 3 1 18
United Kingdom 13 11 5 25 1 13 4 72
Total 265 184 84 55 54 35 32 27 736

Leadership

Presidents

Term President
(or candidate)
Group State Votes
14 July 2009–[3] Jerzy Buzek   EPP Poland 555
Eva-Britt Svensson   GUE/NGL Sweden 89

Vice-Presidents

Group Vice-President
(or candidate)
State Votes in: Pick
1st round 2nd round 3rd round
EPP Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou Greece 355 --- ---
Roberta Angelilli Italy 277 266 274
Alejo Vidal-Quadras Spain 332 303 308
Pál Schmitt Hungary 266 239 257
Rainer Wieland Germany 267 235 237
S&D Giovanni Pittella Italy 360 --- ---
Stavros Lambrinidis Greece 348 --- ---
Miguel Angel Martínez Martínez Spain 330 292 327
Dagmar Roth-Behrendt Germany 299 288 287
Libor Rouček Czech Republic 284 276 278
ALDE Diana Wallis UK 303 274 272
Silvana Koch-Mehrin Germany 148 141 186
ECR Michał Kamiński Poland 194 175 174
Edward McMillan-Scott (non-attached)[nb 3] UK 237 242 244
GREENS/EFA Isabelle Durant Belgum 268 259 276

Quaestors

Group Quaestor
(or candidate)
State Votes in: Pick
1st round 2nd round 3rd round
EPP Jim Higgins Ireland 352 --- ---
Astrid Lulling Luxembourg 322 327 306
Ria Oomen-Ruijten Norway 161 187 186
S&D Lidia Geringer de Oedenberg Poland 398 --- ---
ALDE Bill Newton Dunn UK 164 202 208
ECR James Nicholson UK 171 172 176
GUE-NGL Jiří Maštálka Czech Republic 206 283 293
EFD Francesco Speroni Italy 145 130 131

Membership

After the 2009 election, the members formed seven groups with around 26 independent members, mainly from the far right which failed to unify into a political group. With the Treaty of Lisbon not in force in time for the elections, the national distribution followed the rules of the Treaty of Nice which necessitated a reduction to 736 members. Extra members will join the chamber if Lisbon comes into force.[4]

For the seventh parliament, the number of women increased from 31% to 35% (the highest to date, from 16% in 1979) with increases in most countries. The largest percentage was in Sweden, with 56% of MEPs women, followed by Estonia with 50%. The lowest was Malta with no women members at all, followed by the Czech Republic with 18%, down from 21%.[5]

From inauguration, the youngest member was Emilie Turunen of Denmark (born in 1984 making her 25) and the oldest member was Ciriaco de Mita of Italy (born 1928 making him 81).[6] Usually the oldest member would preside over the chamber for the election of the Parliament's President. However, with concern that the far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen would be the oldest member (rather than De Mita) the rules were changed to give this role to the outgoing President.[7]

Groups[8]
Group Seats
Inauguration 5 March 2010
  European People's Party 265 265
  Socialists and Democrats 184 184
  Liberals and Democrats 84 85 3
  Greens/European Free Alliance 55 55
  Conservatives and Reformists 55 54 1
  European United Left – Nordic Green Left 35 35
  Europe of Freedom and Democracy 32 30 2,4
  Non-attached 26 28

1 Edward McMillan-Scott was expelled from the Conservative Party on 15 September 2009;[9]
2 Nikki Sinclaire was expelled from the UK Independence Party on 4 March 2010.[10]
3 Edward McMillan-Scott joined Liberal Democrats on 12 March 2010.[11]

4 Mike Nattrass left UK Independence Party on 23 June 2010.[12]

Apportionment
State Seats State Seats
Germany 99 France 72
UK 72 Italy 72
Spain 50 Poland 50
Romania 33 Netherlands 25
Greece 22 Portugal 22
Belgum 22 Czech Republic 22
Hungary 22 Sweden 18
Austria 17 Bulgaria 17
Denmark 13 Slovakia 13
Finland 13 Ireland 12
Lithuania 12 Latvia 8
Slovenia 7 Estonia 6
Cyprus 6 Luxembourg 6
Malta 5 Total 736

Secretariat

Office Post Name Source
Office of the Secretary-General Secretary-General of the European Parliament Klaus Welle [12]
Legal Service Jurisconsult of the European Parliament Christian Pennera [13]
Directorate-General for the Presidency Director-General Francesca Ratti [14]
Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union Director-General Riccardo Ribera d'Alcala [15]
Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union Director-General Luis Marco Aguiriano Nalda [16]
Directorate-General for Communication Director-General Juana Lahousse-Juarez [17]
Directorate-General for Personnel Director-General Yves Quittin [18]
Directorate-General for Infrastructure and Logistics Director-General Constantin Stratigakis [19]
Directorate-General for Translation Director-General ? [20]
Directorate-General for Interpretation and Conferences Director-General ? [21]
Directorate-General for Finance Director-General ? [22]

See also

Elections

Membership lists

Notes

  1. ^ The Treaties of Rome and Treaty of Maastricht as amended by the Treaty of Nice and all preceding amending treaties.
  2. ^ The Treaties of Rome and Treaty of Maastricht as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon and all preceding amending treaties.
  3. ^ a b c Edward MacMillan-Scott, standing in opposition to the policy of the ECR and his national party, the Conservatives, was expelled from the group.
  4. ^ Independents, not a group

References

  1. ^ European Parliament Minutes (Proceedings of the Sitting) on the European Parliament website
  2. ^ "Results of the 2009 European Elections". TNS opinion in collaboration with the European Parliament. 8 July 2009. http://www.elections2009-results.eu/en/index_en.html. Retrieved 9 July 2009. 
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ "European elections 2009 – Thursday 4 June 2009 72 MEPs to be elected in the United Kingdom". European Parliament website. 16 December 2009. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/008-44690-350-12-51-901-20081216IPR44689-15-12-2008-2008-false/default_en.htm. Retrieved 20 October 2009. 
  5. ^ "Briefing special edition – European Parliament constituent plenary sitting – Strasbourg 14–16 July 2009". European Parliament website. 9 July 2009. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/briefing_page/57512-194-07-29-20090629BRI57511-13-07-2009-2009/default_p001c003_en.htm. Retrieved 20 October 2009. 
  6. ^ "Briefing special edition – European Parliament constituent plenary sitting – Strasbourg 14–16 July 2009". European Parliament website. 9 July 2009. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/briefing_page/57512-194-07-29-20090629BRI57511-13-07-2009-2009/default_p001c004_en.htm. Retrieved 20 October 2009. 
  7. ^ Mahony, Honor (6 May 2009). "MEPs stop Le Pen from chairing European Parliament session". EUobserver. http://euobserver.com/9/28077. Retrieved 20 October 2009. 
  8. ^ "Your MEPs: By country and political group". http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/expert/groupAndCountry.do;jsessionid=2F7E249B38ED9100BEB68421483F85DF.node1?language=EN. Retrieved 5 March 2010. 
  9. ^ "Conservatives expel defiant MEP". BBC News. 16 September 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8257926.stm. 
  10. ^ "Rebel Euro MP Nikki Sinclaire expelled by UKIP". BBC News. 4 March 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8550698.stm. 
  11. ^ "Ex-Tory MEP Edward McMillan-Scott joins Lib Dems". BBC News. 13 July 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8564914.stm. 
  12. ^ "UKIP MEP leaves “eurofriendly” EFD Group". NewEurope. 13 July 2010. http://www.neurope.eu/articles/UKIP-MEP-leaves-eurofriendly-EFD-Group/101621.php. 

External links