Guide to the European Parliament

The European Parliament is the only directly elected EU body. It represents the people of the EU in contrast to the Council of Ministers, which represents the governments.

Elections have been held every five years since 1979 - before that members were drawn from national parliaments.

The European Parliament's powers have steadily increased with each change of the EU treaties. Most new laws in member states now stem from the need to implement European legislation - and most of that is amended and adopted by the European Parliament.

The parliament amends, approves or rejects EU laws, together with the Council of Ministers.

The process of "co-decision" - by which a law is only passed when approved by both bodies - applies in areas including consumer protection, the single market, workers' rights, asylum and immigration, the environment and animal welfare, but not foreign policy or agriculture.

The parliament also shares authority over the EU budget with the Council of Ministers and supervises other EU institutions, including the Commission. It vets new commissioners, and can sack the commission en masse.

Under the Lisbon Treaty - not yet in force - the parliament's co-decision powers will be enhanced, to give it a bigger say over agriculture and the budget.

The parliament has two chambers - one in Brussels, the other in Strasbourg - and a secretariat in Luxembourg.

For three weeks of the month the parliament operates in Brussels, where most committee and political group meetings take place, then for one week it decamps to Strasbourg.

This perpetual movement adds to the cost of running the parliament, and is unpopular with members of the European Parliament (MEPs), because of the extra travel involved.

However, the Strasbourg parliament is a matter of national prestige for France. Situated on the border between Germany and France, which fought two world wars in the last century, it is also a symbol of Europe's peaceful new order.

ost MEPs belong to one of the parliament's political groups. None has an overall majority, so amendments need the support of more than one group to get through. On most issues the parliament divides along classic left-right lines.

There are now 736 MEPs - down from the 785 in the outgoing parliament, which grew after Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007.

For a group to be recognised, it needs at least 25 MEPs from seven different countries.

The larger the group, the more funding it receives, the more key committee posts it gets and the longer it can speak in debates.

Some groups remain broad churches after the 2009 European election. The new Socialist group has expanded to include some Italian MEPs who used to sit with the liberals.

But the British Conservatives have left the EPP-ED, regarding it as too enthusiastic about EU integration. The Conservatives are leading the new European Conservatives and Reformists Group, which includes right-wing MEPs from the Czech Republic and Poland.

Before the big enlargement on 1 May 2004 the parliament had 626 seats. The new parliament elected in June 2004 had 732. With the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in January 2007 it grew to 785.

As MEPs from new member states took their seats, most of the older member states lost a few MEPs.

Under the current Nice Treaty the number of MEPs will be cut to 736 in the June 2009 election. The Lisbon Treaty - which will set the total permanently at 751 beyond 2014 - will not take effect before June. But just for the 2009-2014 legislature the number will rise to 754 if Lisbon is adopted after the election.

The maximum number of MEPs per country now is 99 (Germany) and the minimum five (Malta). Lisbon envisages that the maximum will be 96, the minimum six.

Enlargement puts huge new burdens on the parliament's translation service, which must now provide simultaneous translation of all debates into 23 languages.

This amounts to 506 possible language combinations - Finnish-Czech, German-Portuguese, English-Maltese and so on. Now more translations take place through a third language, such as English or French.

Until this year MEPs received the same salary as members of their national parliaments. As a result, Italian MEPs earned four times more than their Spanish counterparts - and about 14 times more than MEPs from some new member states.

A new salaries and expenses system now applies to MEPs elected in June 2009.

The standard monthly payment for all MEPs has been set at 7,665 euros - roughly equivalent to what German MEPs already earn. The new salary was also roughly on a par with a British MP's salary, until the pound fell against the euro. While the pound is weak, MEPs will earn more than MPs.

MEPs also get a flat-rate monthly allowance to cover office expenses and travel in their home country. This is 4,202 euros.

In addition, MEPs can claim for travel related to their official duties in Brussels and Strasbourg. In the past they could claim for an expensive flexible economy class flight even if they flew low-fare. But under the new rules they will have to submit their ticket (which can be business class on air, or first class on rail) and will be reimbursed for what they paid.

MEPs also get a daily subsistence allowance - now 298 euros - for attendance at parliamentary sessions.

Since the first European election in 1979, voter turnout has been in steady decline.

The overall turnout figure in 1979 was 63%; in 2009 it was 43%. These figures mask very different participation rates between different member countries: turnout in Slovakia was 19.6% in 2009, compared with 65% in Italy.

It was also high in Belgium and Luxembourg, where voting is compulsory.

Over the same period, the number of people participating in national elections has also tended to drop, in some cases by 10% or more.

However, participation in European elections is lower than in national elections.

In the new member states in Central and Eastern Europe the turnout picture was mixed in the 2009 European election. Compared with the 2004 election, turnout rose in Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia, but fell in Lithuania and Hungary. It stayed about the same in the Czech Republic and Slovenia.