The work of MEPs
EU citizens elect MEPs to represent them. They are EU lawmakers and hold the Commission and Member States to account.
While MEPs enjoy freedom of mandate, they are bound to the Rules of Procedures and the Code of Conduct (Annex I).
The workload of an MEP divides itself between work for constituents, debates in political groups, as well as negotiations and votes in committees and during plenary sessions.
Main parliamentary activities: contributions to plenary and working in committees
MEPs are divided into committees specialising in different policy areas. The preparatory work for plenary sittings, where MEPs debate and vote, is done in the committees.
The committees scrutinise legislative proposals by amending and adopting reports. The committees also appoint a team of MEPs to conduct negotiations with the Council on EU legislation. In addition, they organise hearings with experts and scrutinise the other EU bodies and institutions.
Other parliamentary activities
In accordance with the Rules of Procedure, any Member may table a motion for a resolution on a matter falling within the spheres of activity of the European Union. These motions for resolution express the position of the individual Members who tabled them. It is possible to retrieve them in the personal profile of MEPs under “Other parliamentary activity”.
MEPs may also address parliamentary questions to other European Union institutions and bodies. These are a direct form of parliamentary scrutiny of the other EU institutions. There are three categories of parliamentary question: questions for oral answer with debate, question time, and questions for written answer. Every question category is regulated by specific rules. Questions are published and are searchable (by keyword, date, etc.) on the Parliament’s plenary subpage "Parliamentary questions". It is important to recall that parliamentary questions addressed by MEPs do not represent the position of the European Parliament as a whole.
Further information