To know in order to choose

How many “regulations” does the EU Parliament vote in the course of a legislature? How many officers work for the Assembly? What’s the annual budget? In view of June 4-7 elections, the Euro-Chamber issued a document summarizing parliamentary activity, offices, political groups and lobbyists. News and features convey further information to the voters.[Previous fact-files in SIR Europe nos. 9-11-13-15-17-20-21-23-26-30-35-36/2009]The numbers of the Assembly. Almost 3 thousand blueprints were adopted by the European Parliament in the 2004-2009 legislature, 1.355 of which are legislative bills. During the plenary sessions of the closing five-year period, MEPs emended and adopted 637 bills in codecision procedure (namely, in conjunction with the Union’s Council of Ministers) occasioning EU regulations. MEPs equally endorsed 63 bills with conforming notice (which means that Parliament can pass or reject altogether, without amending it, a decision taken by the Union’s Cabinet for international treaties). There were 633 consultation procedures, whereby Parliament’s opinion is compulsory but not binding for the Council of the States. 660 own-initiative reports and 593 resolutions expressing non-binding opinions on issues relevant to the integration process were also forwarded to the Parliament, thus giving a voice – through the MEPs elected by the citizens – to people’s will.Over 48 thousand emendments. In drawing up the final balance of the legislature, the EU Assembly offices pointed out that in the period 2004-2009 the Parliamentary commissions, political groups and MEPs lodged a total number of 48,747 amendments, 30,067 of which were adopted in plenary meetings”. In addition to meetings for the approval of directives, regulations and political debates, the European Parliament’s work also included 49 solemn sessions, during which important guests (politicians, heads of State, Nobel Prize winners, religious leaders …) delivered speeches from the floor. Figures show that the 785 MEPs (they will become 736 after the election of 4-7 June and 751 after the enforcement of the Lisbon Treaty) come from 240 national political parties, although at the European Parliament they will have to gather into 7 groups only. A host of translators and interpreters. One of the EU’s backbones is the motto “unity in diversity” adopted by the Euro-Chamber and ensuring that parliamentary sessions take place in the 23 official EU languages (with three different alphabets: Latin, Greek, Cyrillic). Every MEP, assistant, officer and journalist working in Strasbourg, Brussels or Luxembourg (the institution’s three seats), along with all European citizens, have the right to be briefed on parliamentary work and on bills adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly in their own national language. For this purpose, 430 interpreters (tasked with simultaneous translation) work on a full-time basis for the Parliament along with 2500 free-lance interpreters. Indeed some 800-1000 interpreters are engaged during the plenary sessions. The Assembly can also count on 700 translators that translate approximately 12 hundred pages of legal text and documents pertaining to Parliamentary Commission activities, amendments, statements and speeches. The Parliament’s expenditure for interpretation and translation amounts to approximately one third of the annual budget, namely 1,53 billion euro for the year 2009. Strasbourg, Brussels and Luxembourg. The Assembly is composed of 6.166 officials – including permanent and temporary staff – (May 2009 figures), half of whom work in the Brussels’ offices, where Parliamentary Commission and political groups’ sessions are held along with six mini-plenary sessions each year. Over 2.500 employees work at the Parliament’s Secretariat in Luxembourg. Only 80 permanent employees work in Strasbourg, the Euro-Chamber official seat, which in fact is operative once a month only, during the plenary session. Strasbourg’s seat, bearing remarkable symbolic significance (the city was the object of long-lasting dispute between France and Germany, and was later the “symbol” of French-German and European reconciliation), has very high costs. Each of the 12 yearly plenary meetings amount to 10 million euro expense. In the 24 buildings used by the Euro-Chamber in the three cities where the seats are located (one million square meters of working areas), also 1500 EU Parliament assistants – in addition to the officials and MEPs – have their offices. To these must be added over one thousand accredited journalists and 4300 lobbyists representing 1700 registered organization admitted to Parliament work.