The ninth European Parliament was elected during the 2019 elections and sat until the tenth European Parliament was sworn in on 16 July 2024.
The President of the European Parliament is chosen through the votes of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and serves a term lasting 2.5 years, with the option for re-election. The responsibilities of the president encompass a diverse array of functions, including presiding over debates and representing the European Parliament in its interactions with other institutions within the European Union.<br />Fourteen Vice Presidents are elected through a single ballot process, requiring an absolute majority of cast votes for their selection. In situations where the number of successful candidates falls below 14, a second round of voting is conducted to allocate the remaining positions following identical conditions. Should a third round of voting become necessary, a simple majority suffices to occupy the remaining seats. The precedence of Vice Presidents is established by the order in which they are elected, and in cases of a tie, seniority is determined by age. During each round of voting, MEPs have the capacity to cast votes for as many candidates as there are available seats for that particular round. However, they are obligated to vote for more than half of the total positions to be filled.
President: David Sassoli<br/> Vice Presidents:
President: Roberta Metsola<br/> Vice Presidents
The five Quaestors were chosen by acclamation.
Four Quaestors were elected on the first round of voting, with the fifth being elected on the second round of voting.
There were 7 political groups in the parliament, one fewer than the previous parliament. Each MEP could belong to only one group. Political groups could be founded by at least 25 MEPs which came from at least one quarter of all EU member states (namely seven).
MEPs that previously served as president or Prime Minister:
MEPs that previously served as European Commissioner:
MEPs that previously served as presiding officer of a national parliament:
MEPs that previously served as President of the European Parliament:
MEPs that previously served as foreign minister:
When the United Kingdom left the EU, 27 seats were reallocated to the other member states and the other 46 seats were abolished, for a total of 705 MEPs.
MEPs are divided up among 20 standing committees. Each MEP is usually member of one committee and a substitute member of another. Committees discuss legislative proposals from the commission before the European Parliament decides on them in plenary session. The European Parliament has an equal role to the Council of the EU in the ordinary legislative procedure, which is usually used in decision-making process at the EU level.
Each committee elects its chair and vice chairs to lead the work of the committee. Committee chairs are members of the Conference of Committee Chairs, which coordinates the work of all the committees.
On 2 July 2019 European Council finished a three-day-long summit with a decision to propose the following for approval by the Parliament:
European Parliament confirmed Ursula von Der Leyen as President of the European Commission on 16 July 2019.
On the same summit Charles Michel (ALDE), incumbent Prime Minister of Belgium was elected a new President of the European Council and President of Euro Summit for a 2.5 years term.
Secret paper ballot took place on 16 July 2019.
Following the election of the new President of the commission, President-elect called upon member states to propose candidates for European Commissioners. The President-elect, in agreement with the European Council, assigned to each proposed candidate a portfolio, and the Council sent the list of candidates to the European Parliament. Candidates were then questioned about their knowledge of the assigned portfolio and confirmed by European Parliament Committees. When all of the candidates were confirmed by the respective committee, European Parliament took a vote of confirmation of the new European Commission in the plenary session. European Commission was then officially appointed by the European Council using qualified majority. Commissioners took the oath of office before the Court of Justice of the EU before officially taking office.
The Council of the European Union (Council) is one of three EU institutions involved in the EU lawmaking process. It is the de facto upper house of the EU legislature, the European Parliament being the lower house, with an equal role in the ordinary legislative procedure. The Council consists of ministerial representatives from member states' national governments. Votes are decided by qualified majority (55% of member states and 65% of EU population).
Every six months, a new EU member state takes over the presidency of the council. As presiding country, it organises Council meetings (with the help of Secretariat General) and decides on their agendas. These agendas are prepared in cooperation with other two member states that are part of each trio, which form common policy agendas over their 18-month period.
European Parliament has role in the appointment of:
There were 266 women MEPs, 37.7% of the whole Parliament. Kira Peter-Hansen of Denmark was the youngest MEP at 21, while Silvio Berlusconi (former Prime Minister of Italy), was the oldest at the age of 82. The average age of all MEPs was 50.
387 of the MEPs were newly elected and weren't members of European Parliament before. 295 MEPs were also members of the previous Parliament. 16 of the MEPs held position before, but not between 2014 and 2019.
Most bureau positions is held by Germany, while on the other side Slovenia is the only member state that has no bureau positions. With 5, Germany has most Committee Chairmen, followed by France with 4.
Finland (with 7 women out of 13 MEPs) and Sweden (with 11 out of 20) are the only member states with more women MEPS than men. Austria, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovenia have a gender parity. Cyprus is the only member state without any women.
Slovakia has the highest percent of newly elected MEPs at 85%, while Malta only has 33% of newly elected MEPs.
With 60 years of age Lithuania has the oldest national delegation, while Malta has the youngest at 44. Sweden has the youngest "oldest" MEP at the age of 58 and Lithuania has the oldest "youngest" MEP at the age of 54.
Delegations are established to maintain and develop relations with entities the European Parliament has an interest to cooperate with. Among these are countries that EU has close (especially trade) relations or countries applying expected to join the EU. The EP also cooperates with the parliamentary bodies of other international organisations, such as NATO. Delegations have full and substitute members, and elects its own chair. They can be divided in two groups, standing delegations and ad hoc delegations.
JPCs are created with bilateral agreement between the EU and the third country.
The composition of the rest of Secretariat is appointed by the Parliament Bureau, headed by the Secretary General.
Other services that assist the Secretariat:
The 2019 European Parliament election took place from 23 to 26 May 2019.