How plenary works 

For many years the Parliament was a purely consultative body. However, since the first elections by direct universal suffrage in 1979 and thanks to the active work of its members, it has been able to secure greater powers and acquire the status of equal co-legislator with the Council in most areas where the EU has powers to act.

Today, the European Parliament has 720 elected members from 27 EU countries and conducts its plenary debates in 24 languages. In plenary, MEPs, officials, interpreters, and translators follow very precise procedures in order to ensure the best possible conduct of the session.

Plenary sessions are chaired by the President of the European Parliament. The President of the European Parliament is assisted in this task by the 14 vice-presidents, who can take over the chair.

The President opens the sitting, sometimes with a tribute or a speech on a current topic.

During the session, the President calls upon speakers and ensures that the proceedings are properly conducted. He or she also directs the voting procedure, putting amendments and legislative resolutions to the vote and announcing the results. The President's authority ensures that the votes, which can be long and complex, proceed at a rapid pace.

Most of the 720 MEPs belong to one of the political groups, representing the whole spectrum of ideological tendencies in the EU. Some MEPs are not affiliated with any political group and are thus known as non-attached Members.

Political groups decide which issues will be discussed in plenary. They can also table amendments to the committee reports to be put to the vote or put forward resolutions on important issues. While political groups try to coordinate the way their Members vote in plenary, Members cannot be obliged to vote in a particular way.

The Council of the European Union and the European Commission take part in the sittings in order to facilitate collaboration between the institutions in the decision-making process.

If Parliament so requests, representatives of the two institutions may also be called upon to make declarations or to give an account of their activities in response to questions put to them by MEPs. These debates may be wound up with a vote on a resolution.

Parliament meets in plenary session 12 times per year in Strasbourg, for a part-session lasting four days (from Monday to Thursday). Additional part-sessions are held in Brussels. The part-session is divided into daily sittings.

Plenary business mainly focuses on debates and votes. Only the texts adopted in plenary formally constitute acts of the European Parliament. These fall into different categories depending on the subject under consideration and the applicable procedure. The most common texts include:

• Legislative reports: these are the texts examined by Parliament in the framework of the EU’s various legislative procedures: ordinary legislative procedure, consent and consultation. The ordinary legislative procedure gives Parliament an equal role as legislator alongside the Council of the European Union. Certain parliamentary reports thus have more legislative weight than others.
• Reports under the budgetary procedure: the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union make up the budgetary authority of the EU which determines on an annual basis the expenditure and revenue of the Union.
• Non-legislative reports and resolutions: these are drawn up by Parliament on its own initiative within the parliamentary committee responsible. By adopting these texts, Parliament addresses the other European institutions and bodies, the national governments, or non-EU countries and organisations, with the aim of drawing attention to a specific matter. Although they have no legislative value, these texts are essential for Parliament to exercise its role of democratic scrutiny and hold other institutions accountable, as well as to apply political pressure for concrete responses on the matter concerned.

During the plenary session, Parliament can decide to express its opinion on any matter that it considers important. It can also ask the Commission to submit an appropriate proposal on issues that in Parliament’s view require a legislative act to be adopted.

The sitting also includes a period set aside for questions on a specific theme with representatives of the Council and/or the Commission. In addition, once per plenary week, the President of the Commission or specific commissioners may be invited to answer questions from MEPs without a pre-defined theme, in a special scrutiny session.

The minutes of each sitting give details of the exact proceedings and business of the day (documents tabled, debates, votes, explanations of vote, appointments etc.). The results of votes are also annexed to the minutes.

Plenary sessions bring together a large number of participants and so cannot be improvised. Instead, they require thorough preparation, as far as possible. The plenary agenda is drawn up in detail by the Conference of Presidents, which brings together the leaders of the political groups and the Parliament President.

In parallel, the Conference of Committee Chairs (composed of the chairs of all the standing and temporary parliamentary committees) can make recommendations to the Conference of Presidents regarding the work of the committees and the drafting of the plenary agenda.

Parliament’s annual calendar of work is adopted each year in plenary based on a proposal by the Conference of Presidents. The calendar indicates the weeks set aside for committee meetings and for political group meetings.

The plenary agenda also shows whether the various debates in plenary are to be followed by a vote on a motion for a resolution, which is a non-legislative text that presents Parliament’s position on a given topic.

Parliament constantly responds to the latest developments in any major issue and has no hesitation in changing its agenda.

Time for discussion before taking a decision

A parliamentary report put to the vote in plenary is generally the subject of a debate in which the Commission, the representatives of the political groups and individual MEPs express their views. The speaking time for each MEP, which is often very short, depends on the number of Members who have asked for the floor.

Unlike plenary votes, which are often held at a very rapid pace, the debates can last for several hours, depending on the number of Members who wish to take the floor. They usually speak in their own language, and what they say is interpreted live by Parliament’s interpreters into the other official EU languages.

Speaking time is allocated according to the following rule: a first fraction of speaking time is divided equally amongst all the political groups, then a further fraction is divided among the groups in proportion to the total number of their MEPs. The groups then decide internally who will take the floor and for how long.

MEPs who wish to speak from the centre of the room are added to the list of speakers in an order based on the numerical size of their group. A priority speaking slot is given to the rapporteurs (MEPs from the responsible committee or committees who are in the lead for a specific topic) and to representatives of other committees asked for an opinion.

Distinguished visitors regularly come to address Parliament, including heads of state, who are normally received in formal sitting.

Votes are generally held around midday. Members vote on the legislative acts and resolutions as such but also on individual amendments or paragraphs in the texts.

During the vote on a parliamentary report or a resolution, Members can change the text submitted to them by adopting amendments, which may seek to delete, reformulate, replace or add to the content of the text under consideration. MEPs first vote on each amendment individually and then on the whole text as amended.

Normally MEPs vote by show of hands and the President of the sitting determines the majorities in each case. If the show of hands is unclear, the President calls for an electronic vote to confirm the numbers on each side.

A roll call vote must be taken if requested by a political group or by at least 5% of all Members the evening before the vote. In this case, the vote cast by each MEP is recorded and published in an annex to the minutes. Inversely, voting by secret ballot can be requested by 20% of all MEPs.

In plenary, the European Parliament normally takes decisions by a majority of votes cast. A quorum (the minimum number of Members who must be present in order for the result of a vote to be valid) exists when one third of the component Members of Parliament are present in the chamber. If at least 39 Members present in the chamber request to establish that the quorum is not present, or if there are fewer than 39 MEPs present in the chamber, a vote may be rolled over to the next sitting.

The Commission can respond to the result of a vote and announce its conclusions. At the end of voting time, Members who request this may take the floor again to give an explanation of their vote, presenting their analysis and explaining their reasoning or that of their group.

You can follow the European Parliament’s plenary sessions online both live and as a recording.