The European Parliament, 8th ed.

Contents:

Section I. The Framework
1. The Parliament in context
2. How it is elected
3. Where, when and in quale lingua

Section II. The Actors and Working Structures
4. The individual members
5. The political groups
6. Leadership structures
7. The Parliamentary committees
8. Interparliamentary delegations
9. Plenary
10. Intergroups
11. The Parliament secretariat

Section III. The Powers of the Parliament
12. The Parliament and legislation
13. Budgetary powers
14. Appointment and dismissal
15. Scrutiny and control of the executive
16. A political forum and a channel for communication
17. The EP and national parliaments
18. Parliament and constitutional change

This has been the standard work on the European Parliament since its first edition in 1990, and is still written by the original authors. It covers every aspect of how the Parliament is elected, is organised and does its work. This new edition has been fully updated to include the many important changes since the last edition in 2007, including the results of the Treaty of Lisbon.

Richard Corbett is the advisor on constitutional questions to the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy. He handles the President's relations with the European Parliament. From 1996 to 2009 he was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He was spokesperson on constitutional affairs and EU reform for the Socialist Group and rapporteur on the European Constitution and the treaty of Lisbon, as well as on several revisions of Parliament’s Rules of Procedure.

Francis Jacobs is Head of the European Parliament’s Information Office in Dublin. Before that he had worked as an official for several of the Parliament’s committees, most recently as the Head of Unit responsible for the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection.

Michael Shackleton is Head of the European Parliament Information Office in the United Kingdom. Before this he had most recently been responsible for the setting up of europarltv, the Parliament’s webTV channel, launched in September 2008, and prior to that been the Head of Unit responsible for concil­iations and codecision.

• Primary Source