Written by Antonio Albaladejo, Laurence Amand-Eeckhout, Pieter Baert, Anna Caprile, Polona Car, Micaela Del Monte, Clément Evroux, Liselotte Jensen, Monika Kiss, Silvia Kotanidis, Tarja Laaninen, Katrien Luyten, Rafal Manko, Hendrik Mildebrath, Maria Niestadt, Marketa Pape, Marianna Pari, Jakub Przetacznik, Magdalena Sapala, Rosamund Shreeves and Jaan Soone.
As the only European Union (EU) institution elected directly, the European Parliament is at the heart of representative democracy, the foundation upon which the EU is built. As the current – 2019 to 2024 – term wraps up, this paper from EPRS looks at a selection of the many achievements of the Parliament over the past five years in seeking to improve the European Union for its citizens. This term has not lacked for challenges, with an unprecedented pandemic closely followed by war on the EU’s eastern border, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Union, with Parliament frequently in the lead, has developed strong responses to these extraordinary challenges.
Parliament’s power and influence have evolved significantly over the years, and it is now a fully fledged legislative body whose influence is felt in virtually all areas of EU activity. Parliament’s powers fall broadly into six, often overlapping, domains: law‑making, the budget, scrutiny of the executive, external relations, and, to a lesser extent, constitutional affairs and agenda-setting. In recent months, the European Parliament has engaged in a process of reform, seeking to enable it to use these various powers more effectively and efficiently.
Parliament has been influential in shaping a range of new laws this term, including the Digital Services Act and the IRIS2 Regulation. Agricultural policy has seen reform, and major environmental legislation has been adopted, in the shape of the European Climate Law and the ‘fit for 55’ package. Responding to the pandemic, Parliament has focused on health. In the context of promoting democratic values, meanwhile, Parliament was able to shape key aspects of the Media Freedom Act and the directive addressing strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs).
Since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Parliament has played a key role in the EU’s response, including: several rounds of macro-financial assistance, the Act in Support of Ammunition Production, and the Ukraine Facility. In external relations, however, Parliament’s real power often lies more in the area of agenda-setting.
Another important set of European Parliament prerogatives concerns the scrutiny and control of the executive, in particular the European Commission. Prominent examples of scrutiny work over the last five years have been the committee of inquiry on the Pegasus spyware scandal, successive special committees on tax scandals, culminating in creation of the new subcommittee on tax matters (FISC), and the working group scrutinising the activities of Frontex, the Border and Coast Guard Agency.
Since Parliament gave its consent in 2020 to the EU’s multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021 to 2027, the Union has had to respond to huge challenges, including the economic fall-out from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine. Parliament has pushed for reforms, and has focused on the implementation of the Next Generation EU recovery instrument.
In the constitutional field, Parliament has sought to use its powers to uphold the EU’s values, for instance triggering a preventive mechanism in respect of the serious breach of EU values with regard to Hungary. The 2020 Conference on the Future of Europe meanwhile offered citizens the opportunity to help Parliament fine-tune recommendations for Treaty change.
Lastly, the power to set the EU agenda is a thread that runs through all Parliament’s work as a forum for debate and engagement. Stand-out examples during this term include the Parliament’s work on the forthcoming artificial intelligence act, and in the area of a minimum wage and minimum income. Parliament’s constitutional powers include appointments of people to certain senior positions in other EU institutions. Even when its opinions are not legally binding they allow it to exercise political leverage. This point was proved with the appointment in 2019 of the first European Chief Prosecutor.
Read the complete in-depth analysis on ‘Examples of Parliament’s impact: 2019 to 2024 – Illustrating the powers of the European Parliament‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.
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