|
Frequently
Asked Questions
Q.
How many women MEPs are there?
A. 238 out of 785. Twenty of the 78 UK MEPs are female.
[ Correct as at 16 January 2007 - for updates, please use the "advanced search" facility on europarl.europa.eu ].
Q.
Who is Parliament's President?
A. German MEP Hans-Gert POETTERING, elected in January 2007 for a two and half year term.
Q.
What are the Parliament's 23 working languages?
A. Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English,
Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian,
Maltese, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and
Swedish.
Q.
When will the next European elections be held?
A. June 2009.
Q.
How much do MEPs earn and is it taxed?
A. They earn the same as MPs in
their country and are subject to the same national tax rules. A UK MEP
earns £60,277 subject to UK tax. [ Link to related subject on the UK Civil Service website ].
Q.
How many weeks a year does Parliament meet?
A. 46 weeks in 2008, including meetings
of parliamentary committees and political groups, and external parliamentary activities. See also Parliament's calendar for 2008.
Q.
Are meetings of the European Parliament public?
A. Committees normally meet in public
and all plenary sessions are public.
Q.
Is there a register of MEPs' interests?
A. The register is available for
consultation in Parliament's offices in Brussels and Luxembourg. The
fac-simile of MEPs' individual declaration of financial interests is
included in their profile on www.europarl.europa.eu.
Q.
How much does Parliament cost?
A. The European Parliament's budget for the year 2007 was €1,397 million. This covers staff costs, buildings, MEPs' travel allowance and expenses. The Parliament employs about 5900 people, of whom about 1300 work in the linguistic services covering a total of 23 working languages.
|