Seventh European Parliament

7th European Parliament
14 July 2009 – 1 July 2014
President (1st ½)	Jerzy Buzek
President (2nd ½)	Martin Schulz
Commission	Barroso
Political groups	EPP S&D ALDE Greens/EFA ECR GUE-NGL EFD NI
MEPs	736 (754 from 1 December 2011)
Elections	June 2009 (Union) April 2013 (Croatia)
Governing treaty	Nice[nb 1] Treaty of Lisbon[nb 2]
← 6th 8th →

The seventh European Parliament was elected in the 2009 elections and lasted until the 2014 elections.

Major events

• 4–7 June 2009
  • Elections to the Seventh Parliament.
• 14 July 2009
  • First meeting (constitutive session) of the Seventh Parliament.
  • Jerzy Buzek is elected as President of the European Parliament.
  • Vice-presidents elections.
• 17 January 2012
  • Martin Schulz is elected as President of the European Parliament.

Activity

Major resolutions and positions

Committees

Summary

Temporary committees

Committees of enquiry

Delegations

Political groups

See membership below for details of size

Group name		Acronym	Seats	Percent	Chairs	Vice-Presidents
	European People's Party	EPP	265	36%	Joseph Daul	5
	Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats	S&D	184	25%	Martin Schulz	5
	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group	ALDE	84	11.4%	Guy Verhofstadt	2
	The Greens–European Free Alliance	GREENS/EFA	55	7.5%	Rebecca Harms Daniel Cohn-Bendit	1
	European Conservatives and Reformists	ECR	54	7.3%	Michał Kamiński	0[nb 3]
	European United Left–Nordic Green Left	GUE-NGL	35	4.8%	Lothar Bisky	0
	Europe of Freedom and Democracy	EFD	32	4.3%	Nigel Farage Francesco Speroni	0
	Non-Inscrits[nb 4]	NA	27	3.7%	---	1[nb 3]

Members in groups by country

Leadership

Presidents

Term	President (or candidate)	Group		State	Votes
14 July 2009 – 17 January 2012[2]	Jerzy Buzek		EPP	Poland	555
	Eva-Britt Svensson		GUE-NGL	Sweden	89
17 January 2012–[3]	Martin Schulz		PES	Germany	387
	Nirj Deva		ECR	United Kingdom	142
	Diana Wallis		ALDE	United Kingdom	141

Vice-Presidents

Group	Vice-President (or candidate)	State	Votes in:			Pick
			1st round	2nd round	3rd round
EPP	Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou	Greece	355	---	---
	Roberta Angelilli	Italy	277	266	274
	Alejo Vidal-Quadras	Spain	332	303	308
	Pál Schmitt	Hungary	266	239	257
	Rainer Wieland	Germany	267	235	237
S&D	Giovanni Pittella	Italy	360	---	---
	Stavros Lambrinidis	Greece	348	---	---
	Miguel Angel Martínez Martínez	Spain	330	292	327
	Dagmar Roth-Behrendt	Germany	299	288	287
	Libor Rouček	Czech Republic	284	276	278
ALDE	Diana Wallis	UK	303	274	272
	Silvana Koch-Mehrin	Germany	148	141	186
ECR	Michał Kamiński	Poland	194	175	174
	Edward McMillan-Scott (non-attached)[nb 3]	UK	237	242	244
GREENS/EFA	Isabelle Durant	Belgium	268	259	276

Quaestors

Group	Quaestor (or candidate)	State	Votes in:			Pick
			1st round	2nd round	3rd round
EPP	Jim Higgins	Ireland	352	---	---
	Astrid Lulling	Luxembourg	322	327	306
	Ria Oomen-Ruijten	Netherlands	161	187	186
S&D	Lidia Geringer de Oedenberg	Poland	398	---	---
ALDE	Bill Newton Dunn	UK	164	202	208
ECR	James Nicholson	UK	171	172	176
GUE-NGL	Jiří Maštálka	Czech Republic	206	283	293
EFD	Francesco Speroni	Italy	145	130	131

Membership

After the 2009 election, the members formed seven groups with around 26 independent members, mainly from the far right which failed to unify into a political group. With the Treaty of Lisbon not in force in time for the elections, the national distribution followed the rules of the Treaty of Nice which necessitated a reduction to 736 members. Extra members will join the chamber if Lisbon comes into force.^[4]

The seventh parliament ended with a total of 766 MEPs (including Croatia) and was slimmed down to 751 at the start of the eight parliament.

For the seventh parliament, the number of women increased from 31% to 35% (the highest to date, from 16% in 1979) with increases in most countries. The largest percentage was in Sweden, with 56% of MEPs women, followed by Estonia with 50%. The lowest was Malta with no women members at all, followed by the Czech Republic with 18%, down from 21%.^[5]

From inauguration, the youngest member was Emilie Turunen of Denmark (born in 1984 making her 25) and the oldest member was Ciriaco de Mita of Italy (born 1928 making him 81).^[6] Usually the oldest member would preside over the chamber for the election of the Parliament's President. However, with concern that the far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen would be the oldest member (rather than De Mita) the rules were changed to give this role to the outgoing President.^[7]

Groups^[8]

¹ Edward McMillan-Scott was expelled from the Conservative Party on 15 September 2009;^[9]
2 Nikki Sinclaire was expelled from the UK Independence Party on 4 March 2010.^[10]
3 Edward McMillan-Scott joined Liberal Democrats on 12 March 2010.^[11]

⁴ Mike Nattrass left UK Independence Party on 23 June 2010.^[12]

Apportionment

State	Seats		State	Seats
Germany	99		France	72
UK	72		Italy	72
Spain	50		Poland	50
Romania	33		Netherlands	25
Greece	22		Portugal	22
Belgium	22		Czech Republic	22
Hungary	22		Sweden	18
Austria	17		Bulgaria	17
Denmark	13		Slovakia	13
Finland	13		Ireland	12
Lithuania	12		Latvia	8
Slovenia	7		Estonia	6
Cyprus	6		Luxembourg	6
Malta	5		Total	736

Secretariat

Office	Post	Name	Source
Office of the Secretary-General	Secretary-General of the European Parliament	Klaus Welle
Legal Service	Jurisconsult of the European Parliament	Christian Pennera
Directorate-General for the Presidency	Director-General	Francesca Ratti
Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union	Director-General	Riccardo Ribera d'Alcala
Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union	Director-General	Luis Marco Aguiriano Nalda
Directorate-General for Communication	Director-General	Juana Lahousse-Juarez
Directorate-General for Personnel	Director-General	Yves Quittin
Directorate-General for Infrastructure and Logistics	Director-General	Constantin Stratigakis
Directorate-General for Translation	Director-General	?
Directorate-General for Interpretation and Conferences	Director-General	?
Directorate-General for Finance	Director-General	?

See also

Elections

Membership lists

Notes

1. ↑ The Treaties of Rome and Treaty of Maastricht as amended by the Treaty of Nice and all preceding amending treaties.
2. ↑ The Treaties of Rome and Treaty of Maastricht as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon and all preceding amending treaties.
3. 1 2 3 Edward MacMillan-Scott, standing in opposition to the policy of the ECR and his national party, the Conservatives, was expelled from the group.
4. ↑ Independents, not a group

References

External links

• European Parliament
• Explanation of codecision
• European Parliament positions
• European Parliament and European Council common positions
• European Parliament Conciliation Committee Joint texts

European Parliament
Organisation	Bureau Committees and Delegations Conference MEPs President (Martin Schulz) Quaestor Rapporteur Secretariat Vice Presidents
Politics	COSAC (National parliaments) Groups Parties Reform working group
Elections	1979 (session / members) 1984 (session / members) 1989 (session / members) 1994 (session / members) 1999 (session / members) 2004 (session / members) 2009 (session / members) 2014 (session / members) Apportionment Constituencies
Intergroups	Crocodile Club Spinelli Group Paneuropean Working Group Intergroup on long term investment and reindustrialisation
Seats	Strasbourg (Buildings) Brussels (Buildings Esplanade) Luxembourg buildings
History	Assizes Budget controversy Buttiglione controversy European Convention Joint parliamentary meeting
Prizes	Charlemagne Youth Prize European Citizens' Prize Sakharov Prize Lux Prize
Other	Europa InSitu EuroparlTV Model European Communities Project Model European Parliament State of the Union
European Union Portal Brussels Portal