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This study shows how parliaments in the EU-27 Member States, as well as Canada, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, exercise the budgetary control function. While the principles underpinning budgetary control are consistent, practices and cultures differ considerably.

During the second November plenary session, the European Parliament is scheduled to vote on a motion for a resolution on the application of the Treaty provisions related to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality and the role of national parliaments in the EU legislative process. The Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) adopted its report on 4 November 2025.

In this paper, we propose a multistep algorithmic method that enables us to determine the seat allocation for the European Parliament on a permanent basis applicable across various scenarios, including different numbers of Member States and their population sizes. According to the Lisbon Treaty, the allocation of seats must take into account a number of constraints regarding the minimum and maximum number of seats allocated to each Member State, the maximum size of the European Parliament, and degressive ...

This briefing provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in the current 10th parliamentary term (2024-2029) who had held public office at local, regional and/or national level before taking up their mandates (or, in some cases, continue to hold sub-national level public posts). The analysis found that 64 % of MEPs had previously held public office at one or more of these levels before the current term. Their roles included mayors, city councillors ...

Increased political polarisation has led to a proliferation of attacks against elected representatives, political candidates and party members. Verbal abuse and insults, harassment, threats and intimidation, as well as smear campaigns against politicians, occur regularly both online and offline, marking a serious degradation in the quality of political debate in the EU. During the 2024 European elections campaign, there were serious incidents in several countries. Nevertheless, acts of physical violence ...

Maternity leave and voting procedures for Members of parliaments differ widely across the European Union (EU). Maternity-related absences are considered justified for Members of the European Parliament, but the current rules do not permit remote voting, proxy voting or temporary substitution. Maternity leave for parliamentarians is generally permitted across the EU's Member States, although legal frameworks and practical arrangements differ. Some national parliaments only allow for temporary substitution ...

Term limits restrict the number of terms an individual may serve in a given office and mainly aim to prevent a person from holding an office indefinitely. They most commonly apply to heads of state, heads of government or ministers, but in a very few instances are applied to members of parliament too. The debate around term limits is not new, but it has recently re-emerged as part of a broader reflection on democratic accountability, representative legitimacy, and the erosion of public trust in political ...

Denmark is a constitutional monarchy with a representative parliamentary system. According to the Constitutional Act (section 3), the monarch and the Parliament jointly constitute the legislative authority, the monarch exercises executive authority, and the courts of justice represent the judicial authority. The monarch, however, mainly has a ceremonial role and appoints the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers, who are responsible for governing the country. The government is formed through the system ...

The Congress is the legislative branch of the United States (US) system of government. It is divided into two chambers: the House of Representatives (the lower chamber) and the Senate (the upper chamber). The formal powers of Congress are set out in Article I of the US Constitution, and include making laws, collecting revenue, borrowing and spending money, declaring war, making treaties with foreign nations, and overseeing the executive branch. Elections to the US Congress occur every second November ...

Since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty (2009), the EU national parliaments have had the right to control the principle of subsidiarity through the Early Warning System (EWS). This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Justice, Civil Liberties and Institutional Affairs at the request of the AFCO Committee, examines how the EWS has worked over the past 15 years. It also looks into the interaction of Parliament, the European Commission, local and regional entities ...