The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies(External link) of the European Union(External link) (EU) and one of its seven institutions(External link).
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies(External link) of the European Union(External link) (EU) and one of its seven institutions(External link). Together with the Council of the European Union(External link) (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts European legislation, following a proposal by the European Commission(External link). The Parliament is composed of 720 members(External link) (MEPs), after the June 2024 European elections, from a previous 705 MEPs. It represents the second-largest democratic electorate in the world (after the Parliament of India(External link)), with an electorate of around 375 million eligible voters(External link) in 2024.[4](External link)[5](External link)[6](External link)
Since 1979, the Parliament has been directly elected every five years by the citizens of the European Union(External link) through universal suffrage(External link). Voter turnout(External link) in parliamentary elections decreased each time after 1979(External link) until 2019(External link), when voter turnout increased by eight percentage points, and rose above 50% for the first time since 1994(External link).[7](External link) The voting age(External link) is 18 in all EU member states(External link) except for Malta(External link), Belgium(External link), Austria(External link) and Germany(External link), where it is 16, and Greece(External link), where it is 17.[8](External link)