THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE CITIZEN

The European Parliament represents Europe’s citizens. Together with the Council of Ministers, which represents EU governments, the European Parliament legislates in the fields that influence directly the daily life of the Europeans. The European Parliament is elected every five years by universal suffrage in every Member State of the EU.

It is also a transparent institution that provides European citizens with various participation channels:

Correspondence with citizens: is a service that permits every citizen to contact the Parliament, which will provide an answer to his/her question.
Petitions: any citizen of the European Union, acting individually or in association with others, may at any time exercise his/her right of petition to the European Parliament under Article 194 of the EC Treaty.
Access to documents: the citizens of the EU, as well as residents within the territory of a Member state, have the right of access to internal European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.