Conservatives in the European Parliament. The Parliament Buildings, Strasbourg. The European Parliament was elected by direct universal suffrage for the first time in 1979.
Elections take place every five years.
The next European election is in June 2004. The European Parliament meets and debates in public. Its 626 Members, including 87 from the UK, meet for one week a month in Strasbourg in plenary session, occasionally in Brussels for shorter plenary sessions, as well as for committee meetings in Brussels during intervening weeks. The Parliament Buildings, Brussels. MEPs scrutinise, amend and vote draft legislation.