Európai Parlament – egy különleges transznacionális szervezet
In her article the author seeks the answer how the European Parliament, the world’s first directly elected international representative institution. In the first part of the article the author describes the struggles of the members of the European Parliament, the conclusion of which the European Parliament that had got earlier only the right of consultancy and low controlling jurisdiction, achieved the influence in the budget. Later, thanks to the direct election with the development of the integration it obtained co-legislative status.
The second part deals with the problems of the so-called deficit in democracy and the ’Euro-elections’ (elections to the European Parliament). According to the author, though in the European Union member states comparing with the participation in the elections to the national parliaments the participation in the European Parliament elections is in lower level, however it does not question the legitimacy of that institution. The reason of the lack of interest is partly the fact, that these elections don’t have the features of power and – on the other hand – the inhabitants of the member states are not well-informed according to the actual work of the European Parliament. The work of the European Parliament is directed by political groups which can create even specific forms. That fact is introduced in the third part, while at the end of the article we can acquaint the ’daily’ work of the members of the European Parliament, among the others with the inner structure of the European Parliament and the cost of representation.