The European Parliament is the only Community institution that meets and deliberates in public. Its debates, opinions and resolutions are published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

In order to prepare the work of Parliament's plenary sessions, Members participate in 17 standing committees. In addition to these standing committees, Parliament can also set up subcommittees, temporary committees, which deal with specific problems, or committees of inquiry.

Joint parliamentary committees maintain relations with the parliaments of States linked to the European Union by association agreements.

Interparliamentary delegations do the same with the parliaments of many other countries and with international organisations.

Parliament's work is organised by a secretariat, headed by a Secretary-General with a permanent staff of about 3500, in addition to which there are political group staff and Members' assistants. Parliament's 11 working languages mean that one third of the staff work in the language service (translation and interpretation). However, despite the constraints of multilingualism and three places of work, Parliament's operating budget is only 1% of the EU budget, or one and a half euro a year for each person living in the Union.

Like all parliaments, the European Parliament has three fundamental powers:

• The power to legislate
• The power of the purse
• The power to supervise the executive

The normal legislative procedure is codecision . It puts the European Parliament and the Council on an equal footing and leads to the adoption of joint Council and European Parliament acts. Through the codecision procedure, many more Parliament amendments find their way into Community laws and no text can now be adopted without the formal agreement of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.

Codecision is now one of Parliament's most important powers. The codecision procedure applies to the free movement of workers, creation of the internal market, research and technological development, the environment, consumer protection, education, culture and health. It was used, for example, when the European Parliament adopted the 'television without frontiers' directive prohibiting sporting events from being broadcast only in encrypted form. Although codecision is the standard procedure, there are important areas, such as tax matters or the annual farm price review, in which Parliament simply gives an opinion.

This is a significant power which allows the European Parliament to assert its political priorities. The European Parliament adopts the Union's budget for the following year each December. The budget does not come into force until it has been signed by the President of the European Parliament, giving the Union the financial resources it needs for the following year.

Since 1970, the budget has been financed from "own resources" agreed by the Member States after the European Parliament has been consulted. These resources are currently limited to 1.27% of gross national product. Own resources now include:

• customs duties levied at the Union's external borders;
• agricultural levies on products imported from non-member countries;
• 1% of the VAT on goods and services throughout the Union;
• a 'fourth resource' calculated on the basis of the relative prosperity of each Member State (their gross national product).

Since the 1970 and 1975 Luxembourg Treaties which created the Community's own resources, the European Parliament and the Council have become the two arms of the budgetary authority - in other words, they share the power of the purse.

Parliament has the last word on spending on the regions (European Regional Development Fund), the fight against unemployment, particularly among young people and women (European Social Fund), cultural and educational programmes, such as Erasmus and Socrates, and it can increases expenditure within a ceiling agreed with the Council and Commission. It uses its powers to increase the funds for humanitarian aid and refugee programmes. When it comes to spending on agriculture, Parliament can propose modifications but it is the Council which has the final say.

Where Parliament and the Council fail to agree on the amount of expenditure after two readings of the draft budget, between May and December, Parliament has the right to reject the budget as a whole and the procedure has to begin again. It is the President of Parliament's signature that makes the budget enforceable.

Having adopted the budget, Parliament also monitors the proper use of public funds through its Committee on Budgetary Control. In specific terms, this means that it scrutinises the management of funds, acts continually to improve the prevention, detection and punishment of fraud, and sees whether the best possible results have been obtained from Community spending. Parliament gives an annual assessment of the Commission's use of the funds before granting it a 'discharge' on the implementation of the budget. In 1999, Parliament refused to grant the Commission a discharge for 1996 on the grounds of mismanagement and a lack of transparency.

Parliament exercises democratic supervision over all Community activities. This power, which was originally applied to the activities of the Commission only, has been extended to the Council of Ministers, the European Council and the political cooperation bodies which are accountable to Parliament. The European Parliament can also set up committees of inquiry. It has done so on several occasions, particularly on 'mad cow disease', which led to the establishment of a European Veterinary Agency in Dublin. It was also Parliament which secured the creation of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in budgetary matters.