3. Headquarters and agenda

The European Parliament has three headquarters. Most of the plenary sessions take place in the French headquarters in Strasbourg, while the parliamentary committees meet in the Brussels headquarters. The city of Luxembourg hosts the General Secretariat of the EP where mainly administrative issues are resolved.

EP Headquarters

What do MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) do? 

→ they work and vote on European laws covering almost all areas of EU competence;

→ they work on the EU budget;

→ they carry out democratic control over other EU institutions and agencies, for example they elect the President of the European Parliament and approve the President of the European Commission.


These two roles are currently held by Roberta Metsola and Ursula von der Leyen respectively.

To facilitate understanding of Parliament's activities and schedule, the parliamentary calendar has been organised according to a colour code: red for the plenary week; pink for the week of commissions; blue for the week of political groups; turquoise when MEPs go to their constituencies.

Plenaries take place once a month and are generally concentrated in a few days of the week during which the deputies discuss or vote on a maximum number of files. The most time-consuming work, however, is the preparation which happens during the pink and blue weeks in Brussels (source: How it works: the European Parliament).

Watch this short video and find out how MEPs represent European citizens: