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| Background Information | |||
| 13-01-2004 | |||
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Brussels, 13 January 2004
 2004 ELECTIONS: KEY FACTS |
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The European Parliament is involved in several major events in the course of 2004: the European elections in June, the official accession of the ten new Member States and the investiture of a new Commission. This dossier provides background data, mainly in the form of tables, on the following: - MEPs and Observers This document was produced by the Central Coordination Division of the EP's Directorate for Communication. For further information please contact: 001/2004
in bold - parties in government // in italics - in FR, UK and DK - parties which support the government in the national parliament // in italics*, see explanations - ES (p. 8); FR(p. 8); IT (p. 9); SE (p. 10)
* Sweden: These two parties concluded an agreement with the government for the parliamentary term (2002 - 2006), covering 121 areas, including the budget. This agreement does not cover either EU affairs or foreign and security policy.
Situation as at 04/12/2003
N.B! 2004-2009 parliamentary term
Adoption of acts within the Council from 1 November 2004
(adopted on 13 June and 10 July 2003 by the Convention) 1 ) WEIGHTING OF VOTES IN COUNCIL (Title IV, Article 24)
On 24 September 2003 the EP adopted the report by Mr José María Gil-Robles Gil-Delgado (EPP-ED, ES) and Mr Dimitris Tsatsos (PES, GR) by 335 votes to 106, with 53 abstentions.
- EU-15 -
- The 10 -
A. MEMBER STATES
B. ACCESSION COUNTRIES
*Cyprus: ratification by vote in the National Parliament; results see p.18
From 1 July 2004 *** 2. A political group shall comprise Members elected in at least one-fifth of the Member States. The minimum number of Members required to form a political group shall be sixteen. ***************************************************************************** Until 1 July 2004
. 23 Members - 2 Member States *** Rule 29 2. A political group must comprise Members from more than one Member State. The minimum number of Members required to form a political group shall be twenty-three if they come from two Member States, eighteen if they come from three Member States and fourteen if they come from four or more Member States.
(unless events dictate otherwise) March-September 2003: ratification procedures: by referendum in the accession countries (except Cyprus) and under the applicable procedure in the Member States. 19 March 2003: vote in the Committee on Foreign Affairs on the 10 recommendations (one vote per country) giving assent to the applications for membership. 9 April 2003 (7-10): same vote in plenary. 16 April 2003: signing of accession treaties at European Council meeting in Athens. 5 May 2003: arrival of 162 Observers from the accession countries. This figure is made up of those provided for in the Nice Treaty (151) + the allocation for BG/RO (11). 11 June 2003: Convention completes its work for the Thessaloniki European Council meeting. 24 September 2003: EP adopts the report by Mr José María Gil-Robles Gil-Delgado (PPE-DE/ES) and Mr Dimitris Tsatsos (PSE/GR) on the IGC by 335 votes to 106, with 53 abstentions. 1 March 2004: names of 10 Commissioners-designate forwarded to the EP. 13-14 or 26-29 April 2004: hearings of the 10 Commissioners-designate (date and procedure to be determined). 1 May 2004: accession of those accession countries which have concluded their ratification processes. 3-6 May 2004: last EP plenary session before elections; Observers become full Members; EP might hold an informal vote on investiture of the Commission.(procedure to be determined). 10-13 June 2004: European elections. 20 July 2004: constituent plenary session + investiture of the President-designate of the Commission. 4-14 October 2004: hearings of 25 Commissioners-designate by the parliamentary committees. 25-28 October 2004, plenary session: investiture of the new Commission (1/11/04 to 31/10/09). 1 November 2004: new Commission takes up its duties. 1 Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Austria and Finland: European elections following accession. 2 Belgium, Luxembourg and Greece: voting is compulsory . 3 Italy - voting: civic obligation, no penalt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last updated: 14 January 2004 | Legal notice |