What does the European Parliament do?
The 720 lawmakers and their thousands of staffers will travel
a lot.
Roughly once a month they gather in the French city
of Strasbourg,
the parliament's official seat. Most months also have a green
week,
where parliamentarians work in their home countries and meet their
voters directly.
The rest of the time they work from Brussels.
Having two seats comes with a big price tag,
but previous attempts to unify them have failed due to
a French veto.
In its five year term,
the European Parliament deals with hundreds of laws.
Most of them are about regulating the EU economy in
the single market,
tackling climate change and writing rules for agriculture.
When it comes to foreign policy,
defense or healthcare, parliamentarians do not have as much influence.
Even though the parliament is elected directly by the people,
it does not have the final say alone for passing
new laws,
but must work together with the Council of the EU,
which represents the 27 EU governments.
EU laws are often a compromise,
and it can take several years until people feel the
first practical impacts at home.