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The European Parliament is elected every five years by the people of Europe to represent their interests. The Parliament has an ever increasing role in the decision-making process of the EU. Most legislative acts of the EU are adopted under the joint decision procedure in which the Parliament is the key decision maker together with the Council of the EU. The Parliament approves the annual budget of the EU jointly with the Council of the EU. Another important function of the Parliament is supervision of other EU institutions.
The European Parliament is most open to public involvement in decision making as it represents interests of its electorate and promotes communication and exchange of views with EU citizens – voters, interest groups, lobbies, NGOs, etc.
The public can follow the activities of the Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg, but citizens of Latvia can meet MPs in Rīga.
The European Parliament
Address: Rue Wiertz / Wiertzstraat, B 1047, Brussels, Belgium
Phone: +32 3 2842111
Fax: +32 2 2846974
E-mail: directinfo@europarl.europa.eu
WWW: http://www.europarl.europa.eu
Information Bureau of the European Parliament
Address: Aspazijas blvd. 28 (3rd floor), Rīga, LV-1050
Phone: 6708 54 60
Fax: 6708 54 70
E-mail: epriga@europarl.eu.int
WWW: http://www.europarl.lv
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