Sessions of the European Parliament

Plenary session

The European Parliament meets once a month for a plenary session in Strasbourg, France. The session lasts four daysfrom Monday to Thursday. The representatives of all member states take part in the plenary sessionto vote on decisions.

The plenary session reviews the reports and proposals for decisions prepared by the Committees. The session agenda shows whether a vote will be taken after oral questions. Voting ensures that decision making in the European Union takes place democratically . The plenary sessions vote on new legislative proposals.

All the speeches made at the plenary session are recorded and published word-for-word (verbatim) in the original language.

• Plenary session agenda, protocols and speeches.
• Topical issues in plenary sessions.
• Video clips and recordings of the discussions in the plenary sessions. Use the link to start the video of the session you want.
• Direct forecast from the plenary session.

Extraordinary sessions

In addition to the monthly plenary session, the European Parliament holds many extraordinary sessionsin Brussels, Belgium. At least six of these mini-sessions are held every year. They last two days. Also, committee meetings and hearings take place in Brussels.

The committeess meet at least once a month. The meetings last two days. At the meetings, the committees discuss the proposals for new laws. Many experts are heard. The committee chairs Valiokuntien puheenjohtajat meet from time to time to ensure that cooperation between the committees works smoothly. The committee meetings are open to the members of the public who can actually go there to listen.

The opinions and proposals given by the committees are reviewed in the joint session of the European Parliament.

• More information on issues currently discussed by the committees.
• The calendar of the European Parliament.
  (To select the full-year calendar in pdf format, click the tab in the bottom right-hand corner. Red means a plenary session,pink a committee meetingand blue a meeting of a political group. No official meetings are held in weeks shown in turquoise – these are times when the European Parliament engages in other activities.
• Parliament’s weekly calendar.
• Direct TV broadcast from the session of the Parliament.
• Video clips of committee meetings (click the green arrow to select the meeting).