The EU is made up of four working bodies, they are: The European Parliament, The Council of Minsters, The European Commission and The European Court of Justice.

The European Parliament is the elected body, its role is to consider and approve (or disapprove) proposed laws from the European Commission with agreement with The Council of Ministers.

The Council of Ministers represents the Member States. It is made up of one minster from each Member State depending on the subject being discussed; for example, Britain would send its Agricultural Minister if the talks are on agriculture. The European Council, or the "Summit", is the gathering of Prime Ministers, Heads of State and the President of the European Commission. They gather together to discuss and set out guidelines for the EU to work towards.

The European Court's role is to ensure the Member States are abiding by the law. Not to be confused with the European Court of Human Rights which is not an EU institution but part of the Council of Europe.

MEPs represent their constituents in the European Parliament as MPs do at Westminster. Additionally, they liaise with officials from other European Institutions, listen to national governments, industries and lobbyists. However, MEPs do not sit according to their national delegation but by their political affinity, better known as a Multinational Political Grouping. In the case of the British Conservatives, they are part of the European People's Party and European Democrats (EPP-ED), a collection of centre right parties within the parliament. To find out about the EPP-ED ...more>>

MEPs do not have individual constituencies like MPs but represent regions. The UK is divided up into 12 regions with the number of MEPs dependent on the population, for example, the West Midlands region currently has seven MEPs. Voting is based on a system of proportional representation, so in an European election, British voters vote for a political party rather than an individual candidate. The number of MEPs each party has to represent them in the parliament depends on the number of votes cast for each party in that region. The Conservatives polled the most votes in the West Midlands in 2004 so they have three MEPs, while Labour have two and the Liberal democrats and UKIP have one MEP respectively. As the region is such a large area to cover, The West Midlands Conservative MEPs have divided their region up so that you know who to contact. To find out, please click on .....more>>

If you have a problem at a European level, the West Midlands Tory MEPs may be able to help. Here are some examples of issues they have dealt with in the past:

• Helped an elderly couple who were being harassed by a timeshare company.
• Helped narrowboat owners to be exempt from a directive that stated they had to have radar.
• Helped push through legislation that will enable companies to move into new markets across Europe.

The Parliament has three roles, adopting European laws, adopting the EU budget with the Council of Ministers and scrutinising any proposed law from the European Commission. MEPs are assigned to 20 committees, ranging from foreign affairs, fisheries and Employment. Each committee or delegation elects its own ‘bureau' comprising a chairman and two or three vice-chairmen.

A MEP's time is split between three places: UK, Brussels and Strasbourg. For three weeks of the month it is spent mainly in Brussels and the UK. In Strasbourg it holds a one four-day meet, better known as a Plenary Session, though occassionally mini-plenaries are held in Brussels. However, during some months, a week is set aside for MEPs to devote time towards constituency matters - better known as External Parliamentary Activities

An MEP's work is somewhat governed by the Parliament's timetable. Typically, MEPs spend Monday to Thursday either in Brussels or Strasbourg and Friday/weekend in the UK. In Brussels, the work consists of two functions, Parliamentary Committees and Political Group Meetings. Each MEP is assigned to a particular committee, for example economic affairs, whereby he/she discusses a proposed piece of legislation on that field. A Political Group Meeting is when Parliament splits away to their political groupings to probe the reports produced by the Committee. In Strasbourg, it is very different, as the whole of Parliament comes together to vote on proposed legislation as a result of committee and group meetings.

When a MEP comes back to the UK, the work does not stop there. It's time to deal with constituency matters, visit business leaders, school talks and party political matters