[FR] 2009 European elections: key players, issues and alternatives

It has already been 30 years since the introduction of direct elections to the European Parliament in 1979. As the only European – and indeed international – institution elected by universal suffrage, its role is to represent the ‘peoples of the States’ of the European Union, according to the Treaties in force, and ‘the citizens of the Union’, according to the Treaty of Lisbon. Within the famous “institutional triangle” comprising the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, the latter is therefore the legislative assembly that embodies the legitimacy derived directly from European citizens, as opposed to the legitimacy of the States represented by the Council.