Who we are: Ambassadors of the European Parliament
We guys from the Pietro Giannone Institute (SML) can proudly claim to be European Ambassadors.
But who are the European Ambassadors? Let's find out together!
Some of our teachers and we students have been appointed senior and junior ambassadors, our school has in fact been selected to participate in the program and implement it. Teachers deal with the didactic aspect, mainly by organizing lessons on European parliamentary democracy. Educators can use the teaching materials interactive European Parliament including information and general news on the EU, training on democratic skills and participation, role-playing games and quizzes to play in the classroom. We teachers and students are invited to carry out activities such as setting up an EU Info Point, organizing Europe Day events or creating content for social media. Furthermore, we have contacts with MEPs, other ambassadors and partners and we dialogue with their communities.
​
What is the European Parliament?
​
It is one of the institutions of the European Union (EU) and is made up of representatives of the citizens of the Union (European citizenship). Its organization and its tasks are provided for in Articles 223 and following of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. It is made up of 705 deputies elected in the 27 Member States of the Union, in proportion to the population of each country and according to common principles, and remains in office for five years.
Election and functioning. - By decision of the Council of the European Union of 20 September 1976, the election by direct universal suffrage of European parliamentarians was decided; the first elections took place in 1979, allowing the European Parliament to become an institution of direct and immediate representation.
The functioning of the European Parliament is governed by its rules of procedure, adopted by a majority of members. Parliament appoints a president from among its members for a period of two and a half years with powers of representation outside and in relations with other institutions. Other bodies of the European Parliament are: the Bureau (composed of the President, 14 Vice-Presidents, and 5 Quaestors), which deals with the administrative and financial functioning; the Conference of Presidents (made up of the president and the presidents of the political groups), which defines the organization and planning of the work; the 20 parliamentary committees with competences in specific sectors and tasks of drafting and examining legislative proposals. THE MEPs meet in political groups on the basis of political affinity and not nationality.
Skills . - The European Parliament exercises, jointly with the Council of the Union, the legislative function and the budget function (Article 14, No. 1 of the Treaty on European Union). It also has political control functions, in particular over the European Commission, against which it can adopt a motion of censure which, if approved by a majority of two thirds of the votes cast and by a majority of the members of Parliament, determines the collective resignation of the members of the Commission (Article 234 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union).
