Is the European Parliament a proper Parliament?

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,0, Cardiff University (Political Science), language: English, abstract: ¿If there would not be a parliament, every waiter could govern¿ (Otto von Bismarck). With this statement, the Prussian-German statesman Otto von Bismarck emphasised the importance of a parliament within a democracy. The Parliament is the legislative and the heart of a democracy. Its importance is based on some key functions which it carries out to control the executive and to represent the interests of the citizens.

When the Lisbon Treaty came into force on 1st December 2009, the supporters of the European Parliament (EP) celebrated its empowerment. The Treaty gave the EP more power, so that some people are now of the opinion that the EP has the same rights and functions of a proper parliament and put it on the same level as a proper parliament. But is this really true? Indeed, the European Parliament is a powerful institution and within the European Union it should play the role of the legislative. But is it really equal with a proper parliament? Does it really perform the same key functions as a proper parliament? In this essay, I will discuss the statement: ¿the European parliament is not a proper parliament because it does not carry out the key functions a proper parliament would perform.¿