The Conference is made up of the leaders of political groups, the Parliament president and a non-attached member -that is, an MEP with no political group affiliation- that may attend but not vote. Decisions are made through consensus or voting, with the weight of each leader´s vote based on the number of MEPs in their political group, i.e. more members = more clout.
Responsibilities:
- The Conference decides on the organisation of the Parliament's work and on its relations with other institutions.
- It decides what the plenary will discuss and organises speaking times for members during sessions.
- It determines the composition of parliamentary committees - how many MEPs they will have from each political group - and what topics the committees will focus on.
- It is responsible for giving committees the go-ahead to propose own-initiative reports - that is, a report drafted through a member´s own interest in a certain topic.
- The Conference also selects the laureate of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the candidates proposed by the Foreign Affairs and Development committee.
REF. : 20140616STO49701
