Article 14 - The European Parliament

It is particularly interesting to note that an organization with the purpose that characterized the European Community, established under international law, has from the outset felt the need to give itself an organ called a "Common Assembly", composed of "representatives of the peoples of the States brought together in the Communities". After 1979, the Assembly changed its name and became the "European Parliament", elected directly and by universal suffrage. The Treaty of Maastricht has consolidated the factual positions previously assumed by the European Parliament regarding the collaboration between the institutions and, additionally, brought about structural changes in the Community/Union by establishing the three-pillar system, an extension of policies included in the Treaties and, above all, new rules on the competences which, thanks to the principle of subsidiarity, allowed the Community to intervene in every area. The change in perspective that came about with the emergence of the federal character of the European integration process has gradually led to an increasing use of constitutional law language and focused the discussion on the long-debated issue of the Community system's democratic deficit. In this context, accentuating the level of democratization towards a more representative system, the role of the European Parliament assumes central significance. This is underlined by the fact that, in Title III of the TEU-Lisbon, the Parliament is assigned the first place in the enumeration of the institutions and that it is always the first to be mentioned in the different policy areas of the TFEU.