Jürgen KLUTE, GUE/NGL MEP

Abdelsalem MUSUTAFA, Democratic Union Party - PYD (Kurdish region, Syria) Representative for International Relations

Eyyup DORU, Peace and Democracy Party - BDP (Turkey) Representative for European Union

Fayik YAGIZAY, BDP Representative in Strasbourg

GUE/NGL Press:

David Lundy +32 470 85 05 09

Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20

BACKGROUND OF THE EVENT

Since 1979 the European Parliament is the only directly elected parliament beyond the nation-state. Every five years, the citizens of the European Union elect the now more than 750 members of the EP – the legislature of the European Union that has over the past two decades become a powerful institution on par with national government who are represented in the Council, with equal say in all legislative matters and budgetary issues.