[Wikipedia Daily Article] August 6: European Parliament

[Faraaz Damji]

   The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary body of
   the European Union.  Together with the Council of the European Union,
   it forms the bicameral legislative branch of the Union's institutions
   and has been described by some as one of the most powerful
   legislatures in the world.  The Parliament, together with the Council,
   form the highest legislative body within the Union.  This is only
   within the competencies of the European Community being limited to
   specific policy areas, however Union law does override national law.
   The Parliament is composed of 785 MEPs (Member of the European
   Parliament) who serve the second largest democratic electorate in the
   world (after India) and the largest trans-national democratic
   electorate in the world (492 million).  It has been directly elected,
   every five years by universal suffrage, since 1979.  Although the
   European Parliament has legislative power that such bodies as those
   above do not possess, it does not have legislative initiative like
   most national parliaments.  While it is the "first institution" of the
   European Union, the Council has greater powers over legislation than
   the Parliament where codecision procedure (equal rights of amendment
   and rejection) doesn't apply.  It has however had control over the EU
   budget since the 1970s and has a veto over the appointment of the
   European Commission.

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament


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Today's selected anniversaries:

1806:
   The Holy Roman Empire dissolved after Francis II, the last Holy
   Roman Emperor, was forced to abdicate.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire)

1890:
   At Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York, USA, William Kemmler became
   the first person to be executed in an electric chair.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/electric_chair)

1945:
   World War II: Enola Gay, a B-29 Superfortress of the U.S. Army Air
   Force, dropped an atomic bomb named Little Boy on Hiroshima, Japan,
   killing an estimated 80,000 people.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki)

1966:
   Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahayan became emir and ruler of Abu
   Dhabi.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zayed_bin_Sultan_Al_Nahayan)

1991:
   British computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee posted files online
   describing his idea for a system of interlinked, hypertext documents
   accessible on the Internet, which he called a "World Wide Web".
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee)


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Wiktionary's Word of the day:

   diaphanous: Of a fine, almost transparent texture.
   (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/diaphanous)


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Wikiquote of the day:

   Flower in the crannied wall,I pluck you out of the crannies,I hold you
   here, root and all, in my hand,Little flower — but if I could
   understandWhat you are, root and all, and all in all,I should know
   what God and man is.  -- Alfred Tennyson
   (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Tennyson)