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The European Parliament is the only directly elected institution in the European Union. First established as the Common Assembly in 1952, in 1979 the people of the nine member states (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Ireland and the UK) elected their representatives for the first time. Since then the European Parliament got more and more influence in the political process of the European Union.

Today 785 representatives from 27 member countries (who represent nearly half a billion people) decide, besides the Council of the European Union, about a various range of european policies like, among other things, culture, regional development, transport, environment and the budget of the European Union. Furthermore the Parliament decides about the appointment of the European Commission.

The Members of the European Parliament (MEP) are currently organised into 8 different political groups (15 members are not organised in a parlamentary party). Presently the European European People's Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats (EPP-ED) is the biggest fraction in the parliament followed by the Party of European Socialists (PES).

In January 2007 Hans-Gert Poettering from the EPP has been elected as the President of the European Parliament. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 1979, one of only 14 members of the European Parliament who have served continuously since the first elections. President Poettering will award the European Parliament Prize for Journalism during the European Youth Media Days 2008.

European Youth Press » www.youthpress.org

The European Youth Press is an umbrella association of young journalists in Europe. It involves more than 48.000 young journalists less than 30 years of age. The objectives of the European Youth Press are the strong cooperation among national youth media structures in Europe and their support. The overall aim is to strengthen the role of youth media and the freedom of press in Europe. Also, the European Youth Press takes part in discussions about journalist education standards and media policy in the European Union. The association sees itself as a service for the national structures and will foster projects of the different partners and projects that are organised by young media makers in Europe. The association provides contact forums and educational seminars for multipliers of the member associations and forces internal and external communication among all partners.

With concrete projects, e.g. the international event magazine "Orange" with print magazines or Blogs, PodCasts and V-Casts, the association wants to give young media makers from all over Europe the opportunity to cooperate directly with each other. Above all, the aim of all member associations and the umbrella structure is to inspire young people to deal with media and take an active part in society by fostering objective and independent journalism.

The European Youth Press is a young association, not only because it was just founded in 2004, but also because of our activists are young themselves. Up to now the young association consists of thirteen national youth media associations and a wide network of affiliated organisations. Journalists who are organised in those organisations usually below the age of 30 and work for school magazines, internet projects, radio and video productions, student magazines or they are interns in editor-rooms, freelancers, journalism students or trainees. All Projects of the European Youth Press are carried out by its member organisations. Besides ordinary members there is a broad network of affiliated organisations and further entities such as Universities or Journalism Schools that cooperate with the European Youth Press.