The European Parliament (EP) is elected by the citizens of the EU. It has 720 members from 27 EU countries and represents the interests of about 450 million people. The fact that the EP is directly elected by the citizens helps guarantee the democratic legitimacy of European law.

The EP exercises democratic supervision over the other EU institutions, especially the EC. The EP has the power to approve or reject the nomination of commissioners and also has the right to censure the EC as a whole. The EP shares authority over the EU budget with the CEU and can therefore influence EU spending. At the end of the process, it either adopts or rejects the budget in its entirety.

The EP also proposes and prepares amendments to the draft legislation in the area of food and feed safety. The EP has 22 standing committees and two subcommittees. The “Standing Committee on Environment, Climate and Food Safety” deals with food safety and drinking water issues among others.