It’s easy to confuse the European Parliament with the Council of Europe: they both have seats in the French city of Strasbourg (literally at a stone’s throw away from each other) and are both associated with pan-European policy debate on a myriad of issues.

This is what happened in the heading of the story entitled MEPs to debate abortion rights, (TMID, 15 April).

In this case, it merits mentioning that last week’s debate on abortion happened in the Council of Europe and not the European Parliament.

MEPs, short for “Members of the European Parliament”, sit only in the European Parliament, which has evolved from a consultative discussion body to a fully-fledged legislative institution in the European Union. Directly elected by citizens from the EU’s 27 member states (the next election is scheduled for June 2009), MEPs have powers to pass laws affecting the European Union.

The Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly, on the other hand, brings together Members of Parliament (MPs) from different European countries which are not necessarily member states of the European Union. Besides its 47 European member countries, the CoE hosts states like the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico and the Holy See as observers.

Massimo Farrugia

Press Officer

European Parliament

Valletta