The first part of the paper looks at the main features which make the European Parliament so unusual and to which its secretariat has had to adapt. The second part of the paper considers how the secretariat has evolved in response to the advent of direct elections, the increase in the number of Member States and the rapidly changing institutional framework. As a consequence the EP Secretariat is now one of the largest and best resourced parliamentary secretariats in the world. At the same time there has been a shift in the balance of power between different categories of staff, with the number of permanent officials growing more slowly than the temporary officials in the political groups and more recently than the MEPs accredited and local assistants.
The final section of the paper looks at the new challenges faced by the EP Secretariat, including the current crisis, the challenge of Brexit, the drop in the volume of new EU legislation, the greater emphasis on policies and procedures where the EP has fewer formal powers, the need for greater expertise in areas such as impact assessment and implementation, and the reinforced role of national parliaments. The paper concludes by looking at the implications of these developments for the future evolution of the EP Secretariat.
