Parliament of the European Union (EU), which meets in Strasbourg, France, and Brussels, Belgium. Together with the Council of the European Union (the Council) and the European Commission , it exercises the legislative function of the EU. The Parliament's members are directly elected for a five-year term. The number of seats in the parliament is related to the number of EU members, allocated roughly in proportion to the size of their respective populations. In 2014, after the accession of ten new countries to the EU in 2004, two more in 2007, and one more in 2013, the number of seats stood at 751. Martin Shulz, a German social democrat politician, became president of the European Parliament in 2012 and was re-elected in 2014. Originally merely consultative, the European Parliament became directly elected in 1979, and later assumed increased powers. Though still not a true legislative body, under a co-decision legislative procedure introduced by the 1992 Maastricht Treaty (and extended…