Eerste zitting van vernieuwd Europees Parlement (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The newly enlarged European Parliament will begin its new five-year term today with a plenary session in Strasbourg.

Containing 732 MEPs from 25 member states, it is the only directly-elected body in the EU and represents around 450 million people.

Today will see the election of its new president - most likely Spanish socialist MEP Josep Borrell.

The heads of the different committees and the vice-presidents of the Parliament will also be elected over the course of this week.

However, the start of the parliament has been marred by the backroom deals between the two biggest groups in the parliament - the centre-right and the socialists - which have seen the presidency of the Brussels assembly plus committee chairs carved up between them.

A record-low turnout at the European elections in June is also casting a long shadow over the assembly.

Participation in the new member states, which had only joined the month before, were some of the lowest rates ever seen.

This was despite outgoing head of the parliament Liberal Pat Cox who did much to raise awareness of the European Parliament during his time in office.

This parliament will have several important issues to look at that were left over from the last term - the last parliament passed over 400 bills.

How legislation fares in this parliament will depend on the interaction between the six political groups - the centre-right, socialists, liberals, Greens, Leftists and eurosceptics.

The eurosceptics, strengthened after the June elections, have already caused some ructions in the assembly by promising to be as obstructive as possible.