EPTA total of 22 committees currently exist. 20 permanent main committees and 2 subcommittees. Further special committees or subcommittees can be set up to cover other topics by the European Parliament.
A committee consists of a number of members of the European Parliament, with the current numbers going from 24 in PECH (fisheries) to 76 in AFET (foreign affairs). It has a distribution in group-affiliation matching the parliament as a whole.
The committees deal with European Commission and Council proposals as well as writing their own opinions. In the ordinary legislative procedure they propose amendments and recommandations on if they believe the European Parliament as a whole should reject or accept a proposal and why. In each matter the president of the European Parliament, along with the leaders of the political groups and a member of parliament with no formal group choose a lead committee among the relevant committees to report on the specific issue. Each of the committees elect a member among them to act as a rapporteur or – for opinions – draftsperson. This person is responsible for writing a draft for a report/opinion for the plenary to use in votes. While work is ongoing in the committee there can be held hearings with specialists and experts as well as the European Commission can give their opinions, debates among the members of the committees and votes on amendments to reports/opinions.
During negotiation with the Council and European Commission the lead committee has the responsibility to set a negotiation team from the European Parliament. The team consists of representation from each group in the European Parliament. When negotiating the team has a responsibility to act according to amendments made by the European Parliament in plenary and in the committees.
The current committees are:
Foreign Affairs, AFET
Human Rights, DROI (subcommittee of AFET)
Security and Defence, SEDE (subcommittee of AFET)
Development, DEVE
International Trade, INTA
Budgets, BUDG
Budgetary Control, CONT
Economic and Monetary Affairs, ECON
Employment and Social Affairs, EMPL
Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, ENVI
Industry, Research and Energy, ITRE
Internal Market and Consumer Protection, IMCO
Transport and Tourism, TRAN
Regional Development, REGI
Agriculture and Rural Development, AGRI
Fisheries, PECH
Culture and Education, CULT
Legal Affairs, JURI
Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, LIBE
Constitutional Affairs, AFCO
Women's Rights and Gender Equality, FEMM
Petitions, PETI
Sources
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/full-list.html
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getLastRules.do?language=EN&reference=TOC#T2R2
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT RULES-EP 20130521 ANN-21 DOC XML V0//EN&language=EN&navigationBar=YES
http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/inside-the-european-parliament-pbBB3013578/
