A Member of the European Parliament is the English name for a person who has been elected to the European Parliament, one of the European Union's two legislative bodies. MEPs are the European Union's equivalents of a country's national legislators in either the lower house or unicameral parliaments, often known as MPs or Deputies. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as euro-deputy being common in Romance language-speaking countries.W hen the European Parliament was first established, MEPs were appointed by member states from members of their own national parliament. Since 1979, however, MEPs have been elected by direct universal suffrage. Each country establishes their own way of electing their MEPs and in some countries the electoral system has changed over time and across regions. All now use one or another form of proportional representation. For a list of the current members see Members of the European Parliament 2009 2014.