A look at the duties of a European legislator

The European Parliament elected June 4-7 will be different from the outgoing one in several important ways:

_ New, tighter pay-and-perks rules require expenses to be accompanied by receipts to end the common practice of filing for full-fare air tickets while using discount carriers to get to the assembly's monthly meetings in Strasbourg, France, and Brussels.

_ Members can no longer "employ" relatives. They must also pay taxes and other charges for staff pay and hire an independent outside accountant to oversee expenses.

_ The monthly salary for all members becomes euro7,665 ($10,430) a month ending the rule that European Parliament members be paid the same as their counterparts in national legislatures. This led to vast income gaps because Italian members, for example, were paid 10 times more than those from Latvia or Estonia.

_ As before, assembly members serve for five years. No minimum qualifications required except members must be nationals of an EU state. They represent not their country but multinational political groups _ Conservatives, Greens, Socialists, Liberals, etc. The outgoing assembly had seven such groups.

_ The per diem remains fixed at euro298 ($405) for meetings and budget for staff and a home office at euro25,800 ($35,100) a month.

_ The assembly meets twice a month, except in August, to debate and vote on EU legislation. There are four-day plenary sessions in Strasbourg, France, and two-day plenaries in Brussels. In between, parliamentary committees meet in Brussels.