Rapporteur

EU Parliament in Brussels (Photo: EP)
A member of the EU Parliament that follows and reports on a particular issue for a parliamentary committee.
Rapporteurships are distributed between the political groups according to a points system based on the size of the group.
Every report or potential report is allocated a number of points according to its estimated importance.
The biggest EU Parliament groups normally get the most interesting reports, but the points system ensures that some interesting issues and reports are allocated to rapporteurs from the smaller groups in the Parliament.
A rapporteur has to faithfully recount the views and conclusions of the majority in the committee.
Occasionally, rapporteurs have resigned because they objected to having their names on reports that represent views other than their own.