Okay, dear colleagues, can I ask you to take your seats?

We can start this last plenary before the elections.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your tireless work over the past five years.

Wow. It's only been five years. I mean, that's a thing that I just cannot wrap my mind around when I think about how this European Parliament is wrapping up its final session in Strasbourg before heading to the elections.

And Roberta Metzola, who we just heard talking, she's actually only been president of it for half of that time.

They've been through, we have been through so much over that five years. Guys, when this parliament first took their chairs,

Brexit was the big issue that we were talking about.

Challenging, but this parliament has delivered.

But then when Metzola kind of wrapped up the big issues, it didn't even make the list.

Last year, we have navigated our way out of COVID restrictions.

We have faced the invasion of Ukraine, decoupled from Russia.

Policy-wise, MEPs navigated huge issues like tech, climate, and migration.

The institution also suffered embarrassing scandals and allegations of foreign interference.

So looking back, how did this European Parliament perform?

Despite being the only directly elected EU body, is it still just a junior partner to the Commission and the European Council?

Or did this batch of MEPs manage to earn a more powerful position?

I'm Sarah Wheaton, host of EU Confidential.

This week, I assembled a mega panel of my Politico colleagues

to take a little mosey down memory lane and compare notes on this parliament.

What did they do and what did they kind of screw up?

We'll also check in on which MEPs deserve Politico's special un-awards.

You know, some of them have been, well, kind of lousy at their jobs.

...