The Legislative Process of the EU

The process of legislation within EC law appears to be quite complex. One of the reasons for this is that all rules and procedures for legislating are laid down in the Treaties at different points. Every EC law is based on a specific Treaty Article, in this case referred to as the “legal basis” of the legislation. The second reason is that there are different processes of legislation and the appropriate process depends on the particular area of the Treaty objectives that requires legislating.

The three institutions mainly involved in the legislative process are:

- the Commission (body mainly responsible for “proposing” legislation and producing draft legislation);

- Parliament (which either has a consultative role or in certain instances can propose amendments);

- Council (the body that in effect is responsible for passing new legislation).

Other institutions also have a role in terms of receiving draft proposals for legislation and providing consultation, particularly the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. COREPER, of course, has the role to play in supporting Council through all legislation.

There are basically four types of legislative procedure that are now possible within the Community legal order. However, it is also true that there are limited circumstances where the Commission is authorized to legislate on its own and are other instances where the Council and Commission can act without consulting Parliament, although in practice they still do.

The four main processes are:

- the proposal (or consultation) procedure- original process – only limited use after Treaty of Amsterdam;

- the co-operation procedure – draft legislation sent by Commission to Council and Parliament which sends an “opinion”; Council adopts “common position” and Parliament has three months to act in one of three ways; adopts “common position” or if Parliament does nothing then Council adopts the measure:

- can do nothing, Council then adopts common position or if it does not then measure is not adopted;

- can reject common position but only with an absolute majority of MEPs, then Council can only adopt by unanimous vote;

- can propose amendments – if so, Commission re-examines proposal and common position and forwards new proposal to Council with reasons for rejecting any amendments –Council can either:

a) adopt new proposal by qualified majority or

b) amend it by unanimous vote or

c) adopt amended proposal despite Commission’s objections by unanimous vote.

- the co-decision procedure – introduces by TEU and simplified by Treaty of Amsterdam and Treaty of Nice. Involves two readings by both Parliament and Council – and possibly a “conciliation committee”:

- draft legislation sent by Commission to Council and Parliament which sends an “opinion”;

- Parliament may suggest amendments;

- Council can adopt proposal by qualified majority if either:

a) agrees with all of Parliament’s amendments or

b) Parliament has made no amendments

or:

- Council adopts “common position” by qualified majority and sends to Parliament;

- within three months Parliament can approve common position or

- if does nothing then Council can adopt the common position;

or:

- within three-month period Parliament can:

a) reject common position by absolute majority of MEPs – acts like veto and measure cannot be adopted or

b) propose new amendments by an absolute majority;

- if amendments introduced, then are sent to Commission which can:

a) accept them all or

b) reject them all or

c) selectively accept some and reject others

- Council can then either:

a) approve them all and adopt by qualified majority or

b) fail to adopt and convene a “Conciliation Committee”;

- within six weeks, committee has two choices:

a) can approve new joint proposal decided upon by committee which can then be adopted by Parliament by absolute majority and Council by qualified majority or

b) can fail to find any compromise, then measure is not adopted.

- the process of assent – modified co-decision procedure:

- Council adopts Commission proposals with assent of Parliament;

- limited use, e.g. international agreements under Article 300, rights of EU citizens under Article 18.

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