EU%20Legislative%20Procedures%20and%20the%20European%20Parliament

1
EU Legislative Procedures and the European
Parliament
2
The political triangle of the EU

• The institutional context
• European Commission
• Council / European Council
• European Parliament
• Other institutions

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The development of the EPs legislative functions

• Treaty of Rome
• Single European Act
• Treaty of Masstricht
• Treaty of Amsterdam
• Treaty of Nice
• andThe Constitutional Treaty?

4
The development of the EPs legislative functions

• Considerable growth and differentiation in
  material scope and procedural complexity over the
  years

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The EPs working methods

• Committee structure
• Rapporteur system
• Coalition building and the role of political
  groups

6
Legislative procedures the current situation

• Assent Procedure
• EP can only accept or reject
• Areas of application (examples)
• Structural Funds and Cohesion Funds
• Uniform electoral procedure
• Accession of new Member States

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Legislative procedures the current situation

• Consultation Procedure
• EP may put forward proposals for amendements.
• Adoption of the act cannot be prevented nor can
  amendments be forced.
• Areas of application (examples)
• Common Agricultural Policy
• Competition Policy

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Legislative procedures the current situation

• Cooperation Procedure
• Introduced by Single European Act
• Leaving the last word to the Council
• Reduced scope after Treaty of Amsterdam
• Application
• Economic and Monetary Policy

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Legislative procedures the current situation

• Co-Decision Procedure
• Introduced by the Treaty of Maastricht and
  subsequently improved and extended
• Main legislative procedure of the EU
• EP shares legislative power with Council
• Areas of application (examples)
• Internal market
• Freedom of movement of workers
• Transport
• Consumer protection

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Addition Procedures

• Budgetary Procedure
• Procedure without Consultation
• Commission transmit proposal to Council
• adopts act by QMV or unanimously depending on the
  legal basis

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Variations of decision-making procedures

• Qualified majority voting within the Council with
  codecision
• Qualified majority voting within the Council with
  simple consultation
• Qualified majority voting within the Council with
  cooperation
• Qualified majority voting within the Council with
  assent
• Qualified majority voting within the Council
  without participation by the Parliament
• Unanimous voting within the Council with
  codecision
• Unanimous voting within the Council with assent
• Unanimous voting within the Council with simple
  consultation
• Unanimous voting within the Council without
  participation by the Parliament

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The Constitutional Treaty

• Simplification of legislative procedures
• Codecision procedure is becoming the ordinary
  legislative procedure
• Consultation and assent procedures are brought
  together under special legislative procedures
• Bridging Clause aimed at extending the scope of
  QMV and