European Union Legislative Procedures

**European Union legislative procedures** are various methods defined in the European Union treaties that allow the Union to enact laws. The European Union is only allowed, i.e. competent, to legislate in narrow areas defined by the treaties.

## Principles

The principle of '**subsidiarity**' that the EU currently follows means that decisions should be taken as close to the people as possible. A local council would, for example, have the power over the streetlights in its local area rather than the regional, national or EU government. This means that when proposals are submitted for EU legislation, the EU analyses whether it is the best tier of government for legislation or whether it would be more effective at a local level.

The principle of '**proportionality**' that the EU also follows is that the actions of the EU shall not exceed what is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Treaties.

Finally, the principle of '**conferral**' is that the EU shall only act within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the member states in the Treaties. Any power not direcly given to the EU in the Treaties remains the reserve of the member states.

In Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU), the EU's values are laid out:

> The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.
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Normally, EU law is regarded to have supremacy over national laws where the two come into conflict.

Primarily, EU law comes from the treaties that were signed between the governments (the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union are the 2 main ones, and are often referred to as 'the Treaties'). Sourced from the treaties, secondary sources of EU law are also adopted, the types of which are highlighted below.

## Types of Legislation

Regulations: A law that is applicable & directly binding in all member states. It doesn't need to be passed into national laws. Normally take immediate effect on specified date. Usually, but not always, fairly narrow in intent.

Directive: A law that binds member states, or only a group of them to achieve a certain objective. The member states are usually given the flexibility to decide how to reach the requirement of the directive, but the requirement itself is binding. Normally, they have to be transposed into national law to be effective. Normally set a date by which the requirements must be met (or work towards them must have started, which the member state will inform the Commission on).

Decision: Addressed to member states, groups of people or even individuals. It is binding. Examples include ruling on proposed mergers between companies.

Recommendations & Opinions: No binding force. They are sometimes used to test reactions to new EU policies, or to provide interpretation on the application of the other types of legislation.

## Co-Decision Procedure

Also know as the **ordinary legislative procedure**, the **co-decision procedure** is the most common method of passing laws. The European Commission is almost exclusively the sole proposer of legislation. In this process, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU are considered to be 'co-legislators' in the vast majority of legislation. Both institutions can't directly propose legislation themselves. They do however, along with other institutions and methods, have the ability to recommend and put pressure on the Commission to introduce legislation in certain areas. This can be done through:

1. 25% of the member states agreeing legislation is needed
2. The European Central Bank
3. The European Investment Bank
4. The Court of Justice of the EU
5. The European Parliament recommending that legislation is needed to fulfill the treaties
6. Petitioning MEPs of the European Parliament
7. Committee reports of the European Parliament
8. The European Citizens Initiative - 1 million signatures from 7 EU member states on an issue that the EU has authority to carry out from the Treaties.

The following procedure is often referred to as the "ordinary legislative process":

1. Following a idea for legislation, the Commission will start a consultation process on the legislation, getting the advice of experts, non-governmental organisations, member states, the departments within the Commission itself and citizens of the EU.
2. The College of Commissioners can adopt Commission proposals by written procedure (without discussion) or oral procedure (with discussion). If a vote is called, it is done by simple majority.
3. The Commission submits its proposal to the Council & the European Parliament, but also to all EU national parliaments (who normally have committees to scrutinise EU legislation). Where relevant, it will also be sent to the Committee of the Regions (representing local government in the EU) and the Economic & Social Committee.
4. The proposal is referred to a Parliamentary committee, who appoints a rapporteur who subsequently produces a draft report containing potential amendments. The committee votes on the report and proposed amendments by a simple majority of votes cast.
5. The European Parliament then votes on amendments and the proposal as a whole. In rare cases at 1st reading, the European Parliament rejects the proposal. If they approve the proposal, amended or not, it is sent to the Council of the EU for its first reading.
6. In 1st reading, the Council can either accept the Parliament's position in which case the legislative procedure is ended, or can propose its own amendments, sending the proposal to a 2nd reading in Parliament.
7. In 2nd reading in Parliament, a similar procedure is followed to 1st reading. The proposal is referred to a committee, who produces a report on 2nd reading. The Parliament can still table amendments, but only in a more limited area. At this stage, the European Parliament can approve the Council's position amended, in which case it passes into law, can reject the Council's position, in which case the whole procedure is finished, or amend the Council's position, where it will head to a 2nd reading in Council.
8. Council can then either accept all amendments, in which case the proposal is adopted, or reject some of them, in which case a Conciliation Committee is set up.
9. The Conciliation Committee (made up of an equal number of MEPs/council members) tries to agree on a joint text. If not successful, the procedure is stooped. If successful, it heads to the Council and the European Parliament for a 3rd reading.
10. The European Parliament and the Council both vote on the joint text, but can't adapt it. If they both vote in favour, the proposal is adopted. If not, it is rejected and the procedure ends.

As part of the process, national parliaments are also sent the draft laws. Each member states gets 2 votes, which may be divide up into 1 vote per legislative body in a bicameral legislative system.

If **over 1/3** of member states agree that the law isn't compatible with the principle of subsidiarity - it receives a **yellow** card. The Commission subsequently has to review the legislation and can either amend the draft, keep it as it is or withdraw it.

If **over 1/2** of the member states agree - it receives an **orange** card. Again, the Commission has to review the legislation and can either amend, keep or withdraw it. However, this time it has to explain its actions if it keeps the draft unamended. The Council of Ministers and the European Parliament then get to decide if they agree with the national parliaments or the Commission. If more than 1/2 in either institution side with the national parliament, the draft is dropped.

Recently, however, less and less legislation goes through the whole "ordinary legislature procedure" and most is adopted at first reading.

> During the 7th legislature, 85% of files were agreed at 1st reading (415 out of 488 concluded), compared to 72% during the 6th legislature (2004-2009) and 29% during the 5th term (1999-2004).
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> But according to figures provided by the parliament, not a single bill ended up in a second reading agreement in 2016, only the second time this has happened since EU parliament record keeping began in 2004.
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This is because of a phenomenon known as **trilogues** - informal tripartite meetings between members of the Commission, Council and Parliament. They are intended to agree on informal texts before the actual proper process has begun, and don't have the same level of transparency the normal method has, denying key documents from the public eye. However, the European Ombudsmen began an investigation into trilogues, concluding with some ways to improve the transparency of them by releasing key documents to the public if possible. She expects a reply from the 3 key EU institutions by **Nov 2017** to see what the progress on implementing those reforms are.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.europarl.europa.eu/external/html/legislativeprocedure/default\_en.htm
2. ↑ https://euobserver.com/institutional/136630
3. ↑ https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/cases/summary.faces/en/69213/html.bookmark