Compliance in the European Union
Decision-making in the European Union
Decision-making at European Union level involves various European
institutions, in particular:
- the
European Commission
- the European Parliament (EP)
-
the Council of the European Union
In general, it is the European Commission
that proposes new legislation, but it is the Council and
Parliament that pass the laws. In some cases, the Council can
act alone. Other institutions also have roles to play.
The main forms of EU law are directives and regulations. The
rules and procedures for EU decision-making are laid down in the
treaties. Every proposal for a new European law is based on a
specific treaty article, referred to as the ‘legal basis’ of the
proposal. This determines which legislative procedure must be
followed. The three main procedures are ‘consultation’, ‘assent’
and ‘co-decision’.
1.
Codecision
This is the procedure now used for most EU
law-making. In the codecision procedure, Parliament does not
merely give its opinion: it shares legislative power equally
with the Council.
If Council and Parliament cannot
agree on a piece of proposed legislation, it is put before a
conciliation committee, composed of equal numbers of Council and
Parliament representatives. Once this committee has reached an
agreement, the text is sent once again to Parliament and the
Council so that they can finally adopt it as law. Conciliation
is becoming increasingly rare.
Most laws passed in
co-decision are, in fact, adopted either at the first or second
reading as a result of good cooperation between the three
institutions.
2. Assent
The assent procedure means that the Council has to obtain the
European Parliament's assent before certain very important
decisions are taken.
The procedure is the same as in the
case of consultation, except that Parliament cannot amend a
proposal: it must either accept or reject it. Acceptance
(‘assent’) requires an absolute majority of the vote cast.
The assent procedure is mostly used for agreements with
other countries, including the agreements allowing new countries
to join the EU.
3.
Consultation
The consultation procedure is used in
areas such as agriculture, taxation and competition. Based on a
proposal from the Commission, the Council consults Parliament,
the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of
the Regions.
Parliament can:
-
approve the Commission proposal
- reject it,
-
or ask for amendments
If Parliament asks for amendments, the
Commission will consider all the changes Parliament suggests. If
it accepts any of these suggestions it will send the Council an
amended proposal.
The Council examines the amended
proposal and either adopts it or amends it further. In this
procedure, as in all others, if the Council amends a Commission
proposal it must do so unanimously.
Every Monday
Top 10 risk and
compliance management related news stories and world events
Do you want to receive every Monday the
Top 10 risk and
compliance management related news stories and
world events that
(for better or for worse) shaped the week's agenda, and what is
next?
You may submit the form that follows. We meet
strict national and international privacy standards. You can
unsubscribe at any time.
Directory of Community legislation in force
01 General, financial and institutional matters (number of
acts: 1035)
02 Customs Union and free movement of goods
(number of acts: 860)
03 Agriculture (number of acts:
3211)
04 Fisheries (number of acts: 729)
05
Freedom of movement for workers and social policy (number of
acts: 429)
06 Right of establishment and freedom to
provide services (number of acts: 233)
07 Transport
policy (number of acts: 610)
08 Competition policy
(number of acts: 1611)
09 Taxation (number of acts: 175)
10 Economic and monetary policy and free movement of capital
(number of acts: 374)
11 External relations (number of
acts: 3108)
12 Energy (number of acts: 343)
13
Industrial policy and internal market (number of acts: 1360)
14 Regional policy and coordination of structural
instruments (number of acts: 365)
15 Environment,
consumers and health protection (number of acts: 1078)
16
Science, information, education and culture (number of acts:
376)
17 Law relating to undertakings (number of acts:
108)
18 Common Foreign and Security Policy (number of
acts: 376)
19 Area of freedom, security and justice
(number of acts: 504)
20 People's Europe (number of acts:
18)To learn more: eur-lex.europa.eu
|
