Basic guide to the different ways legislation is made in the Union

Date: 26/10/1995

PUT simply, EU legislation is proposed by the European Commission and approved by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament, after consultation with two advisory bodies, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.

The relative power of the Parliament and the Council varies depending on the issues at stake. However, the approval of legislation is a lot more complex in fact. What follows is a short guide to the EU's many decision-making methods.

Under consultation, the Union's oldest procedure, the Commission is obliged to send legislative proposals to the Parliament which may recommend changes. The Council, however, is not obliged to take those changes on board. Consultation is still used for some common policies and institutional matters.

The co-operation procedure, introduced by the Single European Act in 1987, gives the Parliament two chances to change legislative proposals. When proposals return to the assembly for a second reading, Parliament may do one of three things: it may approve the legislation in question; reject it by a majority of members (314 out of 626 MEPs), in which case it falls unless the Commission and all member states agree within three months to overrule MEPs; or it may propose amendments which, if supported by the Commission, are included in a revised text which Council can only change unanimously. Any modifications not supported by the Commission must be adopted unanimously by the Council. Co-operation covers areas such as development policy and social policy.

The Maastricht Treaty brought in co-decision, a procedure which virtually puts MEPs on an equal legislative footing with ministers in some areas by giving them the right to reject certain proposals. Council and Parliament must enter into formal negotiations known as conciliation meetings if, after the second reading, member states are unwilling to accept Parliament's wishes. The two sides are given six weeks to strike a deal. If they fail, Council may adopt the legislation unilaterally, but Parliament has the right to reject it by an absolute majority in a third reading within a six-week period. Policy areas covered by co-decision include culture, consumer affairs, the environment and single market rules.

There are two types of assent procedure, both introduced in 1987. International agreements, certain decisions concerning structural funds, the creation of the cohesion fund, some freedom of movement measures and changes to the European system of central banks must win the approval of a simple majority of MEPs before being adopted by the Council.

An absolute majority of deputies must agree to the accession of new member states and to a uniform electoral system for European elections. Parliament is currently threatening to block a customs union with Turkey if Ankara does not improve its human rights record.

When it comes to the EU's budget, Parliament has considerable powers. Within certain agreed limits, it can increase expenditure without the Council's approval and re-distribute cash, again within limits, among the various sectors. It may or may not approve of Union spending and has the power to reject the whole budget should it fall short of its expectations, a power which it has used in the past.

Parliament has also created new EU policies by allocating funds to new budget items for which policies must then be forged.

There are two ways in which MEPs can change the Commission's spending plans. Parliament can change “compulsory” spending (agriculture, administrative refunds to member states and expenditure on third-country agreements), but can be over-ruled by Council. Changes to “non-compulsory” spending (roughly everything else), however, cannot be over-ruled by Council if they stay within agreed ceilings.

Within the Council, there are three ways of taking decisions: by simple majority, qualified majority or unanimously. These three procedures are mixed and matched with the above, depending on the policy area, to create a wide range of law-making systems.

Simple majority decisions, quite simply, must be approved by at least eight of the EU's 15 member states.

The system for qualified majority voting, however, is more complicated. Each member state has a certain number of votes broadly based on the size of its population. Generally speaking, 62 votes out of a total of 87 must be mustered before a Commission proposal can become law. Put another way, a minimum of 26 votes (a blocking minority) is needed to veto legislation. On social issues, because of the UK's opt out and the consequent loss of its 10 Council votes, a simple majority is made up of 52 out of 77 votes, instead of 62 out of 87.

Unanimous means what it says, namely that all 15 member states must agree to the proposed measures. However, an abstention does not prevent a unanimous decision.

Legislative proposals often include clauses giving the Commission and committees made up of national experts the right to review directives. This legislative review procedure is known in EU jargon as commitology and is vehemently opposed by MEPs, who think it freezes them out of an important part of the legislative process.

The Commission can adopt legislation unilaterally in certain circumstances. Special powers granted under Article 90 of the Treaty allow the Commission to adopt monopoly-busting legislation without consulting MEPs or member states.

These Article 90 directives, however, are viewed with some hostility by member states which jealously guard their national sovereignty and the Commission only uses them when it is left with little choice.

Votes in Council: France 10, the UK 10, Italy 10, Germany 10, Spain 8, Belgium 5, Greece 5, the Netherlands 5, Portugal 5, Austria 4, Sweden 4, Denmark 3, Ireland 3, Finland 3, Luxembourg 2.