European Union Legislation

The role of the Institutions

Contrary to popular belief, the European Commission is not the legislature of Europe and nor is the legislative process becoming less democratic. Since 1979, the role of the European Parliament has become increasingly important and it is now almost an equal partner (with the Council of the European Union - formerly known as the Council of Ministers) in the legislative process. The Commission may propose legislation and it will (with the Court of Justice and the Court of Auditors) ensure that the legislation is implemented but it cannot legislate by itself.

Originally, the Treaty of Rome (1957) gave the European Parliament - which was then an unelected chamber - only a simple, consultative role in the process. The European Commission proposed legislation and the Council decided it.

Since 1979, MEPs have been directly elected by universal suffrage and, through the Treaties of Maastricht and of Amsterdam, the Parliament has gained substantially greater powers. It can amend legislation and adopt it (albeit jointly with the Council).

These developments effectively mean that citizens interests are properly represented through the Parliament whilst the interests of Member States are represented through the Council of the European Union.

The Legislative Procedures

Currently there are three main legislative procedures:

Consultation
Codecision
Assent

Consultation

The Consultation procedure requires that the Parliament's opinion is sought before the Council adopts a Commission proposal for legislation.

Codecision

Codecision enables real sharing of decision-making between Parliament and the Council. It is based around a conciliation committee - made up of equal numbers of members of Parliament and the Council (with the Commission present as advisors) - which has the task of seeking agreement on a draft joint text that the Council and Parliament can adopt. If they disagree, Parliament can reject the proposal outright.

The codecision procedure is now used for most EU law-making.

Assent

The assent procedure applies to important international decisions such as the accession of new Member States, association agreements with third countries, the organisation and objectives of the Structural and Cohesion Funds, or the tasks and powers of the European Central Bank. This procedure authorises Parliament to give or withhold its approval of the legislative proposal presented to it, but it does not have the right to amend it.

What form do Community laws take?

Community laws adopted by the Council - or jointly with Parliament and the Council within under the codecision procedure - may take the following forms:

Regulations
Directives
Decisions
Simple recommendations and opinions

Regulations

Regulations apply to everyone as soon as they are adopted by the Community. They are directly applicable without the need for national implementing measures.

Directives

Directives set objectives, but it is up to the Member States to apply them at the national level: they are binding on the Member States in terms of the result to be achieved, but leave them the choice of the form or means to be used.

Decisions

Decisions address specific issues: they are binding in all aspects for those to whom they are addressed. A decision can thus be addressed to any or all Member States, businesses or even individuals.

Recommendations

Recommendations and opinions are instruments with no binding legal effect. They simply indicate the institutions' position on a given subject. The choice of one or other of these instruments is left to the discretion of the institution which is adopting it.

All legislation is regularly published in the Official Journal of the European Communities in each of its twenty three official languages (Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish). Primary legislation must also be published in Irish Gaelic.

The Court of Justice of the European Communities settles disputes which could arise on the interpretation and application of the Treaties, and on all Community legislation. It is assisted in this task at Community level by a Court of First Instance and it works closely with all the national courts of the Member States.