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Co-decision

The Council building (Photo: European Commission)

Co-decision is the general procedure of law making where the Commission proposes and the Council decides under a procedure giving growing influence to the EU Parliament (Article 251 TEC). The procedure is called “co-decision” or “conciliation procedure” because the EU Parliament is allowed to propose amendments and to veto the proposed laws.

Procedure

• The Commission has the monopoly in proposing all EU laws.
• The Council then decides on the proposals by a qualified majority and the EU Parliament by simple or by absolute majority.
• The EU Parliament can veto a law or propose amendments by an absolute majority of its members in the second reading.
• If the Council does not accept the proposal of the absolute majority of the members of Parliament, a Conciliation Committee is established.
• The results of the Conciliation Committee must be approved by a qualified majority in the Council and a simple majority in the EU Parliament. Otherwise the adoption of the law fails.

Notes

In 2002, the Commission drew up 74 proposals under the co-decision procedure. The EU Council and Parliament finalised 79 dossiers. 20 of the proposals were adopted at first reading, 40 in two readings, and in 19 cases a Conciliation Committee was set-up. In 9 of these 19 cases a joint text was approved without discussion (an item). Environmental and social issues in particular required discussions.

The future

The EU Constitution proposes that this procedure shall become the general decision-making rule for EU legislation. This will strengthen the role of the EU Parliament.

Links

See also the Convention working group on Simplification and the EU Constitution art. III-302.

http://europa.eu.int/instituti......s/decision-making/index_en.htm

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