Inter-institutional agreements
The European Commission, Parliament and Council can develop semi-constitutional law by reaching a common agreement, rather than by amending existing treaties. These, so-called, “inter-institutional” agreements are binding for the contracting institutions.
Notes
- Powers to control the EU budget have been developed for the EU Parliament in this way.
- The Treaty of Nice only allows inter-institutional agreements when all three institutions take part. The Council insisted on this following an agreement between the EU Commission and the Parliament on access to certain classified documents on which the Council did not agree.
