March 2000

The legislative powers of the
European Parliament:
codecision between Parliament and the Council

Introduction and background

Ever since its creation almost 50 years ago, the European Parliament has been gradually evolving into an ever more influential institution as the result of the sizeable increase in its decision-making powers, most notably of all in those spheres of Community competence in which the legislative codecision procedure applies.

The first Community Assembly, the Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), was set up in 1952 and played no part in the legislative decision-making process. Decision-making in all areas except the budget remained the preserve of the Council of Ministers until 1993.

In 1957 the two Treaties of Rome which created the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) were signed. The change to the powers enjoyed by the Assembly under these new Treaties was slight yet highly significant. Whereas the ECSC Treaty referred to the Assembly’s powers as ‘supervisory’, as of 1958 Article 137 of the EEC Treaty made them ‘advisory and supervisory’ powers. Thus with the word ‘advisory’ emerged the prerogatives which Parliament enjoys to this day in drawing up legislation.

The first wide-ranging reform of the Treaties, the Single European Act of 1986, granted the European Parliament the opportunity to play more than a mere consultative role in Community decision-making. This new legislative procedure, dubbed ‘cooperation’, which still applies to the articles on economic and monetary union, obliges the Council to take into account the amendments proposed by Parliament, although they are not considered binding. Furthermore, the Single European Act established the so-called ‘assent’ procedure, under which, henceforth, the approval of the European Parliament would be required before certain agreements between the Community and other countries could be concluded.

However, it was the reform ushered in by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 which first placed the Parliament and the Council on an equal footing by establishing the ‘codecision procedure’ in Article 189b. This new article introduced a highly complicated procedure under which the two institutions engaged in negotiations spread over three ‘rounds’, or readings, before jointly adopting an agreement. This procedure for the approval of legislation covering 15 spheres of Community competence, including the internal market, the environment and research, was adopted at Maastricht. In spite of its inherent technical difficulties, under this procedure 165 Community laws have been signed jointly by the presidents of the two institutions since 1993.

Lastly, the reform contained in the Treaty of Amsterdam, which has been in force since 1 May 1999, has served both to simplify the codecision procedure and to widen its scope. Today the European Parliament plays a leading role alongside the Council in the majority of the legislative decisions taken within the European Union. All in all, the Community decision-making process has been democratised still further and European legislation has been brought more closely into line with the desires expressed by the citizens of Europe at the ballot box.


The codecision procedure

According to the basic principle of codecision, the Council and Parliament are co-legislators on an equal footing. Under the codecision procedure, no decisions can be adopted at European level without Parliament’s approval.

a)   The workings of the codecision procedure

The codecision procedure is defined in Article 251 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (EC Treaty).

The framework set out in the attached document gives a clear run-down of this legislative procedure.

The Treaty of Amsterdam has simplified the codecision procedure with a view to making it clearer and less time-consuming. Above all it makes it possible to wind up the procedure during the first reading and simplifies the final stages by removing the option of a third reading.

Under the Maastricht Treaty the codecision procedure required as many as three readings in the event of a disagreement between the Council and Parliament. If Parliament and the Council failed to reach agreement after the second reading, the Council could confirm its common position during the third reading, at which point the text was adopted, even if Parliament rejected it by an absolute majority. The difficulties in obtaining an absolute majority in Parliament gave the Council a certain advantage which the Amsterdam reform has since taken away, the Treaty of Amsterdam having removed the option of a third reading in the Council. The procedure has thus been shortened; a proposed text is rejected if conciliation between the two institutions fails. As a result, Parliament is recognised as a fully-fledged legislator equal to the Council, which must seek agreement if it wishes to have a text adopted.

Moreover, in a joint declaration, the institutions (Parliament, the Council and the Commission) are urged to pursue effectively all the options presented by the new procedure, especially by giving prominence to mutual exchanges of information and fostering interinstitutional cooperation in such a way that acts can be adopted during the first reading whenever possible.

b)   Scope of the codecision procedure

The Treaty on European Union sets out, chapter by chapter, the Community legislative procedures which apply in each instance. The codecision procedure applies exclusively to those Community powers contained within the EC Treaty.

The attached document lists those articles of the EC Treaty which make reference to the codecision procedure.

The Treaty of Amsterdam has significantly widened the scope of the codecision procedure, which has become standard practice in legislative matters. Since 1 May 1999 this procedure has been extended to areas such as measures to boost employment, customs cooperation, public health, the fight against fraud, and the principle of transparency.

In accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Amsterdam, as of 1 May 2004 the codecision procedure will be extended to certain regulations governing visa requirements for stays not exceeding three months (Article 67 of the EC Treaty). Furthermore, the Council, acting unanimously, may decide to extend codecision to other spheres of Community competence under the third pillar (Title IV of the EC Treaty).

That said, legislation in highly important spheres such as agriculture (Title II of the EEC Treaty) and competition, indirect taxation and the approximation of laws under Article 94 (Title VI of the EC Treaty) remain the preserve of the Council. In all of these areas the legislative procedure under which Parliament is merely consulted remains in place.


The codecision procedure in practice

Since the Treaty of Amsterdam entered into force on 30 April 1999, 162 acts of Community legislation have been adopted under this procedure, 63 of them after a joint text was approved by the Conciliation Committee. The average length of a legislative decision-making process under the codecision procedure was 710 days. The two institutions failed to reach agreement on only three matters: voice telephony (July 1994), biotechnology (March 1995), and the securities committee (May 1998).


Codecision in the run-up to the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC)

The Group of the European People’s Party (EPP-ED) has consistently campaigned to make the European Union more democratic.

On 18 November 1999 the European Parliament, with the full support of the EPP-ED Group, adopted its position in the run-up to the new IGC, restating in paragraph 19 its ‘firm belief that qualified majority voting (QMV) and codecision should become the normal method for general legislative Community-level decision-making’.

In its opinion of 26 January 2000 on the next Intergovernmental Conference to amend the Treaties (COM(2000)34 fin.), the Commission echoed Parliament’s approach in proposing:

• that the codecision procedure be extended to all legislative Community-level decision-making; and
  
• that qualified majority voting in the Council be radically extended, most notably to the four Treaty provisions to which both codecision and unanimous voting in the Council apply, namely the articles on the right to move and reside in another Member State, social security arrangements, European regulations on the right of establishment, and culture (Articles 18(2), 42, 47(2) and 151 of the EC Treaty).
  

In addition, the Chairman of the EPP-ED Group, Hans-Gert Poettering, has stated that a vote by the European Parliament approving the reforms proposed at the IGC will depend in large measure on the results obtained as regards extending the codecision procedure.


Editor: Pascal FONTAINE
Author: Delia CARRO
Or.: ES
Research and Documentation Service
EPP-ED Group - European Parliament
47-53 rue Wiertz, B-1047 Brussels

SCOPE OF THE CODECISION PROCEDURE: Treaty establishing the European Community (EC Treaty) PART ONE – PRINCIPLES - Article 12 – any discrimination on grounds of nationality is prohibited. PART TWO – CITIZENSHIP OF THE UNION - Article 18(2) – citizenship – the right of citizens to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States. PART THREE – COMMUNITY POLICIES Title III – Free movement of persons, services and capital – internal market - Article 40 – workers – freedom of movement for workers within the Community; - Article 42 – workers – special social security arrangements for Community migrant workers; - Article 44(1) – right of establishment – freedom of establishment of nationals of a Member State in the territory of another Member State; - Article 46(2) – right of establishment – coordination of the regulatory and administrative provisions governing the arrangements applicable to foreigners; - Article 47(1) – right of establishment – directives for the mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and other qualifications, in order to make it easier for persons to take up and pursue activities as self-employed persons; - Article 47(2) – right of establishment – directives for the coordination of the provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States to facilitate the taking-up and pursuit of activities as self-employed persons; - Article 47(2) – right of establishment – directives, the implementation of which involves in at least one Member State amendment of the existing principles laid down by law governing the professions with respect to training and conditions of access for natural persons; - Article 55 – services – freedom to provide services within the Community in respect of nationals of Member States. Title V – Transport - Article 71 – transport policy – common rules applicable to international transport within Member States, conditions under which non-resident carriers may operate transport services within a Member State, and measures to improve transport safety; - Article 80 –transport policy – sea and air transport. Title VI – Common rules on competition, taxation and approximation of laws - Article 95 – approximation of the laws of Member States which have as their object the establishment and functioning of the internal market. Title VIII – Employment - Article 129 – measures to boost employment. Title X – Customs cooperation - Article 135 – measures to strengthen customs cooperation between Member States and between the latter and the Commission. Title XI – Social policy, education, vocational training and youth - Article 137 – workers’ health and safety, working conditions, the information and consultation of workers, the integration of persons excluded from the labour market, and equality between men and women in the world of work; - Article 148 – implementation of decisions relating to the European Social Fund; - Article 149 – incentive measures to contribute to the development of quality education (excluding all harmonisation measures); - Article 150 – measures to contribute to the development of a vocational training policy which supports and supplements the action of the Member States (excluding all harmonisation measures); - Article 151 – measures to encourage cooperation between Member States in the field of culture (excluding all harmonisation measures). Title XIII – Public health - Article 152 – incentive measures to protect and improve human health (excluding all harmonisation measures), with particular regard to minimum requirements vis-à-vis the quality and safety of organs and substances of human origin, and the veterinary and phytosanitary fields which have as their direct objective the protection of public health. Title XIV – Consumer protection - Article 153 – measures to protect the health, safety and economic interests of consumers. Title XV – Trans-European networks - Article 156 – guidelines covering the overall objectives, priorities and broad lines of measures envisaged in the sphere of trans-European networks (transport, telecommunications and energy infrastructures), together with other measures that may prove necessary with regard to technical standardisation. Title XVII – Economic and social cohesion - Article 162 – implementing decisions relating to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Title XVIII – Research and technological development - Article 166 – adoption of a multiannual framework programme setting out Community activities in the field of research and technological development; - Article 172 – implementing measures relating to the multiannual framework programme. Title XIX – Environment - Article 175(1) – action taken by the Community in order to achieve the environmental objectives referred to in Article 174; - Article 175(3) – general action programmes setting out priority objectives. Title XX – Development cooperation - Article 179 – Community measures to achieve the objectives in the field of development cooperation referred to in Article 177 (with the exception of those relating to the ACP countries and governed by the ACP-EU Convention). PART FIVE – INSTITUTIONS OF THE COMMUNITY Title I – Provisions governing the institutions - Article 255 – transparency – definition of the general principles and limits governing the right of access to the documents of the institutions. Title II – Financial provisions - Article 280 – measures to prevent and counter fraud affecting the financial interests of the Community. PART SIX – GENERAL AND FINAL PROVISIONS - Article 285 – measures for the production of Community statistics; - Article 286 – establishment of an independent supervisory body responsible for monitoring the protection of personal data within the Community institutions.

Article 251 (ex Article 189b) 1. Where reference is made in this Treaty to this Article for the adoption of an act, the following procedure shall apply. 2. The Commission shall submit a proposal to the European Parliament and the Council. The Council, acting by a qualified majority after obtaining the opinion of the European Parliament, - if it approves all the amendments contained in the European Parliament's opinion, may adopt the proposed act thus amended; - if the European Parliament does not propose any amendments, may adopt the proposed act; - shall otherwise adopt a common position and communicate it to the European Parliament. The Council shall inform the European Parliament fully of the reasons which led it to adopt its common position. The Commission shall inform the European Parliament fully of its position. If, within three months of such communication, the European Parliament: a) approves the common position or has not taken a decision, the act in question shall be deemed to have been adopted in accordance with that common position; b) rejects, by an absolute majority of its component members, the common position, the proposed act shall be deemed not to have been adopted; c) proposes amendments to the common position by an absolute majority of its component members, the amended text shall be forwarded to the Council and to the Commission, which shall deliver an opinion on those amendments. 3. If, within three months of the matter being referred to it, the Council, acting by a qualified majority, approves all the amendments of the European Parliament, the act in question shall be deemed to have been adopted in the form of the common position thus amended; however, the Council shall act unanimously on the amendments on which the Commission has delivered a negative opinion. If the Council does not approve all the amendments, the President of the Council, in agreement with the President of the European Parliament, shall within six weeks convene a meeting of the Conciliation Committee. 4. The Conciliation Committee, which shall be composed of the members of the Council or their representatives and an equal number of representatives of the European Parliament, shall have the task of reaching agreement on a joint text, by a qualified majority of the members of the Council or their representatives and by a majority of the representatives of the European Parliament. The Commission shall take part in the Conciliation Committee's proceedings and shall take all the necessary initiatives with a view to reconciling the positions of the European Parliament and the Council. In fulfilling this task, the Conciliation Committee shall address the common position on the basis of the amendments proposed by the European Parliament. 5. If, within six weeks of its being convened, the Conciliation Committee approves a joint text, the European Parliament, acting by an absolute majority of the votes cast, and the Council, acting by a qualified majority, shall each have a period of six weeks from that approval in which to adopt the act in question in accordance with the joint text. If either of the two institutions fails to approve the proposed act within that period, it shall be deemed not to have been adopted. 6. Where the Conciliation Committee does not approve a joint text, the proposed act shall be deemed not to have been adopted. 7. The periods of three months and six weeks referred to in this Article shall be extended by a maximum of one month and two weeks respectively at the initiative of the European Parliament or he Council.