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Legislative powers

4 important questions on Legislative powers

In 1979, the EP was limited to what?

To offering its opinion on legislation, which the Council could duly ignore (the consultation procedure).

The EP's scope remained fairly limited until 1986, when the first major increase in its legislative power came with the introduction of what?

Of the cooperation procedure in the Single European Act (SEA). Under the cooperation procedure, the EP gained a second reading of legislation and a conditional right of veto which meant that the Parliament could reject the legislation, but the Council could overturn its rejection if the member states were unanimous. Moreover, if the Commission supported the EP's amendments, the Council could adopt those amendments by QMV, but could reject them only by unanimity.

The cooperation procedure was repealed by the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, but its introduction was a turning point for the EP. It paved the way for further increases in the EP's powers in the Maastricht Treaty, which introduced the co-decision procedure, renamed in the Treaty of Lisbon as the OLP. The OLP makes the EP a what?

A genuine co-legislator with the Council, because the agreement of both institutions is necessary for legislation to be adopted. It introduced a third reading, an unconditional right of rejection for the EP, and a conciliation process, which is triggered after the EP's second reading if the Council cannot accept the EP's amendments.

Whilst the introduction of cooperation increased informal contacts between the Commission and the EP, the OLP has facilitated what?

The development of direct informal relations between small negotiating teams from the Council and EP from the the first reading of legislation onwards. Indeed, most agreement is now concluded at the first reading following informal negotiations often involving only a handful of people. A key advantage of this arrangement is that it is clearly easier to reach agreement quickly if there are only a few people involved in negotiations. However, this informality raises questions about the transparency of decision-making, which is of particular concern for the EP.