EP insight

De Informática Verde

Contenido

1 Short intro on European Institutions
2 The co-decision procedure
3 The Torpedo Ammendments in the Codecision Procedure
4 MEPs offices
5 More information

Short intro on European Institutions

The European Union has three governing bodies: the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union.

The Commission holds the executive power, the "government" of the EU. Its president, Mr. Jose Manuel Durão Barroso, can be considered as the president of Europe, by analogy to the executive powers of the member states. The 27 commissioners of the Barroso Commission take care of the European issues, as if European Ministries. The Commission has the legislative initiative, and therefore is the only body that can propose legislation.

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union share the legislative power, by analogy to what happens in bicameral systems. The Parliament is composed by 785 members, elected by direct universal sufrage, and it represents the almost 500 million citizens of the EU. In the Council, it is the governments of the 27 Member States which are represented. The European Presidency (currently occupied by France) is in fact the presidency of the Council

The co-decision procedure

The codecision procedure is the main tool to make european laws. The Commission proposes a text, and both the Parliament and the Council of the Union have to reach an agreement on it to make it enter into force.

The procedure is as follows:

First Reading

The EC launches a directive proposal. At any moment the EC can modify it or drop it, putting an end to the process.
Council and Parliament receive the proposal, and the first reading starts, lasting for about 8 months.
The Council assigns it to a working group, which will state its opinion in the general approach.
The Parliament assigns the study of the directive to a MEP (a rapporteur). One or more of the Parliament committees will give their opinion. This opinion will be voted in a plenary session. It is common that the ammendments needed to reach an agreement with the Council are included at this stage.
Then the Council speaks on the text voted in the EP. If it is accepted, the process ends and the directive is approved. If not, the Council produces the common position (common to the member states). Then the second reading starts.

Second reading

The Parliament receives the common position. If there are no ammendments in 3 months time, the agreement is taken as granted and the directive approved.
If there are ammendments, then a new process similar to the latter starts. One or more committees will give an opinion and there will be a plenary vote.
In this plenary, the Parliament can vote against the directive and finish the procedure. This does not usually happen, it happened for the first time on July 6th 2005, when the software patents directive was defeated.
If the Parliament approves the text with ammendments, the Council has to do its second reading
The Council also has the power to drop the directive at this stage. If the text from the Parliament is accepted, the directive is passed. If they decide to change it, there should be the third reading, the conciliation

Third Reading (conciliation)

At this stage there is a meeting of the three bodies: Parliament, Council and Commission. They try to agree on a common text. If they don't reach an agreement, the process ends and the directive is rejected. If they agree, there is a third reading.
If the Council and Parliament accept the text, the directive is finally passed. If any of them reject it, the process ends and the directive is rejected. There are no more options to reach an agreement. Up to 2005, there were 5 directives that were rejected this way.

Diagram showing the steps of the Codecision Procedure

The Torpedo Ammendments in the Codecision Procedure

The Torpedo Ammendments are part of the Telecom Package, a set of directives aimed at harmonizing the european laws on telecommunications. The Telecom Package is now in its first reading

The goal is to have the Torpedo Ammendments dropped from the Telecom Package.

If the Parliament votes against the ammendments, we have to be aware. The battle would not be completely over, as the Council may consider reintroducing them and forcing a second reading.

If the Parliament votes in favor of the ammendments, the battle is not lost yet, but things get much complicated. It should be now the Council the one to vote against the ammendments, and this would mean a second reading also. Lobby the Council is something much more difficult, as they defend national interests of the governments.

The decision of the Council on the Telecom Package is expected for mid November.