Legislative processes in the European Union

Legislative processes within the EU must be efficient and must lend all legislation democratic legitimacy. The major difficulty is ensuring that the influence and interests of larger, medium-sized and smaller Member States are all adequately taken account of.
The legislative processes are different for each of the three pillars of the European Union which were introduced in 1993 under the Maastricht Treaty. The first pillar encompasses the areas governed by the Treaties establishing the European Communities, the second pillar covers the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the third pillar police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

• The legislative process under the first pillar
• The legislative process under the second and third pillars

The legislative process under the first pillar

Legislative instruments binding on all are the product of cooperation between several EU organs and bodies.

Most legal instruments are passed with the involvement of the following three organs:

1. The European Commission submits a draft proposal and determines the legal basis for Community action. The draft is drawn up by the Commission Directorate General responsible for the subject area, with input from the Legal Service. The proposal is presented by the Commission as a whole. It is adopted by the Commission as a formal draft.
   This draft is submitted to the Parliament and Council for consultation and further action.
   
2. The European Parliament, which represents the people of the Union, considers the draft. In certain cases, the Committee of the Regions and/or the Economic and Social Committee are involved as appropriate, and may submit their opinions.
   
   

   The legislative role of the European Parliament has been constantly upgraded since 1993 through amendments to the Community Treaties, starting with the Maastricht Treaty. The exact nature of the Parliament's role depends on which legislative procedure is being followed in any particular case. There are now four procedures:
   

   • Codecision procedure
   • Cooperation procedure
   • Assent procedure
   • Consultation procedure
     
3. The Council of the European Union is the most important decision-making organ of the European Community. It is composed of ministerial-level representatives of the Member States. The names of the legislative procedures refer to the level of participation by the European Parliament. Once the legislative procedure has been successfully completed, it is the Council that adopts any given piece of legislation.
   

   The Council's decision is taken either by qualified majority or by unanimity, depending on the policy field concerned. Since the amendments effected by the Treaty of Nice in 2003, votes are allocated in the Council of the European Union as follows pursuant to Art. 205 TEC:

On the website of the Federal ministry of economy and technology a majority calculator for council decisions helps to calculate possible outcomes of votings.

The European Commission implements and executes legislation with the assistance of the so-called comitology committees. These are composed of representatives of the Member States and are chaired by a Commission representative.

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The legislative process under the second and third pillars

The general direction of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (second pillar) is set by the European Council, the supreme organ of the European Union. The European Council brings together the Heads of State and Government of the Member States with the President of the Commission. They are assisted by the Foreign Ministers and a member of the Commission. "Common strategies" are adopted by unanimous vote in the European Council.
The Council of Ministers takes the decisions required to set out and implement the common foreign and security policy on the basis of the strategies adopted by the European Council. These decisions take the form of:

• Common positions. These set out the Union's ideas on a particular geographical or thematic area.
• Joint actions. This instrument is chosen when the European Union takes action, for example imposing sanctions or deploying election observers.

Under the third pillar, the EU is pursuing the goal of creating an area of freedom, security and justice for its citizens, in which it seeks to advance police cooperation and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. These matters are as a rule addressed by the Justice and Home Affairs Council, using instruments such as:

• Framework decisions. These are used to approximate the laws and regulations of the Member States. They stipulate the result that has to be achieved, but leave it up to the Member States to choose their own means of achieving it. The European Arrest Warrant is based on such a framework decision.
• Decisions. These can be used in all areas to reach the aims of police and judicial cooperation, except for approximating laws and regulations. Eurojust, the European judicial agency based in The Hague, was created in 2002 by such a decision.

Both framework decisions and decisions are binding on the Member States, but are not directly applicable, with the result that both have to be implemented into national law.

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