Richard Ashworth

About The European Parliament

1. An Overview Of The Parliament
2. The Work Of The European Parliament
3. EU Legislation
4. History of the European Parliament

EU Legislation

There are two different types of EU legislation:

• Directives set out broad guidelines for each country on a particular topic and governments have some leeway when transforming these guidelines into national laws.
• Regulations are set in stone and once agreed must appear in national law as it was agreed at European level.

The EP reaches its position on legislation by first dealing with the proposals at committee level. There are 20 different specialized committees, 2 sub-committees and 1 temporary committee. Some are more powerful than others, for example the Foreign Affairs committee is a prestigious but not powerful committee.

To view information on each of these committees click here

For each Commission proposal put to the relevant committee a 'rapporteur' is chosen, this MEP will then produce a draft report on behalf of the committee. Unlike in national parliaments where influence is focussed on debate, MEPs are given time to review reports line by line and propose amendments to the wording and propose new additions. These new proposals are voted on and are adopted by a simple majority. The rapporteur will then return a new report to the committee and also to other relevant committees for their opinion .

For example, the environment committee may look at a proposal concerning consumer protection which would also need to be looked at by the industry committee as any legislation could affect both consumer and producer. Here the environment is the lead committee and the industry committee will give its opinion. MEPs in the lead committee will vote on any new amendments to the returned report and on any opinions given by other committees.

Before the report can be voted on by the whole parliament time is given for individual MEPs as a group or as part of their political group to suggest amendments. The Commission is then allowed to address the EP with its opinion on the report and latest amendments before MEPs vote.