Decision making process and
legal documents
By Ruth Tammeorg
European Documentation Centre
Tartu University Library
Estonia
Community acquis –
Acquis communautaire
The Community acquis is the body of common rights and obligations
which bind all the Member States together within the European Union.
It is constantly evolving and comprises:
• the content, principles and political objectives of the Treaties
• the legislation adopted in application of the treaties and the case law
of the Court of Justice
• the declarations and resolutions adopted by the Union
• measures relating to the common foreign and security policy
• measures relating to justice and home affairs
• international agreements concluded by the Community and those
concluded by the Member States between themselves in the field of
the Union's activities
http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/glossary/community_acquis_en.htm
Treaties
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The treaties constitute the European Union’s ‘primary legislation’,
which is comparable to constitutional law at national level. They thus
lay down the fundamental features of the Union, in particular the
responsibilities of the various actors in the decision-making process,
the legislative procedures, under the Community system and the
powers conferred on them. The treaties themselves are the subject of
direct negotiations between the governments of the Member States,
after which they have to be ratified in accordance with the procedures
applying at national level (in principle by the national parliaments or by
referendum).
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Founding treaties
Accession treaties
Other treaties and protocols
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/index.htm
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/droit_communautaire.htm#1.1
Treaties
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Consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning
of the European Union
Official Journal C 115 of 9 May 2008
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:115:SOM:EN:HTML
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Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the
European Community, signed at Lisbon, 13 December 2007
Official Journal C 306 of 17 December 2007
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:C:2007:306:SOM:EN:HTML
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Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union
Official Journal C 303 of 14 December 2007
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2007:303:0001:0016:EN:PDF
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EUROPEAN UNION — CONSOLIDATED VERSIONS OF THE TREATY ON EUROPEAN
UNION AND OF THE TREATY ESTABLISHING THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY
Official Journal C 321E of 29 December 2006
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2006:321E:0001:0331:EN:pdf
Founding treaties
• Treaty on European Union (1992)
• Treaty establishing the European Economic
Community (1957)
• Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy
Community (1957)
• Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel
Community (1951)
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/index.htm
Accession treaties
• Treaty concerning the accession of the Republic of Bulgaria
and Romania to the European Union (2005)
• Accession of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia,
Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia (2003)
• Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden (1994)
• Accession of Spain and Portugal (1985)
• Accession of Greece (1979)
• Accession of Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom (1972)
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/index.htm
Other treaties and protocols
• Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (2004)
• Treaty of Nice (2001)
• Treaty of Amsterdam (1997)
• Single European Act (1986)
• Greenland Treaty (1984)
• Merger Treaty (1965)
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/index.htm
Intergovernmental Conference - Conference of the
governments of the Member States convened in order
to negotiate amendments to existing treaties
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The Treaty on European Union contains a provision allowing for the revision of the
treaties. Article 48 states that any Member State or the Commission may submit
proposals to the Council for amending the treaties. This opens the way, if the Council
agrees, for the convening by the President of the Council of an Intergovernmental
Conference (IGC).
Amending the treaties requires the unanimous agreement of all Member States. It
also requires ratification by all Member States in accordance with their own
respective internal procedures before a new treaty can enter into force.
There have been a number of Intergovernmental Conferences over recent years.
These have resulted in successive amending treaties, notably the Single European
Act (1986), the Treaty on European Union (1992), the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997)
and the Treaty of Nice (2001).
The Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty
establishing the European Community has been signed in Lisbon on 13 December
2007 by the representatives of the 27 Member States. In accordance with its Article 6,
the Treaty will have to be ratified by the Member States in accordance with their
respective constitutional requirements and will enter into force on 1 January 2009,
provided that all instruments of ratification have been deposited, or, failing that, on the
first day of the month following the deposit of the last instrument of ratification.
http://consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.asp?id=1296&lang=en
The ‘secondary legislation’
• The ‘secondary legislation’ is the third major source of
Community law after the treaties (primary legislation)
and international agreements.
• totality of the legislative instruments adopted by the
European institutions pursuant to the provisions of the
treaties.
• binding legal instruments (regulations, directives and
decisions)
• non-binding instruments (resolutions, opinions)
• Other instruments such as the institutions’ internal
regulations and Community action programmes.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/droit_communautaire.htm#1.3
Preparatory acts
• Legislative proposals and opinions from the
Commission.
• Member States’ initiative
• Council common position
• European Parliament’s legislative resolution
• Opinions of the European Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the Regions.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/droit_communautaire.htm#1.5
Case-law
• Judgments of the Court of Justice and the
Court of First Instance
• Opinions of the Court of Justice
• Orders of the Court of Justice and the
Court of First Instance
• Submissions of the advocates-general
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/droit_communautaire.htm#1.3
Decision-making process of European Union.
Legislative procedures
• In contrast to the national systems, in which the will of
the nation is expressed in Parliament, the European
Union accords a major legislative role to the
representatives of the Member States meeting in the
Council. As the institutions have developed, the
European Parliament has seen its powers increase: the
Council now shares its legislative powers with
Parliament for the adoption of general legal instruments
of a binding nature (regulations and directives). The
decision-making procedures comprise the assent
procedure, the co-decision procedure, the cooperation
procedure and the consultation procedure.
Assent procedure (Code AVC)
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The assent procedure, which was introduced by the Single European Act, gives
Parliament the possibility of expressing its approval or disapproval of certain
Council instruments. There are certain matters on which the Council cannot
legislate unless Parliament gives its consent by an absolute majority of its
members. The assent procedure, which represents as it were a right of veto for
Parliament, was originally intended to apply only to the conclusion of
association agreements and the examination of applications to join the
European Community. The areas in which the assent procedure applies at
present are as follows:
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enhanced cooperation (Article 11(2)),
specific tasks of the ECB (Article 105(6)),
amending the Statute of the European System of Central Banks (Article 107(5)),
Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund (Article 161),
uniform procedure for elections (Article 190(4)),
certain international agreements (Article 300(3)),
violation of human rights (Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union),
accession of new Member States (Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union)
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/droit_communautaire.htm#2.1
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/procedure_avis_conforme.gif
Co-decision procedure (Code COD)
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The co-decision procedure, which was introduced by the Treaty on European
Union, was conceived as an extension of the cooperation procedure. However,
while in the latter the Council can, acting unanimously, disregard the opinion of
Parliament, in the co-decision procedure there is no such possibility: in the
event of disagreement, a conciliation committee made up of representatives of
the Council and of Parliament has to arrive at a text that is acceptable to the
two institutions. The co-decision procedure now puts these two institutions on
an equal footing in the legislative roles. Under this procedure, the Council
cannot adopt a common position if the process of conciliation with Parliament
fails. If no agreement is reached, the legislative process is liable to be broken
off.
Co-decision has become by far the most important procedure in legislative
practice.
It concerns many areas, for example:
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non-discrimination on grounds of nationality (Article 12),
combating discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief,
disability, age or sexual orientation (Article 13(2)),
freedom of movement and of residence (Article 18(2)),
free movement of workers (Article 40),
social security for migrant workers (Article 42),
right of establishment (Article 44(1), Article 46(2), Article 47(1) and (2)),
visas, asylum, immigration and other policies relating to the free movement of
persons (Article 67(4) and (5))
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/droit_communautaire.htm#2.2
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/procedure_de_codecision.gif
Cooperation procedure (Code
SYN)
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The cooperation procedure was introduced by the Single European Act to step
up the role of the European Parliament compared with the consultation
procedure. Parliament can make amendments to a Council common position
but, unlike the co-decision procedure, the final decision lies with the Council
alone.
The cooperation procedure applies exclusively to the following areas:
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rules for the multilateral surveillance procedure (Article 99(5)),
prohibition on privileged access to financial institutions (Article 102(2)),
prohibition on assuming liability for Member States’ commitments (Article 103(2)),
measures to harmonise the circulation of coins (Article 106(2)).
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Since the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, all other areas previously
subject to this procedure have come under the co-decision procedure
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http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/droit_communautaire.htm#2.3
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/procedure_de_cooperation.gif
The consultation procedure
(Code CNS)
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Since the introduction of the cooperation procedure and the co-decision
procedure, the importance of the consultation procedure has steadily
declined. The characteristic feature of the consultation procedure is a
division of tasks between the Commission and the Council that can be
summed up in the phrase ‘the Commission proposes, the Council disposes’.
However, before the Council can take a decision, certain stages have to be
completed, in the course of which, besides the Commission and the
Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the Regions may also have their say,
depending on the subject of the regulations in question.
The consultation procedure now applies only to cases that are not expressly
subject to the cooperation or co-decision procedures.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/droit_communautaire.htm#2.4
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/droit_communautaire/procedure_de_consultation.gif
Documents of the European
Commission
• COM documents: Legislative proposals,
White Papers, Green Papers
• SEC documents
• C documents
• Register of Commission documents
http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/recherche.cfm
?CL=en
Documents of the European
Parliament
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Agendas
Draft reports and opinions
Reports adopted in committee
Part-session minutes
Attendance register and results of roll-call votes
Texts adopted by Parliament
Resolutions
Written declarations
Debates in plenary
Bulletins
Parliamentary questions
Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament with Index
Documents from previous parliamentary terms
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/plenary/reports.do?language=EN
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegWeb/application/registre/simpleSearch.faces
Documents of the Council of the
European Union
• http://www.consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/s
howPage.asp?id=1279&lang=EN
Documents of the European
Council.
Presidency Conclusions
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/sho
wPage.asp?id=432&lang=ET&mode=g
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/summits/inde
x.htm
Documents of the European
Economic and Social Committee
(EESC)
http://eesc.europa.eu/documents/opinions/a
vis_en.asp?type=en
• EESC Register of documents
http://eesc.europa.eu/activities/press/registry
/index_en.asp
Documents of the Committee of
the Regions
• http://www.cor.europa.eu/
Documents of the Court of
Justice and of the Court of First
Instance
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Judgments
Orders
Opinions
Summaries
http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en
Document registers of the
European Parliament, the
Council of the European Union
and the European Commission
• http://europa.eu/documents/registers/index
_en.htm
General publications of the European
Union Official Information
The authoritative source of EU law –
The Official Journal of the European
Union (OJ)
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Published every working day in all official languages of the
European Union (EU).
L series for legislation
C series for information and notices
S series Supplement for public procurement
Electronic section to the C series the OJ C E.
Annex. Debates of the European Parliament
The Special Edition of the Official Journal in the languages of the
new Member States 2004, 2007
http://europa.eu/eur-lex/en/accession.html
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/enlargement/enlargement_2007.html
General publications of the European
Union. Official Information
Bulletin of the European Union
• http://europa.eu/bulletin/en/welcome.htm
General publications of the European
Union Official Information
General Report on the Activities of the
European Union
• http://europa.eu/generalreport/en/welcome
.htm
WHERE TO FIND EU DOCUMENTS –
Europa on the Web (http://europa.eu)
Documents. European law
• EUR-LEX, the portal to European Union
law
• ŒIL, the Legislative Observatory
• Pre-Lex, monitoring of the decisionmaking process between institutions
• Case law
• Summaries of legislation
http://europa.eu/scadplus/scad_en.htm
EUR-LEX, the portal to European
Union law
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OFFICIAL JOURNAL
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SEARCH
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General search
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Official Journal
European Court Reports
ŒIL, the Legislative Observatory
The Observatory analyses and monitors the interinstitutional decision-making
process in the European Union, the role of the European Parliament in shaping
European legislation and the activities of the various institutions involved in the
legislative procedure.
Search by:
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Words
Reference
Agent in procedure
Subjects Countries
Progress of the procedure
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/
the database on interinstitutional procedures
Pre-Lex -
Follows the major stages of the decision-making process between the Commission and
the other institutions:
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stage of the procedure
decisions of the institutions
persons' names
services responsible
references of documents
…etc
and monitors the works of the various institutions involved (European Parliament, Council, ESC,
Committee of the Regions, European central Bank, Court of Justice, etc.).
PreLex follows all Commission proposals (legislative and budgetary dossiers, conclusions of
international agreements) and communications from their transmission to the Council or the
European Parliament
Links allow users to access directly the electronic texts available (COM documents, Official
Journal, Bulletin of the European Union, documents of the European Parliament, press releases,
etc.).
http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/apcnet.cfm?CL=en
CASE-LAW database Curia (since
17/06/1997)
Earlier case-law is available on EUR-Lex
Contains:
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full texts: the full text of judgments, Opinions of the Court, Advocates General’s Opinions and
orders of the Community Courts, delivered since 17 June 1997 and published in the ‘Reports of
Cases before the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance’ or in the ‘European Court
Reports - Reports of European Community Staff Cases’.
•
‘summary’ documents: summaries of decisions published in the ‘Reports of Cases before the
Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance’ or in the ‘European Court Reports - Reports of
European Community Staff Cases’ are available in all official languages.
•
‘information’ documents: information on decisions of which the full text is not published in the
‘Reports of Cases before the Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance’
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‘OJ’ documents :notices for publication in the ‘Official Journal of the European Union’ relating to
cases brought, adjudged or removed from the register, published since 1 January 2002.
http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en
Summaries of Legislation
• This site provides user-friendly fact sheets which
summarise EU legislation. The fact sheets are
divided into 32 subject areas which are the
Activities of the European Union. You will find
not only summaries of existing measures, but
also a follow-up of legislative proposals in
policies as diverse as External Relations and
Employment and Social Affairs.
http://europa.eu/scadplus/scad_en.htm