Ordinary Legislative Procedure

Ordinary Legislative Procedure is the main way the EU makes laws. In this system:

  1. the European Commission prepares a proposal, and sends it to the European Parliament and the Council.
  2. Inside the Parliament, MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) debate and negotiate to agree on a list of changes to the law (amendments) that they want to make. Once they are done, Parliament votes on a “Report”: a document containing all the changes that Parliament wants to make.
  3. Inside the council, a similar process takes place simultaneously.
  4. Once both the Parliament and council have a position, they negotiate with each other in Trilogues to find a compromise. If they can agree, then the proposal becomes law.

Below you will find a flowchart illustrating the process, followed by explanations about each stage, and links to pages where you can find tips about how you can influence each stage.

legislative_procedure
Negotiations









4.Intra-institutional negotiations

Commission Proposal
Stakeholder Consultations
(with Businesses, NGOs, or You!)
Commission adds the idea to its work programme.
Idea from Parliament
(Parliament Initiative)
Idea from Citizens
(European Citizens Initiative)
Idea from EU Countries
(Council Resolutions,
European Council Conclusions)
Ideas from the Commission
Impact Assessment
Research and evaluation of existing laws
European Parliament
Council of the European Union
Distribution to Committees
by the Conference of Presidents
Lead Committee
Committee for Opinion (Optional)
Presentation
MEPs submit amendments
Rapporteur presents draft report
Selection of Rapporteur & Shadow Rapporteurs
Negotiations









Committee Vote on Report
Presentation
MEPs submit amendments
Rapporteur presents draft report
Selection of Rapporteur & Shadow Rapporteurs
Negotiations
(as in lead committee)
Committee Vote on opinion
Adopted - sent to lead committee for negotiations
Rejected
Rejected
Adopted
1. Agenda forming
2. Drafting
3.Distribution of responsibility
Distribution to working party
by the Council Presidency
Working Party Negotiations
Council Vote
Decision by Committee of Permanent Representatives
Technical negotiations
(Staff Level)
Shadows
(MEP Level)
Agreement

Political input

Proposal for agreement

Committee of Permanent Representatives

Proposal for agreement

Political input

Rejected
Approved
5. Approval by Committee
Plenary vote on Report
6. Approval by the Institution
Amendments from other members?
No
Vote on amendments
Amendments added to report
Rejected
Adopted
Rejected
Adopted

Agenda Forming

The first step in the process is for the European Commission to decide to make a law about something.

You can learn about how to convince the EU to propose a new law on this page.

The Commission can decide to make a law at its own initiative or for one or more of three reasons:

Parliament asked them to

While the European Parliament cannot propose laws itself, it can ask the Commission to propose a law to address an issue. The Commission must respond, either with a proposal for a law or an explanation of why they do not want to take action.

Citizens asked them to

Citizens can directly make a call for action using the European Citizens Initiative. To do so, they must collect 1 million signatures of EU citizens. The Commission must respond, either with a proposal for a law or an explanation of why they do not want to take action.

EU Member States ask them to

The Council of the European Union (Representatives from EU countries’ governments), can ask the Commission to act through Council Resolutions. Exceptionally, the European Council (a meeting of the leaders of each EU country) can ask the Commission to take action. The Commission must respond, either with a proposal for a law or an explanation of why they do not want to take action.