A guide to EU

The European Coal and Steel Community was formed by the Treaty of Paris in 1952, emerging from the economic ruins of Europe after the Second World War. The Treaty of Rome then established the European Community (EC) in 1958, built on the belief that there should never be a major war in Europe again. The overriding aims of this new community were to promote economic progress and co-operation in Europe and to guarantee a peaceful continent for years to come.

The United Kingdom joined the Community in 1973 under the premiership of Edward Heath. A referendum, the first of its kind in the UK, was held in 1975, and confirmed the UK’s membership by a significant majority.

Community policy now covers a large number of areas. It covers market regulation, social policy, the environment, regional policy and many other areas. Since 1992 the EC has been known as the European Union (EU) and, through its Common Foreign and Security Policy, it has now started to move into defence, a controversial area as the furore over the proposed Rapid Reaction Force shows.

The EU legislative process

Preliminary consultation

The European Commission always drafts legislation in the European Union, but can do so acting on its own initiative, or on requests from the Council or Parliament. As in domestic systems, interest groups feed into this process and the Commission often issues green papers for discussion.

The legislative procedures

There are four major legislative procedures utilised in the European Community; which one is used depends on the policy area. They are as follows:

The consultation procedure

Under the consultation procedure, the Council of Ministers is the main legislative force. It must consult the European Parliament on proposals, and must wait until an opinion is received, but is not bound to act upon that opinion. This procedure is used for a large number of policy areas where member states want to retain the initiative, including operation of the CAP, harmonisation of indirect taxation and monetary policy.

The co-operation procedure

The co-operation procedure is more complex than consultation, and gives the Parliament more power. On account of the reforms made by the Treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam, this procedure is being gradually phased out, and is now only used for surveillance provisions under Economic and Monetary Union.

The co-decision procedure

When the co-decision procedure is used, the European Parliament is a true co-legislator with the Council of Ministers. There are a complex number of stages to be undergone first, eventually culminating in a conciliation committee in which parliament and council are equally represented. Co-decision is the procedure of choice for most single market policies, environment and transport. It is also used in some areas of employment law.

The assent procedure

The assent procedure is the simplest EU procedure: all that is involved is a unanimity vote by the Council and an absolute majority vote by the Parliament. Only a handful of areas use this procedure, such as the acceptance of new EU members and the ratification of association agreements.

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