Legislative powers of the European Parliament

Watch the video to remind yourself of the function of the European Parliament in the legislative process:

 Although the Parliament cannot draw up the proposals for new laws, as you probably remember from the European Commission section, the Parliament can shape the proposals by :

1. sending its representative to the drafting meetings of the Commission.
2. publishing reports to draw the Commission’s attention to the issue.

(McCormick, 2011 B, p. 215)

Since the Maastricht Treaty, the Parliament plays a key role in the legislative process. Under the co-decision procedure, it acts as a joint legislator together with the Council of Ministers. The Lisbon Treaty renamed the co-decision as the ‘ordinary legislative procedure’ (Shackleton, 2012, p. 136). We already studied this procedure while discussing the role of the Council of Ministers, but please analyse the picture below to better understand the role of the Parliament: