Decision making procedures in detail

As you will be aware from the previous module, a basic model of EU decision making looks like this…

While this provides a useful visual guide, the EU legislative process is a bit more sophisticated than the diagram above suggests.

There are a number of different decision making procedures that are employed within the EU legislative process.  This section will now look at each in turn, but with the greatest amount of focus on the ‘ordinary procedure’ that has gained in prominence, particularly after the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty.

The procedures are presented on the next page in terms of the ordinary legislative procedure, which is (as the name suggests) the most common decision making procedure in the EU, and the special legislative procedures, which apply in a smaller number of specific areas (highlighted on the following page).