The ordinary legislative procedure

Most EU laws are adopted jointly by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. This is called the ordinary legislative procedure.

What is the ordinary legislative procedure?

The ordinary legislative procedure is the most common procedure used at EU level to adopt legislation. It applies to the vast majority of EU policy areas.

Under the procedure, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament jointly negotiate and adopt EU laws. They are co-legislators.

How do proposals become EU law?

The ordinary legislative procedure step by step

1

Proposal

The European Commission proposes a new EU law to the Council and the Parliament.
2

Examination (reading)

The Council and the Parliament each examine the proposal and may amend it. This examination is called a reading. The procedure may take up to three readings.
3

Adoption

The law is adopted if the Council and the Parliament agree on the same text in any reading. If no agreement is reached, the law is not adopted.

More than 85% of laws under the ordinary legislative procedure are adopted at the end of the first reading or beginning of the second reading.

Legislative proposal

The European Commission is responsible for proposing new EU laws. This is called the right of initiative. Its work is guided by the political priorities agreed by the European Council and set out in the Commission’s work programme.

The Commission sends its legislative proposal to the Council and the European Parliament.

At the same time, it forwards the proposal to national parliaments for review. Where appropriate, the proposal is also sent to other EU institutions and bodies, such as the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, for their opinions.

Can the Council make legislative proposals?

While the Commission usually draws up legislative proposals on its own initiative, the Council, the Parliament or EU citizens (through a European citizens’ initiative) may also ask the Commission to submit a legislative proposal. The Commission then decides whether to act or not, and in any case must explain its decision.

There are only a few exceptions to the Commission’s right of initiative. For instance, in some areas of judicial cooperation, EU member states can submit a legislative proposal if it is supported by at least a quarter of all member states.

Examination of the proposal

After receiving the proposal, the Council and the Parliament each examine it in detail.

In the Council, two preparatory bodies are involved at every reading:

A working party of national experts discusses technical aspects of the proposal
Coreper (the committee of permanent representatives composed by member states' ambassadors to the EU) addresses more sensitive or political issues

Through the preparatory bodies, the Council works to agree on a common position on the proposal, agreed between all the member states.

The European Parliament prepares its position through discussions in its relevant committees.

First reading

The European Parliament adopts its first reading position, accepting or amending the proposal.

The Council examines the Parliament’s position and may:

approve it, then the law is adopted
propose amendments, then the amended text returns to the Parliament for a second reading

Time limit: the first reading has no time limit.

The Council may also adopt a general approach taking a political line, which allows the Parliament to see the direction discussions in the Council are taking and can help move negotiations forward. Usually this happens before the European Parliament adopts its position at first reading. The general approach does not, however, replace the Council's formal first reading position.

General approach documents, when made public, can be found in the Council's official document register.

Latest general approach documents (Council document register)

Second reading

If no agreement is reached at first reading, both the Parliament and the Council continue reviewing each other's positions.

First, the Parliament examines the Council's first reading position and may:

approve it: the law is adopted
reject it: the law is not adopted and the procedure ends
propose amendments: the amended text returns to the Council

The Council examines the Parliament's amendments and may:

approve all amendments: the law is adopted
not approve all amendments: a Conciliation Committee is convened

Time limit: three months for each institution, extendable by one month.

Conciliation Committee

Negotiating compromises through trilogues

At any stage during the procedure, the Council and Parliament may hold informal meetings, known as trilogues, to try and bring their positions closer together.

Trilogue meetings involve representatives of the Council, the Parliament and the Commission. They can range from technical discussions between experts to political negotiations between ambassadors or ministers and members of the European Parliament. For the Council, representatives of the country holding the rotating Council presidency lead the negotiations.

Any informal agreement reached in a trilogue must be formally approved by each institution.

History of the procedure

The joint adoption of EU laws by the Council and the Parliament was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty (1993) under the name codecision procedure. Initially, it applied only in a limited number of areas, such as the single market, immigration, social policy and environment.

Its scope was then extended by:

the Amsterdam Treaty (1999) and the Nice Treaty (2003), which extended it to additional policy areas
the Lisbon Treaty (2009), which made it the main decision-making procedure for most EU laws, renaming it the ordinary legislative procedure

Legal basis

The ordinary legislative procedure is defined in Articles 289 and 294 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union