European Union legislative procedure

European Union legislative procedure
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Type
Houses	Council of the European Union European Parliament National parliaments of the European Union
History
Founded	1 December 2009 (2009-12-01)
Leadership
Presidency of the Council of the European Union	Belgium since 1 January 2024
President of the European Parliament	Roberta Metsola, EPP
Structure
EU Council political groups	No official division by political groups
EU Parliament political groups	8   EPP Group (187)   S&D (148)   Renew (97)   ID (76)   Greens–EFA (68)   ECR (61)   The Left (39)   NI (29)
EU Council committees	10 configurations Agriculture and fisheries Competitiveness Economic and financial affairs Education, youth, culture and sport Employment, social policy, health and consumer affairs Environment Foreign affairs General affairs Justice and home affairs Transport, telecommunications and energy
EU Parliament committees	22 Budgets Budgetary Control Economic & Monetary Affairs Employment & Social Affairs Environment, Public Health & Food Safety Industry, Research & Energy Internal Market & Consumer Protection Transport & Tourism Regional Development Agriculture & Rural Development Fisheries Culture & Education Legal Affairs Civil Liberties, Justice & Home Affairs Constitutional Affairs Women's Rights & Gender Equality Petitions Foreign Affairs Human Rights Security & Defence Development International Trade
Joint committees	Conciliation committee
Meeting place
Europa building: Council of the EU's seat since 2017 in Brussels, Belgium
Louise Weiss: European Parliament's seat since 1999 in Strasbourg, France

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The European Union adopts legislation through a variety of legislative procedures. The procedure used for a given legislative proposal depends on the policy area in question. Most legislation needs to be proposed by the European Commission and approved by the Council of the European Union and European Parliament to become law.

Over the years the power of the European Parliament within the legislative process has been greatly increased from being limited to giving its non-binding opinion or excluded from the legislative process altogether, to participating equally with the Council in the legislative process.

The power to amend the Treaties of the European Union, sometimes referred to as the Union's primary law, or even as its de facto constitution, is reserved to the member states and must be ratified by them in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements. An exception to this are so-called passerelle clauses in which the legislative procedure used for a certain policy area can be changed without formally amending the treaties.