How EU decisions are made

Legislative procedures

Ordinary legislative procedure

The usual method of making European Union (EU) decisions is as follows: 

• The Commission makes a proposal
• The Council and the Parliament discuss it and each may make changes
• The final decision is made by the Council and the Parliament jointly (this is known at present as the co-decision procedure) 

The Treaty of Lisbon proposes to call this the ordinary legislative procedure and to extend it to a number of new areas.

Special legislative procedures

There are specific decision-making procedures (called special legislative procedures in the Treaty of Lisbon) in relation to 2 areas:

• Common foreign and security policy: decisions are made by the Council
• Area of freedom, security and justice – some decisions are made as described above while others are made by the Council

Voting in the Council

Citizens' Initiative

Some decisions by the Council must be made unanimously while others are made by what is called qualified majority voting (QMV). Each member state’s vote is given a weighting which is related, but not directly proportional, to its population. 

The Treaty of Lisbon proposes:

• To increase the number of areas where QMV will apply and
• To change the voting system within the Council from 2014. 

Areas to which QMV applies

Initially, almost all decisions were made unanimously. Each treaty extended the number of areas in which decisions are taken by QMV. The Treaty of Lisbon proposes to further extend these areas. Some decisions will continue to be made unanimously – they include decisions on areas such as defence and taxation.

The following are the main new areas to which QMV will apply with the Treaty of Lisbon:

• Election of the President of the European Council by the European Council
• Appointment of the High Representative by the European Council
• Regulations relating to procedures and conditions required for a citizens’ initiative
• Administrative co-operation within the area of freedom, security and justice after consulting the European Parliament
• Measures concerning border checks
• Measures concerning a common European asylum system and a common immigration policy
• Measures to provide incentives and support for member states promoting the integration of third-country nationals (not including harmonisation measures)
• Measures concerning the judicial co-operation in civil matters having a cross-border dimension
• Measures to promote and support the action of member states in the field of crime prevention excluding any harmonisation measure
• Establishment of rules concerning transport
• Incentive measures in the fields of sport
• Incentive measures in the cultural field
• Measures relating to energy policy
• Measures defining the framework for implementing the common commercial policy
• Negotiation and conclusion of agreements with one or more third countries or international organisations in the field of commercial policy
• Urgent financial assistance measures for developing countries

Changes within QMV

At present, each member state has a weighted vote as follows:

A qualified majority requires 255 weighted votes.

This system will remain in place until 2014. From 2014, a qualified majority (also to be known as a double majority) will require that decisions must meet 2 conditions: 

• 55% of the member states must agree: that means at least 15 member states while there are 27 member states and
• Those supporting must represent 65% of the EU population

In order to prevent a decision being made, a blocking minority will have to include at least 4 member states. If there are less than 4 member states opposed to a decision then the qualified majority will be deemed to have been reached even if the population criterion is not met. In certain circumstances, if there are less than 4 states opposed to a decision, they may temporarily suspend a decision of the Council.

There are transitional arrangements in place for the period 2014–2017; during that time, a member state may ask for the application of the current system rather than the new system. 

Citizens' Initiative

The Treaty of Lisbon proposes that a Citizens’ Initiative would allow for at least 1 million citizens from a number of member states to ask the Commission to bring forward proposals on a particular issue. The Commission would be obliged to consider the proposal but there would be no obligation to proceed with it.