Amended proposal

De Europese Commissie1 kan, zolang een van haar voorstellen nog niet is aangenomen, altijd besluiten dit voorstel te wijzigen. Meestal gebeurt dit naar aanleiding van besprekingen in het Europees Parlement2 of de Raad van Ministers3, of naar aanleiding van adviezen van andere Europese organisaties.

De Raad van Ministers en het Europees Parlement kunnen ook voorstellen amenderen. De besluitvormingsprocedure begint dan echter niet helemaal opnieuw, maar deze wordt voortgezet in de eerste en tweede lezing van de medebeslissingsprocedure4 of in de bemiddelingsprocedure, waarbij de Commissie alle nodige initiatieven neemt om Parlement en Raad nader tot elkaar te brengen (zie artikel 251 EG-Verdrag).

  • 1. 
    The European Commission is the executive body of the EU and runs its day-to-day business. It is made up of the College of Commissioners, 27 European Commissioners, one for each member state, who are each responsible for one or several policy areas. In addition, the 'Commission' also refers to the entire administrative body that supports the Commissioners, consisting of the Directorates-General and the Services.
     
  • 2. 
    The European Parliament is the EU's law-making body. It is directly elected by EU voters every 5 years.
    What does the Parliament do?
    The Parliament has 3 main roles:
    Legislative
     
  • 3. 
    In the Council, government ministers from each EU country meet to discuss, amend and adopt laws, and coordinate policies. The ministers have the authority to commit their governments to the actions agreed on in the meetings.
    Together with the European Parliament , the Council is the main decision-making body of the EU.
    Not to be confused with:
     
  • 4. 
    This procedure is the standard decision-making procedure used in the European Union, unless the treaties specifically state one of the special legislative procedures is to be applied to a particular subject. Before the Treaty of Lisbon came into force late 2009 it was referred to as the co-decision procedure. The essential characteristic of this procedure is that both the Council of Ministers as well as the European Parliament have a deciding vote in the legislative process, and both institutions may amend a proposal.