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The EU Parliament gets to edit all legislation. There are often thousands of amendments offered, debated, voted on, and approved or rejected. Here is an exampl

The EU Parliament gets to edit all legislation. There are often thousands of amendments offered, debated, voted on, and approved or rejected. Here is an example with 500 proposed amendments to draft legislation on cybersecurity: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/amendments.html?ufolderComCode=IMCO&ufolderLegId=8&ufolderId=11043&linkedDocument=true&urefProcYear=&urefProcNum=&urefProcCode=#documents http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/amendments.html?... Click on the pdf icons to read the actual texts. Please don’t spread falsehoods.

calpaterson 9y ago
I think your post is also misleading. Under co-decision, the EP only gets to /propose/ amendments, not to approve them. The council are able to reject parliament amendments and get the law passed anyway. And of course, there are other procedures than co-decision for creating primary legislation which give the EP even less power. While the grandparent wasn't 100% technically correct I think the broad view (that "The EU Parliament has no real power") is effectively correct. The lion's share of the power of the EU still rests in the Commission and the Council. By all means, write to your MEPs, but don't get too hopeful
- antientropic 9y ago
  > The council are able to reject parliament amendments and get the law passed anyway. This is false. In most policy areas, if the council disagrees with the parliament's amendments, the proposal goes through a conciliation process. If the council and parliament don't reach agreement there, then the proposal is rejected. Thus, parliament has the power to reject almost all legislation. I wouldn't call that powerless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_legislative_procedure#Ordinary_legislative_procedure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_legislative_pro...
  - calpaterson 9y ago
    Yes, there is further process I didn't mention. No, it doesn't fundamentally change the situation.
Maken 9y ago
I have come to think that the EU would work much better if the Council and the Commission got dissolved at once, were replaced by and actual "Government of the EU zone" and all the legislative power went to the EU Parliament.

calpaterson 9y ago

I think your post is also misleading. Under co-decision, the EP only gets to /propose/ amendments, not to approve them. The council are able to reject parliament amendments and get the law passed anyway. And of course, there are other procedures than co-decision for creating primary legislation which give the EP even less power. While the grandparent wasn't 100% technically correct I think the broad view (that "The EU Parliament has no real power") is effectively correct. The lion's share of the power of the EU still rests in the Commission and the Council. By all means, write to your MEPs, but don't get too hopeful

antientropic 9y ago
> The council are able to reject parliament amendments and get the law passed anyway. This is false. In most policy areas, if the council disagrees with the parliament's amendments, the proposal goes through a conciliation process. If the council and parliament don't reach agreement there, then the proposal is rejected. Thus, parliament has the power to reject almost all legislation. I wouldn't call that powerless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_legislative_procedure#Ordinary_legislative_procedure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_legislative_pro...
- calpaterson 9y ago
  Yes, there is further process I didn't mention. No, it doesn't fundamentally change the situation.

Maken 9y ago

I have come to think that the EU would work much better if the Council and the Commission got dissolved at once, were replaced by and actual "Government of the EU zone" and all the legislative power went to the EU Parliament.