EUROPEAN UNION

Committee of the Regions

EU Treaties, legislation,
institutions and
decision-making
Regions and cities matter: Institutions and policy-making
in the EU
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EU Treaties and legislation

EU law is based on primary legislation, mainly
laid down in the Treaty on the EU (TEU) and the
Treaty of the Functioning of the EU (TFEU). EU sec-
ondary legislation includes legal acts – which are
usually adopted by the European Parliament and
the Council of the EU following a proposal by the
European Commission – and non-legislative acts.
Moreover, the EU concludes agreements with
non-member countries (‘third countries’).
As defined by Article 3 TFEU, EU competences can
be divided into three categories, with each cat-
egory covering a list of policies for which the EU
has either:
• exclusive competence;
• shared competence with the Member States;
• competence to support, coordinate or supple-
ment the actions of the Member States.
More detailed provisions on different EU policies
are laid down in separate articles of the TFEU.
Short introductions to different EU policies, their
development and prospects can be found in the
EP’s Factsheets on the European Union and in
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the European Commission’s easy-to-read series of
brochures The EU explained. The CoR publication
Division of Powers contains information on the
division of power between national, regional and
local levels in the EU Member States and the ac-
cession countries, as well as on the regional and
local dimension of EU policies.
The three types of secondary EU ‘legal acts’ are
regulations, directives and decisions: Regulations
are legally binding and directly applicable in all
Member States; directives are also binding but
must be transposed into national law within a giv-
en period; decisions only deal with specific issues

Do 80% of national ‘by the year 2000, 80% of economic

– and perhaps even fiscal and
legislation. A recent paper by Yves
Bertoncini, of the Paris-based
laws come from social – legislation will originate think tank Notre Europe, noted
from European institutions.’ Since
Brussels? then, this quote has been used by
that studies have concluded that
the actual level is closer to 20%
Back in 1988, the then President those promoting anti-European
of the European Commission, sentiment and Europhiles alike than 80%. They also show that EU
Jacques Delors announced to the to highlight the influence that influence on national laws varies
British Trades Union Congress that “Brussels” has on national significantly between policy fields.
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Regions and the single market: industry, SME, competition and
digital policies
and are binding upon those organisations, enter-
prises or persons to whom they are addressed.
Moreover, the EU can adopt recommendations
and opinions that have no binding force pursuant
to Article 288 TFEU.
‘Delegated acts’ are non-legislative acts, which
supplement or amend certain non-essential el-
ements of a legislative act (Article 290 of TFEU).
‘Implementing acts’ are legal acts adopted to
provide further detail on the content of a legisla-
tive act, in order to ensure that it is implemented
under uniform conditions in all Member States
(Article 291 of TFEU).
Finally, ‘other legal acts’ can be issued by the EU
institutions on non-binding measures and state-
ments, or in order to regulate the internal work-
ings of the EU or its institutions. Such agreements
include arrangements between the institutions,
or internal rules of procedure.
In 2014, the EU adopted about 2 400 legal acts,
one quarter of which were amending acts. The re-
mainder were basic acts. Of the latter, more than
56% were regulations, about 41% were decisions
and about 3% were directives. The European Com-
mission adopted about two thirds of all legal acts,
the Council just over 22% and European Parlia-
ment and Council together accounted for approx-
imately 8%. However, over the past 20 years the
number of regulations adopted annually by the
Commission has fallen significantly from about 2
500 in 1995 to 866 in 2014. Approximately 2 000
delegated and implementing are acts adopted
annually. In 2013 , 1 700 of these were implement-
ing acts.
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EUROPEAN UNION
Committee of the Regions
EU institutions
The European Parliament (EP) and its 751 mem-
bers represent the citizens of the Member States
and are directly elected every five years. The Par-
liament takes decisions on most EU laws together
with the Council of the EU, via the ordinary leg-
islative procedure. Parliamentary positions are
prepared by 22 Committees –which work on dif-
ferent policies – and adopted during plenary ses-
sions held in Strasbourg or Brussels. Seven politi-
cal groups have been established at the European
Parliament for the current term of office. There
around 6 000 EP staff in total, including both the
EP Secretariat-General and the political groups
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The European Council is comprised of the 28
heads of state or government of the Member
States and it sets the EU’s overall political agenda.
The President of the European Council – whose
primary role is to coordinate and drive forward
the work of the European Council – is elected by
the members of the European Council and can
serve for a maximum of five years. The Council of
the EU represents the 28 Member States. It is di-
vided into ten policy fields. Council meetings are
chaired by the, which rotates between the Mem-
ber States every six months. The Council takes de-
cisions (‘positions’) on legislative proposals made
by the European Commission by ‘double majority.’
The Council’s voting system defines that majority
as 55% of the Member States representing at least
65% of the EU population. The Foreign Affairs
Council is chaired by the High Representative of
the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,
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Regions and the single market: industry, SME, competition and
digital policies
who is also a vice-president at the European Com-
mission. About 3 500 officials work in the Secretar-
iat-General of the Council of the EU.
The European Commission is the executive
branch of the Union. It represents the interests of
the EU and is composed of 28 Commissioners –
one from each Member State – and chaired by a
President. The latter is nominated by the Europe-
an Council and appointed by the European Parlia-
ment for a term of five years. The Commission has
33 000 staff working in 33 different departments
known as Directorate-Generals (which represent
specific policies) and 11 other services. The Com-
mission is the only EU institution with the right to
propose legislation as part of the ordinary legisla-
tive procedure. It also ensures that EU legislation
and the EU budget are properly implemented and
it represents the EU in international negotiations.
Other EU institutions include the Court of Justice
of the European Union, the European Central
Bank and the European Court of Auditors.
The two advisory bodies of the EU are the Europe-
an Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the Eu-
ropean Economic and Social Committee (EESC).
The CoR members are representatives of regional
and local bodies, who either hold a regional or lo-
cal authority electoral mandate or are politically
accountable to an elected assembly. As is the case
at the European Parliament, members of the CoR
can also belong to political groups. There are cur-
rently five political groups at the CoR. EESC mem-
bers represent employer, employee, and civil so-
ciety organisations. These Committees each have
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EUROPEAN UNION
Committee of the Regions
350 members and they support the European Par-
liament, the Council and the Commission in de-
veloping EU policy and legislation. In accordance
with the provisions laid down by the Treaties, both
bodies adopt opinions on either a mandatory or
voluntary basis, or upon their own initiative. The
CoR’s relations with other EU institutions, namely
the European Parliament and the European Com-
mission, are laid down in inter-institutional agree-
ments. Together, the CoR and the EESC employ a
total of 1 500 officials.
EU decision-making
EU decision-making involves three main institu-
tions: the European Parliament, the Council of the
European Union – which represents the individ-
ual member countries – and the European Com-
mission. In principle, the European Commission
proposes new laws, but it is the Council together
with the Parliament that adopts them. Before pro-
posing legislation, the Commission takes stock of
existing laws and conducts an impact assessment.
It must also consult stakeholders and other insti-
tutions for their views and seek the opinions of
national parliaments and governments.
The ordinary legislative procedure replaces the
co-decision procedure and involves the European
Parliament and the Council of the EU as co-legis-
lators. The ordinary legislative procedure is laid
down under Article 294 TFEU. In addition, under
the ordinary legislative procedure the Council of
the EU takes decisions by qualified majority. In
order to improve decision making and enhance
the effectiveness of the procedure, the Treaty of
Lisbon laid down a new definition of a qualified
majority. The Council and the Parliament adopt
legislative acts either at first reading, or at second
reading. If after the second reading the two insti-
tutions have still not reached agreement, a Con-
ciliation Committee is convened. Building on pre-
vious Treaties, the Treaty of Lisbon extended the
ordinary legislative procedure to new policy areas.
Special legislative procedures replace the for-
mer consultative, cooperation and assent proce-
dures. As their name indicates, these procedures
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 EUROPEAN UNION

Regions and the single market: industry, SME, competition and

digital policies
Committee of the Regions

deviate from the ordinary legislative procedure
and they therefore constitute exceptions. When
special legislative procedures are used, the Coun-
cil of the EU is the sole legislator in practice. The
European Parliament is simply associated with the
procedure. Its role is limited to consultation or ap-
proval depending on the individual case. Unlike
the ordinary legislative procedure, the TFEU does
not give a precise description of special legislative
procedures. The rules on special legislative proce-
dures are therefore defined on an ad hoc basis by
the Articles of the TEU and the TFEU that govern
their implementation. All EU legal acts and na-
tional transposition laws can be found on EUR-
Lex. Moreover, the EP’s Legislative Observatory
monitors the main steps in the decision-making
process.

The ‘Better will include more transparency

Regulation Agenda’
In May 2015, the European
Commission adopted a ‘Better
Regulation Agenda’, which aims
to increase the openness and
transparency of the EU law-making
process. The initiative affects the
Commission’s internal procedures
and includes the possibility of a
new interinstitutional agreement
with the European Parliament
and the Council of the EU, which
would enter into force before the
end of 2015. ‘Better regulation’
during the preparatory phase of
legal acts, through roadmaps and
inception impact assessments.
These assessments will describe
new initiatives in the pipeline and
provide evaluations of existing
legislation. Such evaluations will
check the performance of EU laws
against standard criteria. REFIT, the
Commission’s Regulatory Fitness
and Performance Programme,
will identify opportunities to
reduce regulatory burdens and
simplify existing laws. Its two
platforms will invite experts from
Member States, representatives
from businesses and civil society
and social partners to participate
in an ongoing dialogue. Following
a Commission proposal for a new
legal act, any citizen or stakeholder
will have eight weeks to provide
comments or suggestions, which
will feed into the legislative debate
at the Parliament and Council.
Interestingly, from a regional
point of view, the new ‘Impact
Assessment Toolbox’ includes a
chapter on taking the ‘territorial
impact’ of EU legislation into
account during preparations.

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