European Parliament tools, sources and resources

1. Introduction

1.1. Powers of the European Parliament

Summarising what has been briefly illustrated above, we recall that Parliament has powers: legislative, supervisory, and budgetary.

There is a lot of information made available by the EP in each of these areas and can be used for studies but also for teaching purposes.

This module shows how to investigate: the process of defining a European regulation; the effort to verify its implementation by the community institutions; the resources made available etc.

Legislative competence

The legislative function of the EU Parliament follows 4 main procedures: the Ordinary Legislative Procedure, initially called the codecision procedure (COD); the Special Legislative Approval Procedure (APP); the Special Legislative Consultation Procedure (CNS); the Initiative Procedure (INI).

In the previous modules we have extensively illustrated the Ordinary Legislative Procedure (COD) or the main procedure of the EU decision-making system that sees the EP co-legislator with the Council. We know that in some cases provided for by the treaties, consultation and approval procedures apply: the APP is necessary, for example, for the approval of new legislative acts relating to the fight against discrimination such as the "horizontal directive".

We have seen that the legislative initiative rests solely with the European Commission. However, with the Initiative Procedure (INI) the Parliament can ask the Commission to present a legislative proposal on an issue it considers relevant by approving an own-initiative report by a majority.

The supervisory competence

The European Parliament has various supervisory and monitoring powers on the other institutions, on the expenditure of the Community budget, and on the correct implementation of the regulations adopted.

In particular, the EP ensures the democratic oversight of the Commission, which presents regular reports to the Parliament, including the annual report on EU activities and the budget.

Furthermore, the appointment of the President of the Commission by national leaders in the European Council must take into account the outcome of the European elections. The candidate for president is elected by the European Parliament while the commissioners-designate are required to candidate themselves with a hearing in the Parliament.

The budgetary procedure

The European Parliament shares with the Council the power to decide on the entire annual budget of the European Union. The exercise of budgetary power consists in setting the overall amount and distribution of the annual EU expenditure and the revenue necessary to cover it, as well as in controlling the implementation of the budget. The budgetary procedure as such involves the preparation and adoption of the budget. Finally, Parliament must approve the multiannual financial framework.