Codecision and "early agreements": An improvement or a subversion of the legislative procedure?
Résumé
Extrait : The codecision procedure introduced by the Treaty of Maastricht and revised by the Treaty of Amsterdam endowed the European Parliament (EP) with legislative power equivalent to that of the European Council. A product of the progressive broadening of the scope of the Treaty of Lisbon, codecision (which is not referred to by that term) was established as the "ordinary legislative procedure" and its application was extended to 40 new areas. Since then, the other procedures (consultation and assent) have been confined to certain aspects of the Union's foreign policy, its conventional policy and co-operation in criminal matters. In most of the sectors in which the European Union legislates, the Parliament and the Council act as the two chambers of a bicameral parliament called upon to rule on proposals in areas in which the executive power (in this instance, the Commission) exercises a monopoly.