Unilateral statements by the Council, the Commission and the Member States when adopting European legislative acts

The statement has become a conventional instrument when adopting European legislative acts. While such statements could be justified in the case of decisions requiring unanimity, the codecision procedure means that this is no longer the case, as it is enough for Parliament and the Council to agree on the legal text for the act to be adopted. This has not, however, ended the practice. This study examines these statements. It looks first at the reasons for the continuation of this practice and the system for entering statements in minutes, and then draws up a typology of statements and analyses their legal and political effects.

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