How the majority of EU legislation gets created

The European Parliament produced an infographic to simplify what they mention as a very complicated process - how the European Union decides on a new piece of legislation.

The European Parliament became a central part of the EU decision-making process when the co-decision procedure was introduced in 1992.

Under the co-decision procedure, a proposal tabled by the European Commission needs to be approved by both the European Parliament and the national governments - represented by the Council of the European Union - in order to become European legislation.

The system gave an equal say to both the elected MEPs and the national governments on a wide range of issues, including for example migration, energy, transport, environment, economic governance and consumer protection.

In 2009 the co-decision procedure became the main way of creating European legislation under the Lisbon Treaty, which also renamed it the ordinary legislative procedure.

European Parliament: Powers and Procedures: Legislative powers: Ordinary Legislative Procedure http://www.europarl.europa.eu/aboutparliament/en/20150201PVL00004/Legislative-powers

European Parliament: EPRS: Twenty years of co-legislation: from co-decision to ordinary legislative procedure http://epthinktank.eu/2014/03/04/twenty-years-of-co-legislation-from-co-decision-to-ordinary-legislative-procedure/

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