european parliament voting

conchubhar1

how does voting in the europarl work?

is there any changes after lisbon? if so which?

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may seem a simple question, but i can not find a satisfactory answer whereas i can find an answer on how the council voting works and that there are areas which they both vote and others where the council alone does.


thanks!

limklad

They vote using absolute Majority procedure, Which mean more than half of the MEP's must vote yes for legisation to pass, rather than US version of simple majority where more than have of the elected members who are present when voting begins can pass legislation.

No change under the voting principle will change under Lisbon Treaty Rules.

Some simple explanation on Lisbon Treaty effect on the Parliament is here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament#Future_of_the_Parliament

Which way they Vote, Here 1 website I found so you can keep an eye on your MEP voting and attendance record.
http://www.epvote.eu/
2004 to 2009 Parliament results for MEP's voting is here
http://2004.epvote.eu/

EU Parliament is not back until September 14th after the summer break. They seems to spent more time in Parliament that our Dail does.

conchubhar1

cool thanks.

does it have as much weight as the councils decision, when voting is co-decision? or ordinary leglisitive procedure


thanks in advance

Daftendirekt

conchubhar1 wrote: »

cool thanks.

does it have as much weight as the councils decision, when voting is co-decision? or ordinary leglisitive procedure


thanks in advance

I think so.

1. Codecision

This is the procedure now used for most EU law-making. In the codecision procedure, Parliament does not merely give its opinion: it shares legislative power equally with the Council. If Council and Parliament cannot agree on a piece of proposed legislation, it is put before a conciliation committee, composed of equal numbers of Council and Parliament representatives. Once this committee has reached an agreement, the text is sent once again to Parliament and the Council so that they can finally adopt it as law. Conciliation is becoming increasingly rare. Most laws passed in co-decision are, in fact, adopted either at the first or second reading as a result of good cooperation between the three institutions.

The relevant part is highlighted. Source.

conchubhar1

thanks but is it equal - like does a law pass if the council votes yes by a certain majority but the parliament votes no by a certain lesser majority?

marco_polo

conchubhar1 wrote: »

thanks but is it equal - like does a law pass if the council votes yes by a certain majority but the parliament votes no by a certain lesser majority?

No with codecision only by the approval of both instutions can a legislation be passed. You could essentially think of it as each institution having one vote each.

limklad

conchubhar1 wrote: »

thanks but is it equal - like does a law pass if the council votes yes by a certain majority but the parliament votes no by a certain lesser majority?

It depends on the Legislations in question

The legislations below under NICE Treaty that has co-decision by the EU council of ministers and EU Parliament.
CODECISION PROCEDURE Article 251

Under Treaty of Nice Rules


*** Council acts unanimously in voting

• Article 12: non-discrimination on grounds of nationality
• Article 13(2): combating discrimination (incentive measures)
• Article 18(2): right to move and reside freely
• Article 40: freedom of movement for workers
• Article 42: social security for migrant workers in the Community ***
• Article 44: freedom of establishment
• Article 46(2): right of establishment: special treatment for foreign nationals
• Article 47: taking up and pursuing self-employed activities; recognition of diplomas
• Article 47(2): idem, if national legislation is amended ***
• Article 55: right of establishment: services
• Article 62(1): absence of controls on persons crossing internal borders ***
• Article 62(2a): checks at external borders ***
• Article 62(3): nationals of third countries travelling within the territory of the Member States ***
• Article 63(1): asylum policy ***
• Article 63(2a): persons under temporary protection
• Article 63(2b): receiving refugees and displaced persons ***
• Article 63(3b): measures against clandestine immigration ***
• Article 65: judicial cooperation in civil matters (except family law)
• Article 71(1): transport (rail, road, inland waterways)
• Article 80(2): transport (extension: sea, air)
• Article 95: internal market
• Article 129: employment (incentive measures)
• Article 135: customs cooperation
• Article 137(1-2): social policy
• Article 141: social policy: equal opportunities; equality of men and women
• Article 148: ESF (implementing decisions)
• Article 149,4: education (incentive measures)
• Article 150(4): vocational training
• Article 151,5: culture (incentive measures) ***
• Article 152(4): public health (incentive measures)
• Article 153(4): consumer protection
• Article 156: trans-European networks
• Article 157(3): industry (specific support measures)
• Article 159(3): economic and social cohesion (specific actions outside the Funds)
• Article 162: ERDF: implementing decisions
• Article 166: research (framework programme)
• Article 172: research: implementation
• Article 175(1-3): environment
• Article 179: development cooperation
• Article 191: political parties at European level (statute and political rules)
• Article 255(2): access to institution documents
• Article 280(4): prevention of and fight against fraud
• Article 285(1): statistics
• Article 286(2): independent supervisory body for monitoring the protection of personal data

http://ec.europa.eu/policies/index_en.htm is the full list of Areas that the EU covers

Below is the link for the Simple flow table of that Co-procedure process
http://ec.europa.eu/codecision/stepbystep/diagram_en.htm

Now the Council of EU Ministers
Not all Areas are under QMV (unanimity) but under Lisbon more areas move from unanimity to QMV. You can read that from other threads.

Basic Understanding on the Council of the EU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_in_the_Council_of_the_European_Union

limklad

conchubhar1 wrote: »

cool thanks.

does it have as much weight as the councils decision, when voting is co-decision? or ordinary leglisitive procedure


thanks in advance

I miss the part of the Weight
Parliaments weighting due to number of MEPS is different from the Council weighting. What Percentage I have not calculated. I will look into it, but not tonight,
Scofflaw probably knows he usually knows this sort of things.

finbar10

The codecision procedure where both council and parliament decide an issue is actually quite complicated. See http://ec.europa.eu/codecision/stepbystep/index_en.htm which even has a flowchart of how this works. Legislation may be shuttled back and forth between council, commision, and parliament in various ways before it gets passed.

A simple majority (majority of those MEPs sitting) is enough to get legislation passed.
An absolute majority (majority of all MEPs) would be required to block legislation where codecision applies. I don't think this blocking power has actually ever been used.

limklad wrote: »

They vote using absolute Majority procedure, Which mean more than half of the MEP's must vote yes for legisation to pass, rather than US version of simple majority where more than have of the elected members who are present when voting begins can pass legislation.

No change under the voting principle will change under Lisbon Treaty Rules.

Some simple explanation on Lisbon Treaty effect on the Parliament is here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament#Future_of_the_Parliament

Which way they Vote, Here 1 website I found so you can keep an eye on your MEP voting and attendance record.
http://www.epvote.eu/
2004 to 2009 Parliament results for MEP's voting is here
http://2004.epvote.eu/

EU Parliament is not back until September 14th after the summer break. They seems to spent more time in Parliament that our Dail does.

Scofflaw

finbar10 wrote: »

The codecision procedure where both council and parliament decide an issue is actually quite complicated. See http://ec.europa.eu/codecision/stepbystep/index_en.htm which even has a flowchart of how this works. Legislation may be shuttled back and forth between council, commision, and parliament in various ways before it gets passed.

A simple majority (majority of those MEPs sitting) is enough to get legislation passed.
An absolute majority (majority of all MEPs) would be required to block legislation where codecision applies. I don't think this blocking power has actually ever been used.

They blocked the software patents proposal in 2003, largely on foot of a public/internet campaign.

cordially,
Scofflaw