What are the European Parliament’s powers and legislative procedures? 

The Parliament is a co-legislator, it has the power to adopt and amend legislation and decides on the annual EU budget on an equal footing with the Council. It supervises the work of the Commission and other EU bodies and cooperates with national parliaments of EU countries to receive their input.

The vast majority of EU law is passed through ordinary legislative procedure, also often referred to by its previous name: “co-decision”. It is the standard EU legislative decision-making procedure, giving equal weight to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. It applies to a wide range of areas such as immigration, energy, transport, climate change, the environment, consumer protection and economic governance.

There are a few areas in which other decision-making procedures are used. In areas such as taxation, competition law and Common Foreign and Security Policy, the European Parliament is “consulted”. In those cases, Parliament may approve or reject a legislative proposal, or propose amendments to it, but the Council is not legally obliged to follow Parliament's opinion, although it does need to wait for it before taking a decision. The “consent” procedure, when Parliament’s approval is required, applies to the accession of new EU member states and international trade agreements between the EU and third countries or groups of countries. The consent procedure is also used in the final decision on the appointment of the European Commission.

What about legislative initiative? Who initiates EU law?

Although it is up to the Commission to propose new EU laws, Parliament can take the initiative by requesting that the Commission submit a legislative proposal. When making use of "legislative initiative", MEPs may set a deadline for the submission of a proposal. If the Commission refuses to, it must explain why.

Delegated/implementing acts

When adopting a new law, MEPs and the Council can instruct the Commission to complement the law with minor additions or changes (like technical annexes or updates) through delegated acts (which supplement or amend parts of the law) or implementing acts (giving details on how to implement the law). In this way, legislation can remain simple and, if needed, be supplemented and updated without new negotiations at the legislative level.

Depending on the kind of act adopted by the Commission, MEPs have different options if they disagree with the measures proposed by the Commission. MEPs have a veto right for delegated acts. For implementing acts, MEPs can ask the Commission to amend or withdraw them, but the Commission has no legal obligation to do this.