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by logifail 2825 days ago
Note that the European Parliament can't initiate legislation[1], and the Council appears to be able to ignore Parliament's opinion.

"The European Parliament may approve or reject a legislative proposal, or propose amendments to it. The Council is not legally obliged to take account of Parliament’s opinion but in line with the case-law of the Court of Justice, it must not take a decision without having received it"

[1] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/about-parliament/en/powers-and...

1 comments

Note that you quoted the special "Consultation" procedure instead of the ordinary legislative procedure where EP has more power.

According to the page, the consultation procedure "is applicable in a limited number of legislative areas, such as internal market exemptions and competition law".

There seems to be a distinct lack of evidence that the veto powers are actually used, though; the backroom deals are alive and well?

A dearth of legislative vetoes: Why the Council and Parliament have been reluctant to veto Commission legislation http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2016/10/25/a-dearth-of-leg...

Legislative Scrutiny? The Political Economy and Practice of Legislative Vetoes in the European Union https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jcms.12252