[eigenket]

As far as I am aware this is pretty far from accurate. Pretty much everything goes through the "Ordinary legislative procedure" where the comission proposes legislation and the parliament and council have to agree it (Codecision).

The council and commission can change stuff together without concent of parliament in very specialised areas (special legislative procedures), I think this only gets used for internal competion law and market regulation stuff.

In even more specialised areas the commission can change stuff on its own, as far as I know this is mostly restricted to agreeing trade deals and fixing specific tarrifs.

I can't comment on the corruption and alternative ways of pressuring MEPs. Those probably exist.