Co-operation procedure

European Parliament in Brussels (Photo: EP)

Co-operation procedure

The co-operation procedure allowed the European Parliament to influence a minor part of lawmaking for the EU (Article 252 TEC of the Nice Treaty). This procedure derives from the Single European Act of 1987.

If the Europaen Parliament proposed amendments to proposed  EU laws, the Council could only reject them by voting unanimously. Since the Treaty of Nice entered into force, this procedure only remained for EMU matters.  

The Lisbon Treaty abolished this procedure and uses co-decision or consultation instead. The Co-decision procedure is called the "ordinary legislative procedure" in the Lisbon Treaty.

See also Co-decision