Co-operation procedure

: European Parliament in Brussels (Photo: EP)

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

If the Europaen Parliament proposed amendments, 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 use co-decision or consultation instead. The Co-decision procedure is called the "ordinary legislative procedure" in the Lisbon Treaty.