Inter-institutional agreements
The EU Commission, the EU Parliament and the Council can develop semi-constitutional law by reaching a common agreement, rather than by amending existing treaties. These so-called "inter-institutional" agreements are binding for the contracting institutions.
The Future
The Lisbon Treaty provides the legal basis for new binding institutional agreements - see art. 252 TFU.
Notes
- Powers to control the EU budget have been developed for the EU Parliament in this way.
- The Treaty of Nice only allows inter-institutional agreements when all three institutions take part. The Council insisted on this following an agreement between the EU Commission and the Parliament on access to certain classified documents on which the Council did not agree.
