What happens next

  • The Commission has indicated that it will produce a revised proposal in the light of the opinion produced by the first reading in parliament.
  • The first reading by the Council of Ministers will consider both the amended Commission proposal and the Parliament’s opinion.  In reality, all the work is done by a working group of officials from Member States and COREPER – the committee of permanent national representatives, based in Brussels.  Normally, all the actual Council of Ministers does is approve (by a qualified majority vote) the resulting common position, which accepts some of the Parliament’s amendments and rejects others.  
  • Sweden took over the presidency of the Council of Ministers on 1st June and they have indicated a timetable in which a common position is adopted at the November meeting of the Agriculture Council.
  • The European Commission will then issue a communication stating whether or not it agrees with the common position and why.  This is sent to the Parliament with the common position for the second reading. 
  • The second reading in Parliament follows the same procedure as the first reading, but there is a three month time limit imposed.  The Parliament can reject the common position entirely and end the legislative process entirely by an absolute majority vote, but this is rare.  Normally, they either accept the common position or propose further amendments.
  • These further amendments are sent, along with a Commission communication giving their views on them, to the Council of Ministers for their second reading, which has a three month deadline.  The Council of Ministers can accept these amendments by a qualified majority vote, and the amended common position becomes law. If the Council of Ministers rejects the amended common position, a Conciliation Committee is set up, with members from the Parliament, Council of Ministers and Commission.  The Conciliation Ccommittee has to be set up within 6 weeks and then has 6 weeks to agree a text.  The Parliament and Council of Ministers must vote on this text within a further 6 weeks.  No further amendments can be made.  If the Conciliation Committee fails to produce a text in time or if either institution rejects the text, the whole procedure stops.  If both accept, the text becomes law.