57-468: Construction Products Directive (Council Directive 89/106/EEC) (CPD) is a now repealed European Union Directive which aimed to remove technical barriers to trade in construction products between Member States in the European Union . The directive is now replaced by Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 . The directive was replaced in order to simplify and clarify the existing framework, and improve
114-442: A "virtual third chamber". The ordinary legislative procedure is the main legislative procedure by which directives and regulations are adopted. It was formerly known as the codecision procedure , and is sometimes referred to as the ' community method ' as a contrast to the ' intergovernmental methods ' which can variously refer to the consultation procedure or to the open method of co-ordination . Article 294 TFEU outlines
171-505: A "yellow card" – on the basis that the principle of subsidiarity has been violated, then the proposal must be reviewed. If a majority do so – an "orange card" – then the Council or Parliament can vote it down immediately. If the logistical problems of putting this into practice are overcome, then the power of the national parliaments could be decried as an extra legislature, without a common debate or physical location: dubbed by EU Observer
228-520: A directive in theory but has failed to abide by its provisions in practice. If a Member State fails to implement a Directive timely or correctly, the Directive itself becomes binding on the Member States, meaning that parties in proceedings against the state may rely on provisions of the untimely or incorrectly transposed Directive. An example of a case in which the applicant was able to invoke
285-607: A directive rather than a regulation: (i) it complies with the EU's desire for "subsidiarity" ; (ii) it acknowledges that different member States have different legal systems, legal traditions and legal processes; and (iii) each Member State has leeway to choose its own statutory wording, rather than accepting the Brussels' official " Eurospeak " terminology. For example, while EU Directive 2009/20/EC (which simply requires all vessels visiting EU ports to have P&I cover) could have been
342-593: A draft directive (if subject to the co-decision process, as contentious matters usually are) is prepared by the Commission after consultation with its own and national experts. The draft is presented to the Parliament and the Council —composed of relevant ministers of member governments, initially for evaluation and comment and then subsequently for approval or rejection. There are justifications for using
399-616: A few limited areas, the Commission has the authority to adopt regulatory or technical legislation without consulting or obtaining the consent of other bodies. The Commission can adopt legal acts on its own initiative concerning monopolies and concessions granted to companies by Member States and concerning the right of workers to remain in a Member State after having been employed there (Article 45(3)(d) TFEU). Two directives have been adopted using this procedure: one on transparency between member states and companies and another on competition in
456-436: A lack of transparency and democratic legitimacy. The European Ombudsman , the EU body responsible of investigating complaints about poor administration by EU institutions and other bodies, in 2015 has launched a strategic inquiry to establish the need for a reform of the trilogue, setting out proposals for more transparency. The treaties have provision for special legislative procedures to be used in sensitive areas. These see
513-475: A procedure for giving interim reports where it can address its concerns to the Council and threaten to withhold its consent unless its concerns are met. This applies to admission of members , methods of withdrawal , subsidiary general legal basis provision and combating discrimination. The domestic legal systems of Member States are mostly a legacy of different historical legislation each of which has to be adapted in order to play an essential role in ensuring
570-705: A range of areas under the treaties affecting their area of expertise. Such a procedure takes place in addition to consultation with the European Parliament or the other legislative procedures. In the consent procedure (formerly assent procedure), the Council can adopt legislation based on a proposal by the European Commission after obtaining the consent of Parliament. Thus Parliament has the legal power to accept or reject any proposal but no legal mechanism exists for proposing amendments. Parliament has however provided for conciliation committee and
627-861: A regulation (without requiring member states to implement the directive), the desire for subsidiarity was paramount, so a directive was the chosen vehicle. The legal basis for the enactment of directives is Article 288 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (formerly Article 249 TEC ). Article 288 To exercise the Union's competences, the institutions shall adopt regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations and opinions. A regulation shall have general application. It shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. A directive shall be binding, as to
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#1732772565938684-614: A variety of legislative procedures . The procedure used for a given legislative proposal depends on the policy area in question. Most legislation needs to be proposed by the European Commission and approved by the Council of the European Union and European Parliament to become law. Over the years the power of the European Parliament within the legislative process has been greatly increased from being limited to giving its non-binding opinion or excluded from
741-508: Is an informal type of meeting used in the EU's ordinary legislative procedure. It involves representatives of the European Parliament (EP), the Council of the EU and the European Commission . The trilogues are equally tripartite meetings, although the EC operates as a mediator between the EP and the Council. The trilogue negotiations aim at bringing the three institutions to an agreement, to fast-track
798-427: Is generally considered to be sui generis by observers, given the unique dynamics between the legislative bodies not found in traditional tricameralism. The Commission has a virtual monopoly on the introduction of legislation into the legislative process, a power which gives the Commission considerable influence as an agenda setter for the EU as a whole. And while the Commission frequently introduces legislation at
855-526: The Council of Ministers with qualified majority voting in specified areas with the previous consent of the European Parliament, and move from a special legislative procedure to the ordinary legislative procedure. The Passerelle Clause allows for the changing of voting procedures without amending the EU treaties. Under this clause the European Council can, after receiving the consent of the European Parliament, vote unanimously to: A decision of
912-495: The 1950s as new legislative procedures granted more equality between Parliament and Council. It has also become a requirement that the composition of the European Commission be subject to a vote of approval as a whole by the Parliament. However, the choice of candidates remains the jurisdiction of the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission retains the sole power of legislative initiative. Taken into account that
969-536: The CPD. The objective of the CPD (and the CPR alike) is not to define the safety of construction products, but to ensure that reliable information is presented in relation to their performance. This is achieved by providing, mainly in standards, a common technical language, to be used not only by manufacturers, but also by public authorities when defining their requirements on construction works, directly or indirectly influencing
1026-470: The Commission (and also the Council) are the antagonists of the parliament in the system of separation of powers this is considered a democratic deficit. The Council of the EU (also known as "the council of ministers" and simply "the council") represents the national governments of member states, and hence its composition is essentially the number of member states (27) though votes are weighted according to
1083-551: The Commission can adopt legislation without the approval of other bodies (see below ). The European Parliament's 705 members are directly elected every five years by universal suffrage . It organises itself as a normal multi-party parliament in conducting most of its work in its committees and sitting in political groupings rather than national delegations. However, its political groups are very weak due to their status as broad ideological groups of existing national parties. The Parliament's powers have grown considerably since
1140-487: The Council adopt alone with just the involvement of the other. Notable procedures are the consultation and consent procedures, though various others are used for specific cases. Under this procedure the Council, acting either unanimously or by a qualified majority depending on the policy area concerned, can adopt legislation based on a proposal by the European Commission after consulting the European Parliament. While being required to consult Parliament on legislative proposals,
1197-679: The Council approves it, then it is adopted. If it does not, the Council President, with the agreement of the Parliament President, convenes the Conciliation Committee composed of the Council and an equal number of MEPs (with the attendance as moderator of the Commission). The committee draws up a joint text on the basis of the two positions. If within six weeks it fails to agree on a common text, then
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#17327725659381254-540: The Council is not bound by Parliament's position. In practice the Council would frequently ignore whatever Parliament might suggest and even sometimes reach an agreement before receiving Parliament's opinion. However, the European Court of Justice has ruled that the Council must wait for Parliament's opinion and the Court has struck down legislation that the Council adopted before Parliament gave its opinion. Before
1311-523: The European Council to use either of these provisions can come into effect only if, six months after all national parliaments had been given notice of the decision, none objects. Legal acts resulting from these procedures can come in a number of forms. A regulation is a law that has direct effect; for example the roaming charges regulation which immediately set price limits on mobile phone calls made in another EU state. A directive needs to be transposed, within certain limits, into national law; for example
1368-680: The European Court of Justice developed the doctrine of direct effect where unimplemented or badly implemented directives can actually have direct legal force. In the important case of Francovich v. Italy , the ECJ extended the principle of Van Gend en Loos to provide that Member States who failed to implement a directive could incur liability to pay damages to individuals and companies who had been adversely affected by such non-implementation. European Union legislative procedure The European Union adopts legislation through
1425-474: The European Union in a timely manner Under this procedure the Council can adopt legal acts proposed by the Commission without requiring the opinion of Parliament. The procedure is used when setting the common external tariff (Article 31 (ex Article 26)) and for negotiating trade agreements under the EU's Common Commercial Policy (Article 207(3)). However, formally speaking these acts are not legislative acts. In
1482-721: The Single European Act the Consultation procedure was the most widely used legislative procedure in the then European Community . Consultation is still used for legislation concerning internal market exemptions and competition law. The procedure is also used in relation to the Union's advisory bodies such as the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee that are required to be consulted under
1539-642: The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which deals with internal policy and action of the Union, could be amended by a unanimous decision of the European Council , provided there is no change to the field of competence of the EU, and subject to ratification by all member states in the usual manner. The Treaty also provides for the Passerelle Clause which allows the European Council to unanimously decide to replace unanimous voting in
1596-538: The act has failed. If it succeeds and the committee approves the text, then the Council and Parliament (acting by majority) must then approve said text (third reading). If either fails to do so, the act is not adopted. The procedure was introduced with the Maastricht Treaty as the codecision procedure and was initially intended to replace the Cooperation procedure (see below). The codecision procedure
1653-437: The appropriate legislative procedure, both institutions can seek to make laws. There are Council directives and Commission directives. Article 288 does not clearly distinguish between legislative acts and administrative acts, as is normally done in national legal systems. Directives are binding only on the member states to whom they are addressed, which can be just one member state or a group of them. In general, however, with
1710-401: The behest of the Council or upon the suggestion of Parliament, what form any legislative proposals introduced take is up to the Commission. Under the ordinary legislative procedure (see below), the negative opinion from the Commission also forces the Council to vote by unanimity rather than majority except when a conciliation committee has been set up. There are also limited instances where
1767-505: The demands placed on the products to be used in them. A 'construction product' means "any product which is produced for incorporation in a permanent manner in construction works, including both buildings and civil engineering works," such as buildings, bridges, highways and other civil engineering projects. The Construction Products Directive recognises the following types of Harmonized Technical Specifications: So far 552 standards have been harmonised. CE Marking of construction products
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1824-425: The directive to be implemented correctly. This is done in approximately 99% of the cases. If a member state fails to pass the required national legislation, or if the national legislation does not adequately comply with the requirements of the directive, the European Commission may initiate legal action against the member state in the European Court of Justice . This may also happen when a member state has transposed
1881-583: The exception of directives related to the Common Agricultural Policy , directives are addressed to all member states. When adopted, directives give member states a timetable for the implementation of the intended outcome. Occasionally, the laws of a member state may already comply with this outcome, and the state involved would be required only to keep its laws in place. More commonly, member states are required to make changes to their laws (commonly referred to as transposition ) in order for
1938-519: The legislative procedure used for a certain policy area can be changed without formally amending the treaties. Since December 2009, after the Lisbon Treaty came into force, three EU institutions have been the main participants in the legislative process: the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, with the national parliaments of the EU playing a further role. The legislative and budgetary functions of
1995-501: The legislative process altogether, to participating equally with the Council in the legislative process. The power to amend the Treaties of the European Union , sometimes referred to as the Union's primary law, or even as its de facto constitution, is reserved to the member states and must be ratified by them in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements. An exception to this are so-called passerelle clauses in which
2052-475: The matter. At the second reading, the act is adopted if Parliament approves the Council's text or fails to take a decision. The Parliament may reject the Council's text, leading to a failure of the law, or modify it and pass it back to the Council. The Commission gives its opinion once more. Where the Commission has rejected amendments in its opinion, the Council must act unanimously rather than by majority. If, within three months of receiving Parliament's new text,
2109-462: The member states achieve those goals. A directive's goals have to be made the goals of one or more new or changed national laws by the member states before this legislation applies to individuals residing in the member states. Directives normally leave member states with a certain amount of leeway as to the exact rules to be adopted. Directives can be adopted by means of a variety of legislative procedures depending on their subject matter. The text of
2166-493: The method of conformity assessment. Choice of value for intended use was left to the regulators in each Member State. The CPD has been amended by the Council Directive 93/68/EEC of 22 July 1993 and Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 September 2003. The directive was repealed and replaced by Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 on 9 March 2011. The construction sector has one of
2223-451: The most significant economic activities of the EU. Prior to the CPDs inception, there were differing standards and technical approvals among EU member states. The importance of the CPD was to remove the technical barriers to trade, market barriers and market entry strategy for the EU construction industry. Five hundred product standards and 200 testing standards are planned in the context of
2280-456: The number of the trilogue meetings. During 2009–2014 legislative term, when the Treaty of Lisbon came into force and the co-decision procedure became ordinary legislative procedure – establishing the role of the EP and the Council of the EU as co-legislators – 85% of legislative acts were approved in first reading, 13% were approved in second reading while only 2% were included in the conciliation procedure. This trend corresponds to an increase in
2337-399: The number of trilogues (over 1500 in the same period) and it is seen as a proof of the effectiveness of the trilogues in fast tracking the legislative procedure. The principal tool used in trilogues is the four column document, a working sheet divided in four sections, each of them comprising the positions of the three EU institutions. The first column is dedicated to the position of the EC,
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2394-411: The ordinary legislative procedure in the following manner. The Commission submits a legislative proposal to the Parliament and Council. At the first reading Parliament adopts its position. If the Council approves the Parliament's wording then the act is adopted. If not, it shall adopt its own position and pass it back to Parliament with explanations. The Commission also informs Parliament of its position on
2451-411: The ordinary legislative procedure. The expression "formal trilogue" is sometimes used to describe meetings of the Conciliation Committee, which take place between the second and the third reading of a legislative proposal. However, the term trilogue is mostly referred to interinstitutional informal negotiations that can take place in any stage of the ordinary legislative procedure, from the first stage to
2508-463: The population of each state (see procedures below for clarification). As such, it does not sit according to political groups and rather than conducting most of its work in committees, much of its work is done by its preparatory bodies (the Working Parties and COREPER ). The national parliaments of EU member states have an "early warning mechanism" whereby if one third raise an objection –
2565-487: The product prior to being put on the market: CE marking is obligatory for every product placed on the EEA (European Economical area or the European Union + Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) market as soon as all conditions are fulfilled to enable this. European Union Directive A directive is a legal act of the European Union that requires member states to achieve particular goals without dictating how
2622-754: The provisions of an untimely transposed Directive is the Verkooijen case, in which the European Court of Justice rendered a judgement on 6 June 2000 (case no. C-35/98). The United Kingdom passed a statutory instrument , the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1994 , to implement the EU Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Directive 1993 . For reasons that are not clear, the 1994 SI
2679-400: The result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is addressed, but shall leave to the national authorities the choice of form and methods. A decision shall be binding in its entirety upon those to whom it is addressed. Recommendations and opinions shall have no binding force. The Council can delegate legislative authority to the Commission and, depending on the area and
2736-400: The second one to the position of the EP, the third one to the position of the Council. The fourth and final column is left to the compromised text that is meant to emerge. However, although the first two positions are public, the other two have often textual elements that have not been adopted and the content of the fourth column remains inaccessible to public. Trilogues have been criticised for
2793-522: The stage of the formal conciliation procedure. The agreements reached in trilogues still need to be approved through the formal procedures of each of the three institutions. Trilogues have been "formalised" in 2007 in a joint declaration of the EP, the Council and the EC but they are not regulated by primary legislation. The evolution of the European integration process, together with the evolution of EP's role as co-legislator have produced an increase in
2850-427: The standards of European Union law are implemented effectively, and uniformly. Member States governments have a EU treaty obligation to amend their existing Primary and secondary legislation in a way that is reasonably consistent and comprehensible to individuals and businesses in order to enforce EU legislation and directives consistently and reliably across all the various jurisdictions of each Member state of
2907-402: The telecommunications sector. Formally speaking, these acts are not legislative acts. The 2009 Lisbon Treaty created two different ways for further amendments of the European Union treaties: an ordinary revision procedure which is broadly similar to the past revision process in that it involves convening an intergovernmental conference, and a simplified revision procedure whereby Part three of
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#17327725659382964-411: The transparency and the effectiveness of the existing measures. It sought to "ensure the free movement of all construction products within the European Union by harmonizing national laws with respect to the essential requirements applicable to these products in terms of health and safety." An additional objective of the directive was to "standardize the manufacturing of construction products and guarantee
3021-455: The union are jointly exercised by the Parliament and the Council, which are referred to as the Union legislator in a protocol to the EU treaties . The precise nature of this organisation has been discussed extensively in academic literature, with some categorising the European Union as bicameral or tricameral , though the European Union itself has not accepted such categorisation and it
3078-426: The unlimited use of these products within the EU." The CPD provided the following four main elements: The Directive did not aim to harmonise regulations. Member States and public and private sector procurers were free to set their own requirements on the performance of works and therefore products. What the CPD sought to harmonise was the methods of test, the methods of declaration of product performance values, and
3135-414: Was amended by the Treaty of Amsterdam and the number of legal bases where the procedure applies was greatly increased by both the latter treaty and the Treaty of Nice . It was renamed the ordinary legislative procedure and extended to nearly all areas such as agriculture , fisheries , transport, structural funds, the entire budget and the former third pillar by the Treaty of Lisbon . The trilogue
3192-437: Was deemed inadequate and was repealed and replaced by the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 . The Consumer Rights Act 2015 , a major United Kingdom statute consolidating consumer rights, then abolished the 1999 SI; so presumably the 2015 Act complies with the 1993 EU directive, which remains extant. Even though directives were not originally thought to be binding before they were implemented by member states,
3249-430: Was introduced in the CPD in 1989. CE Marking is a declaration by the manufacturer that the product meets certain public safety requirements. The public safety requirements are a set of essential characteristics that each product must satisfy and these characteristics are given in the product's harmonised standard. There are six essential requirements which need to be addressed (by committee) and satisfied, when relevant, by
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