Did you know that the European Union has the power to make laws that apply to all of its member states at once? This video will explore: Why the EU passes legislation? Who is involved? And how does the legislative process actually work? The EU passes legislation to ensure that all of its members are held accountable to the same standards. This helps create a Level-Playing-Field for businesses in different countries and ensures that European people enjoy similar rights and freedoms. And by passing laws at the EU level, rather than individual country levels, areas such as Trade, Environmental Protection, and Human Rights can be addressed much more effectively and at a much larger scale. So who is involved in passing legislation? The EU makes laws through a legislative process that involves three key EU institutions. Firstly, the European Commission, which is the executive branch of the European Union made up of 27 Commissioners and one President. The Commission is responsible for proposing and implementing EU laws and policies. Secondly, there's a European Parliament which is made up of Citizen elected members from each Member State. The Parliament has the power to approve, amend, or reject laws proposed by the Commission. And thirdly, there's the Council of the EU, which is made up of Ministers from each Member State representing the national governments. Like the Parliament, the council can also approve, amend and reject laws. So how do these institutions work together to pass laws? Well there are six main steps in the EU lawmaking process. The process starts with the European Commission proposing a new law. The right to propose new laws, known as the 'Right of Initiative' is exclusive to the European Commission. That said, other European institutions, Member States and even individual citizens can request that the Commission draft a proposal under special circumstances. The European Commission is not required to pass these proposals but it is required to give a reason as to why it won't. When the Commission is finished drafting a piece of legislation it is sent to the European Parliament for a first reading. Here the legislation is reviewed and discussed by the Parliament's 20 committees, who make changes and recommendations where they see fit. The parliament then votes to accept or reject the legislation. If rejected it is sent back to the Commission with the suggestions. If accepted it's passed onto the Council of the European Union. The Council then reviews the proposed legislation and usually makes amendments before also voting on the legislation. If the Council approves, the Proposal it is sent back to the European Parliament for a second reading. The Parliament can accept or reject the Council's changes or propose new amendments once again. If differences in the proposed legislation between the European Parliament and the Council persist a conciliation committee is formed to find a compromise. And then, if a compromise is reached, the proposal is sent back to the European Parliament and to the council for final approval. If both institutions approve the proposal it then becomes a law and once a law is adopted it is binding on all EU Member States and must be implemented in international law. In conclusion, passing legislation in the EU requires cooperation between all member countries and an understanding of national interests and European-Wide concerns. However, the process of passing laws within the EU can be difficult and time consuming due to the diversity of interests among its 27 member states. This channel is all about the EU so if you want more educational videos about institutions or EU current events, Subscribe and Like the video and if you want to support the Channel please consider signing up to Patreon. Until next time!