unlike the state of things in member states with parliaments initiating legislation only the European commission can propose directives or legally binding regulations neither the states nor the European Parliament have this power but these proposals never just fall from the sky where works the European commission listens to views across Europe for or against the creation of new laws at this stage MEPS are involved in the process often adopting recommendations since 2012 European citizens can also directly request new draft laws for that at least 1 million people from no fewer than seven countries must sign a petition having listened to all sides the European commission finally presents its bill this is the start of a long legislative process that generally takes 12 to 18 months the draft is then sent to the European Council representing the member states and the European Parliament representing the citizens in 80% of cases the two institutions have equal power this is called the ordinary legislative procedure there's no question of legislating on everything the union can make laws on such issues as the environment agriculture consumer protection and transport for example the list is growing but the member States retain an absolute veto on Social Security on tax Foreign Affairs or defense but back to the bills before being adopted they go through the institutional Mill the European Council and Parliament can amend the draft according to their interests especially if majority positions emerge since member states and MEPS rarely agree first time round they have to negotiate there are two possible scenarios either the two institutions find a compromise and the draft law can be adopted by MEPS after a vote or there's no agreement and the negotiations must continue if the negotiations fail once the clock starts ticking to find agreement before a certain deadline that fails the bill is simply binned and the whole process starts all over again but in reality that happens very rarely when there's agreement the new European law is officially adopted and all member states must then apply it well almost sometimes member states receive what's known as a derogation the right to delayed implementation if they fail to implement the European commission as guardian of the EU treaties intervenes to punish non-implementation and if that fails the European court of justice takes over in the worst cases States can be ordered to pay heavy fines but that's another [Music] story