The procedure to make a decision in the European Union follows a specific and original model, which cannot be found in any other institutional system. It main concern is to achieve a stable balance between efficiency, democratic legitimacy and representativeness of the various Member-states.

The procedure to make a decision is different for each of the three pillars that were established in 1993 by the Treaty of Maastricht.

It is important to state that, while the first pillar – the European Community – aggregates the European Economic Community, the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) and the former European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the second and third pillars cover respectively Common Foreign and Security Policy and Police and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters.

Procedure to make a decision in the first pillar

In the first pillar, that of the European Community, Member-states decided to delegate powers of decision in certain areas to the institutions of the Union, in accordance with the principle of Subsidiarity.

The procedure to make a decision in this pillar is called community method and is based on a logic of cooperation among various institutions and bodies of the Union. In most of the cases, the approved legal instruments are the result of the involvement of the three principal institutional actors: the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council.

• The Commission, guardian of community interests, has the right and the duty to begin the legislative process (the right of initiative), presenting proposals to the Parliament and the Council.

The Commission also has the duty to watch over the execution of approved legislation, with the help of committees composed of representatives of Member-states who are guided by procedures that are generally called procedures of comitology.

• The European Parliament, representative of the citizens of the Union and guarantor of democratic legitimacy of the legislative acts, has today an important role in the decision process, since the evolution of the institutional framework granted this institution with greater competences. The significance of its deliberations is fundamental in several areas, for the approval of legislative acts.

In certain cases, the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee also have a role in the process of decision, giving opinions on legislative proposals presented by the Commission.

• The Council of The European Union, the body of the Union where governments of Member-states are represented on a ministerial level, has a decisive role in the process of decision since, together with the European Parliament, it adopts legislative acts. The Treaties define the situations when it is necessary to have unanimity, a simple majority or a qualified majority.

The issues that require a unanimous decision have diminished in the last decades, presently representing only around forty, namely in the areas of fiscal control, social security, immigration, intellectual property and commercial policy for services.

For the votes that require a qualified majority, the Treaties define the number of votes per Member-state in the midst of the Council:

 
All the proposals for new European legislation must be based on a specific article of the Treaty, named juridical base of the proposal, which determines the legislative procedure that must be followed.

In the areas included in the European Union, the EC Treaty, with all the alterations that were introduced by successive community Treaties, determines, according to the matters, which decision procedures must be followed.

- Consultation Procedure
- Assent Procedure
- Cooperation Procedure
- Codecision Procedure

Essentially, the difference between these four legislative procedures is the degree of intervention of the European Parliament and the eventual appeal to a committee of interinstitutional conciliation.

Procedure to make a decision in the second and third pillars

In the areas of the second and third pillars, the intergovernmental nature in the process of decision remains.

Concerning Common Foreign and Security Policy (the second pillar), its objectives are followed according to a recourse to their own juridical instruments – a common action and a common position – approved by unanimity in the Council.

When the Treaty of Amsterdam came into force, it became possible to resort to a qualified majority under certain conditions, and to a new instrument: the common strategy.

It is the responsibility of the European Council to define common strategies that will be followed by the Union in the areas where Member-states have important common interests. The Council guarantees its execution, namely through common actions and positions. The Council can recommend common strategies to the European Council.

• Common actions: they are coordinated operational interventions of the Member-states. All existing means are mobilized (human resources, technical knowledge, financing, equipment, etc.) in order to achieve the objectives defined by the Council, based on general directions from the European Council.

• Common positions: their aim is to better coordinate and systematize intergovernmental cooperation, in a particular geographic or thematic area. Member-states, based on the positions they adopted in accordance with the position defined by the Union on specific issues, must follow and defend harmonious national policies.

As regards the «third pillar» of the European construction and in the sphere of a space of liberty, security and justice, the aim of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters is to assure a high level of protection of the citizens of the European Union, favouring and reinforcing the rapid and efficient cooperation of the police and the judicial authorities.

Its aim is to prevent but also to fight against racism and xenophobia, on the one hand, and organized crime, namely terrorism, traffic of human beings, crimes against children and drug and arms trafficking, corruption or fraud on the other hand.

When the Treaty of Amsterdam came into force, the following main instruments were given to police and judicial cooperation:

• Framework decisions: they are used to approach legislative and legal dispositions of Member-states. They are proposed by the Commission or a Member-state and must be adopted by unanimity. They bind Member-states to the result to be achieved, but leave it to their criteria to choose the way and the means to do it.

• Decisions: they can be used in order to achieve any objectives of judicial and police cooperation, excluding the approach of the legislative and legal dispositions of Member-states. They are binding and the Council, through a qualified majority, adopts the necessary measures to carry out the decision at the level of the European Union.

It should be noted that those proposals do not come from the Commission. A qualified majority of the votes in favour of a decision must still represent 2/3 of Member-states.