Second Reading in Europe

Second Reading in European Parliament and in the Council

The European Parliament has three months starting from the communication of the Council’s position to do one of the following:

(1) approve the Council’s position or not take a decision; the act concerned is then deemed to have been adopted in the wording which corresponds to the position of the Council;

(2) reject, by a majority of its component members, the Council’s position; the proposed act is then deemed not to have been adopted and the legislative process ends;

(3) make, by a majority of its members, amendments to the Council’s position; the text thus amended is then forwarded to the Council and to the Commission, which delivers an opinion on those amendments.

Context of Second Reading in the European Union

The Council discusses the amended position and has three months from the date of receiving Parliament’s amendments to do one of the following.

(1) It can approve all of Parliament’s amendments; the act in question is then deemed to have been adopted. A qualified majority is sufficient if the Commission is also in agreement with the amendments; if not, the Council can approve Parliament’s amendments only by unanimity.

(2) It can choose not to approve all Parliament’s amendments or it does not attain the required majority; this results in a conciliation procedure.