tend to be so specific that EU citizens and companies can count on directive-based
law to be practically the same across other European Member States.
For example, Article 5 of the above-mentioned Directive on the rights of Union citizens
reads:
“The right of all Union citizens to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member
States should, if it is to be exercised under objective conditions of freedom and dignity, be
also granted to their family members, irrespective of nationality. For the purposes of this
Directive, the definition of “family member” should also include the registered partner if
the legislation of the host Member State treats registered partnership as equivalent to
marriage.”Decisions Where regulations are meant to be general, decisions are typically
meant for specific cases. A decision is binding, but decisions that specify their
addressee(s) only bind that addressee(s).
An example of a decision is Council Decision 2012/35/CFSP of 23 January 2012 amending
Decision 2010/413/CFSP concerning restrictive measures against Iran. In Article 9 this
decision prohibited the purchase, import or transport of crude oil and petroleum products
from Iran, as well as of petrochemical products.
This decision also illustrates that, where content is concerned, EU decisions are sometimes
hard to distinguish from regulations.10.3.2 The Ordinary Legislative Procedure
If an EU rule creates the competence to make EU legislation, it also specifies which
legislative procedure is to be followed. The procedure that is usually adopted is the
“ordinary legislative procedure,” which is described in Article 294 TFEU. In this
procedure, the Commission, the Council, and the European Parliament must coop-
erate in order to create new legislation. If these three institutions agree, the
procedure is quite simple:
- The Commission submits a proposal to the European Parliament and the
Council. - The European Parliament adopts its position and communicates it to the Council.
- If the Council approves the European Parliament’s position, the act concerned is
adopted in the wording that corresponds to the position of the European
Parliament.
If the Council and the European Parliament disagree, the legislative proposal
may be sent back and forth several times between these two institutions and the
Commission. The decision-making procedure within the Council may change from
unanimity to qualified majority voting (see below). However, in the end, the
Council and the European Parliament must agree if a legislative proposal is to be
adopted.
Qualified Majority Voting The brief remark above that the decision-making
procedure within the Council may change from unanimity to qualified majority
10 The Law of Europe 217