LEGISLATIVE PROCEDURE IN THE EU

Zakonodavni postupak u Europskoj uniji je postupak u kojem se donose zakonodavni akti poput uredbi, direktiva i odluka. Redovni zakonodavni postupak uz posebne zakonodavne postupke su trenutno važeći postupci u kojima se donose akti sekundarnog prava EU-a. Institucije EU-a su tijela koja izrađuju i donose akte, a to su: Europska komisija, Vijeće Europske unije i Europski parlament. Oni su glavni sudionici u zakonodavnom postupku. Od začetka Unije 1957. godine do stupanja na snagu Lisabonskog ugovora 2009. godine zakonodavni postupci su prošli kroz nekoliko reformi te su neki od njih i ukinuti. Postupak suodlučivanja koji se koristio kao glavni postupak za donošenje akata u Uniji uveden je 1992. Ugovorom iz Maastrichta te je reformiran 2007. kada postaje redovni zakonodavni postupak prema Ugovoru o funkcioniranju Europske unije. Uz njega koriste se i posebni zakonodavni postupci kao što su postupak suglasnosti i savjetodavni postupak. Akti koji se donose u zakonodavnom postupku dio su pravne stečevine EU-a i djeluju prema svojim adresatima koji mogu biti fizičke i pravne osobe kao i države članice. Države članice dužne su, s obzirom na vrstu akta, implementirati akt u nacionalne pravne poretke. Zakonodavni postupak Europske unije dijeli sličnost s postupcima u državama članica, s obzirom na tijek postupka, u smislu da proces započinje inicijativom od strane izvršnog tijela koje kreira prijedlog akta, potom prijedlog odlazi na čitanje zakonodavnom tijelu koje tijekom nekoliko čitanja može dopuniti i izmijeniti prijedlog i glasovanjem usvojiti akt na kraju procesa. Posebnost zakonodavnog postupka EU-a leži u činjenici da u procesu sudjeluju dva zakonodavna tijela i izvršno tijelo što može dovesti do komplikacija i zato je tijek postupka duži u odnosu na nacionalne zakonodavne postupke država članica.Legislative procedure in the European Union is a procedure in which legislative acts such as regulations, directives and decisions are adopted. The ordinary legislative procedure, in addition to special legislative procedures, are the current procedures in which EU legislative acts are adopted. The EU institutions are the bodies that draft and adopt acts, such as: European Commission, Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. They are the main participants in the legislative process. From the beginning of the Union in 1957. until the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009., legislative procedures have undergone several reforms and some have been abolished. The co-decision procedure, which was used as the main procedure for adopting acts in the Union, was introduced in 1992. by the Maastricht Treaty and reformed in 2007. when it became the ordinary legislative procedure described in The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It is accompanied by special legislative procedures such as the consent procedure and consultation procedure. Acts adopted in the legislative process become part of the EU law and must be obeyed by, persons as well as Member States. Member States are required, depending on the type of act, to implement the act in national legal systems. The legislative process of the European Union shares the similarity with the procedures in the Member States, given the course of the procedure, in the sense that the process begins with an initiative by the executive body creating the draft act, then the proposal goes to the legislative body for reading and a vote to adopt the act which marks the end of the process. The peculiarity of the EU legislative procedure lies in the fact that two legislative bodies and an executive body are involved in the process, which can lead to complications and therefore the course of the procedure is longer compared to the national legislative procedures of the Member States