Brussels writes so many laws
6 days ago
- #legislative process
- #EU legislation
- #Brussels bureaucracy
- The EU's extraordinary legislative productivity is puzzling given its broad coalition and diverse interests, yet it passes around 13,000 acts between 2019 and 2024, about seven per day.
- The EU's legislative process is driven by incentives where every actor is rewarded for producing legislation rather than exercising vetoes.
- The Commission initiates legislation and benefits from expanding its competences, employing more staff, and justifying larger budgets.
- The legislative process has evolved to prioritize speed, with private trilogue meetings replacing public debates, leading to rushed and sometimes flawed legislation.
- The European Parliament's committees, particularly the rapporteurs, play a crucial role in shaping legislation, often pushing through major policy changes with minimal debate.
- The Council of Ministers, representing member states, is often eager to compromise due to the rotating presidency's short tenure and pressure to close deals quickly.
- The Commission acts as a neutral broker in trilogues but subtly influences outcomes by controlling the wording of draft agreements.
- The reliance on staff and technical trilogues has increased, with substantial political decisions often disguised as technical adjustments.
- The volume of legislation has led to low-quality laws, with overlapping and sometimes contradictory requirements, and a lack of feedback loops and impact assessments.
- The EU's legislative system is finely tuned to produce more law, with every success and failure leading to further expansion of EU law.