Co-Operation procedure Through the use of Treaties and EU legislation, the European Parliament has been successive in increasing their status …show more content…
The assent procedure was also introduced through the SEA in 1986. This procedure required the council of the EU to gain the approval and assent of the Parliament before the legislation can be enforced. The parliament has the authority to accept and reject the proposal, however not amend, and this is what would be considered the aspect that prevents the Parliament from being an omnipotent force within this procedure in addition to the fact that the procedure can only be applied to certain areas of legislation. The significance of this procedure was exercise in the Treaty of Amsterdam when the fundamental rights of citizens from an EU member state had been notably breached and as a result, Parliament had provided assent under Article 7 of the EU Treaty. The consent procedure was amended during the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 which is where the Assent Procedure was renamed the Consent Procedure, where it was then considered a special legislative procedure. This procedure completely defies the statement that the Parliament is weak in comparison to the council as the council is irrelevant within this procedure and cannot intervene. This procedure however does agree with the statement and confirms that successive reforms has made the Parliament a sovereign power within the EU in terms of