Termcoord European Election Countdown: Amendments

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An amendment is one of the most important legal keys in the legislative process of modifying and determining EU laws, as they constitute a formal or official proposed change made to any legal document, contract, law or even the constitution.

Based on the verb to amend, to change for better, amendments are so important in the EU legislative procedure because they can add, remove or update parts of legal agreements before the final draft is approved.

In the European Union, it will be the European Commission that first proposes a draft legislation, and this will go to the Parliament and Council committees. Once a draft has been put forward, it goes through various steps before it can finally become part of the law. This all means that the drafted law might be subject to a series of proposed amendments by both the European Parliament and the Council.

All the amendments proposed or adopted are a fundamental step of the procedure in the negotiation between the MEPs during their discussion, as it might not come as a surprise that any votes can be switched in the last minute of an election session making a the drafted final decision either declined or approved.

You can see below with detail how the amendments can turn out following the legislative procedure

Would you like to explore the latest amendments approved by the European Parliament?

Please follow this link https://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/amendments.html

Sources:

Amendment Explained. https://everything.explained.today/Amendment/. Accessed May 3, 2019.

The Art of the Amendment. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?language=EN&type=IM-PRESS&reference=20100406STO72099. Accessed May 3, 2019.

iate. https://iate.europa.eu/entry/result/778614/en. Accessed May 3, 2019.

Amendment. Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amendment. Accessed May 3, 2019.

Amendments | Documents | Committees | European Parliament. Amendments | Documents | Committees | European Parliament. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/amendments.html. Accessed May 3, 2019.

The Ordinary Legislative Procedure. Overview|Ordinary legislative procedure|Ordinary Legislative Procedure. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ordinary-legislative-procedure/en/ordinary-legislative-procedure.html. Accessed May 3, 2019.


Written by Maria Blanca Escudero Fontan, trainee in the Direction of the Directorate B. Graduated with a BA in Translation and Interpretation (uVigo) and a Masters in International Studies (USC, Galicia).