Single European Act
The assent procedure was introduced by the Single European Act. Under this procedure, the Council of the European Union must obtain Parliament's assent before certain decisions can be made. Acceptance ("assent") requires an absolute majority of votes.
The European Parliament can accept or reject the proposal but not amend it. However, the Parliament can produce an interim report making recommendations for modifications, and a conciliation has also been introduced.
The areas included under the assent procedure were:
- specific tasks of the European Central Bank (ECB);
- amendments of statutes of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) / European Central Bank;
- Structural Funds and Cohesion Funds;
- the uniform electoral procedure for the European Parliament;
- certain international agreements;
- the accession of new member states;
- approval of the President and the other members of the Commission
Read more about this topic: Consent Procedure
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