Legislative Initiative in The European Union
The European Commission has the legislative initiative. However, under the Treaty of Maastricht enhanced by the Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament has a right of legislative initiative that allows it to ask the Commission to submit a proposal. Member states also have a legislative initiative concerning the Common Foreign and Security Policy. In fact only 10% of the proposals are from the commission only. Others proposals from the commission are requested by the member states, the parliament or other organizations (e.g. NGO).
Some politicians like Jean-Pierre Chevènement or Dominique Strauss-Kahn think that this monopoly of the initiative prevent from creating a real democratic debate.
Read more about this topic: Right Of Initiative (legislative)
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