Out of Balance? Practical Experience in the European Union with Quasi-Legislative Acts

Abstract

This chapter examines the European Parliament’s and Council of the EU’s use of post-Lisbon legislative vetoes to override the European Commission’s rule-making. Using an original data set of legislative vetoes of Commission acts by both European legislators from December 2009 to December 2017, the contribution shows that levels of the formal exercise of the legislative veto to overrule the Commission’s regulatory policies are very low. Particularly interestingly, the level of exercise of legislative veto provisions has not increased significantly since the Lisbon Treaty came into effect, suggesting that the ways in which the Treaty formally augmented the powers of legislative scrutiny have not resulted in appreciably greater formal exercise of these ultima ratio powers. Moreover, no significant differences appear between the Council of the EU and the European Parliament.