1. The Main EU Institutions
2. Other European Institutions
3. The European Commission
4. The European Parliament
5. The Council of EU
6. European Council
7. Special Legislative Procedures
8. The Budgetary Procedure and How it Works
9. Comitology & How it Works

The Main EU Institutions

• The European Council - Brings together the Heads of State or Government from each Member State at least twice a year, to provide overall strategic direction and general political guidance. The European Council does not exercise legislative functions.
• The Council of the European Union (often referred l of Ministers) - Represents the EU Member States and is comprised of national Ministers. It has its seat in Brussels, where it meets several times a month in different ‘formations’, depending on the policy area in question. (Some meetings are also held in Luxembourg).
• The European Parliament – Comprised of Members of European Parliament (MEPs), who are directly elected to represent EU citizens. Its full meetings, or ‘plenary sessions’, are held in Strasbourg or Brussels.
• The European Commission - An independent political body which represents the European interest common to all Member States. The College of Commissioners is supported by a multinational staff, referred to as the Commission services, the ‘civil service’ of the EU. The Commission has offices in Brussels and Luxembourg.

Other European Institutions

• The Court of Justice of the European Union - The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is based in Luxembourg and employs one independent judge from each Member State. The ECJ ensures that EU legislation is interpreted and applied in the same way in all EU countries, and overlooks its implementation in EU Member States and institutions.
• The General Court - The General Court, which is attached to the Court of Justice, was created to help the Court of Justice cope with the large number of cases brought before it, and to offer citizens better legal protection. This Court is responsible for giving rulings on certain kinds of cases, particularly actions brought by private individuals, companies and some organisations, and cases relating to competition law.
• The Court of Auditors - The Court of Auditors checks that EU funds are properly collected and that they are spent legally, economically and for the intended purpose.
• The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) – The EESC is an advisory body to the Council, the Commission, and the European Parliament representing employers, trade unions, farmers, consumers and the other interest groups.
• The Committee of the Regions (CoR) – The CoR is a body composed of representatives of Europe’s regional and local authorities, which advises the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament in matters relevant to the regions.
• The European Investment Bank (EIB) – The EIB is based in Luxembourg, it finances projects to inter alia develop the EU’s less developed regions, help make small businesses more competitive, and projects of common interest to several Member States which are of such a size or nature that they cannot be entirely financed by individual Member States.
• The European Central Bank (ECB) – The ECB is based in Frankfurt, it is responsible for managing the Euro and the EU’s monetary policy.

The European Commission

The European Commission is the EU's executive body and its main roles are:

• to initiate proposals for EU policy and legislation (i.e. exercising the right of initiative);
• to represent the general interest of the European Union;
• to be the executive body of the Union responsible for managingseeing its implementation – including managing the Union's annual budget; and
• depending on the policy area, the Commission also acts as the EU’s external representative, (e.g. negotiating international trade and cooperation agreements).

College of Commissioners

The European Commission is led by a grouprently one per Member State. Commissioners are appointed for a five-year term. This group (known as the ‘College of Commissioners) formally constitutes ‘the Commission’. However, ‘the Commission’ is also frequently used to refer to the permanent apolitical administration known as the Commission services. Normally Commissioners are politicians (often former ministers) or high-ranking officials from Member States. Candidates are put forward by their respective Member State and must be approved by all the Member States jointly, and by the European Parliament. Commissioners are supported by their ‘cabinet’ or private office.

The College of Commissioners includes the new ‘High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy’ created under the Lisbon Treaty. This function merges the earlier two posts of Secretary General of the Council/High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy and Commissioner in charge of External Relations. The High Representative is also a Vice President of the Commission and chairs meetings of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council (rather than the six-monthly rotating general Presidency of the Council – see below). The current High Representative is Lady Catherine Ashton (UK). The Commission is led by the President of the Commission whose role is to guide and advance the Commissioners’ work and the European Commission as a whole. The President can assign responsibility for specific activities to the Commissioners, and has the power to reallocate responsibilities to Members of the Commission or to ask them to resign. The President also represents the Commission to other European institutions, for instance in the European Council, and in major debates in the European Parliament. In addition, the President is the face of the European Commission in meetings outside the EU, for instance at G8/G20 meetings. The President of the Commission is appointed by the governments of the Member States, and must then be formally elected by the European Parliament. Like the Commissioners, the President of the Commission serves a five-year term. The current President of the Commission is José Manuel Barroso (Portugal), who was re-appointed for a second five-year term in late 2009.

Commission Services

The services of the Commission are divided into 44 Directorates-General (DGs) and services. DGs are headed by Directors General who oversee the general functioning of the service. DGs are further split into Directorates (which cover specific policy areas within the DG) and Units (which deal with specific issues within the policy area). Desk Officers in the Units deal with issues of policy development and implementation. Desk Officers come from all 27 EU Member States but do not officially represent their country’s interest.

 

DGs with particular relevance to the environment are:

• DG Environment (DG ENV)
• DG Climate Action (DG CLIMA)
• DG Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI)
• DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE)
• DG Policy (DG REGIO)
• DG Research (DG RESEARCH)
• DG Mobility G MOVE)
• DG Energy (DG ENERGY)

The Secretariat General is responsibleal ohe Commission's work and its relations with the other institutions, as well as for coordination between the various Commission departments.

The European Parliament

The European Parliament is the democratic arm of the EU as its members are directly elected by the people of the Member States. Through the Members of Parliament (MEPs), the EU’s citizens can be involved in the making of EU policies and laws that affect their daily life. Each revision of the Treaties has seen an increase in the power of the European Parliament in relation to the other institutions. Today the European Parliament is firmly established as a co-legislator and is involved in finalising EU Directives, Regulations and other policy. The powers of the Parliament depend on the decision-making procedure used (see below). Most importantly, the Parliament:

• can ask the Commission lative proposals for laws to the Council and Parliament;
• plays an important role in creating new laws, espece ordinary legislative procedure (previously known as co-decision) where it has equal power to the Council. It also examines the Commission’s annual programme of work;
• approves Commissioner appointments;
• has the power to force the Commission as a whole to resign by a motion of censure;
• can consider petitions submitted by citizens on any issue within the sphere of EU activity
• can bring the Commission or Council before the Court of Justice if they fail to fulfil their obligations; and
• amends and can reject entirely the EU’s annual budget.

How the European Parliament is organised

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) cted by the citizens of Member States every five years, in the only international elections in the world. The last election was in June 2009 and 736 MEPs were elected. Under the Lisbon Treaty, the overall size of the European Parliament is capped at 751 MEPs. An amendment to the Lisbon Treaty is currently being negotiated to increase the number of MEPs to 754 until the end of the current term of the European Parliament in 2014. This amendment became necessary after the June 2009 elections were held under the Nice Treaty, which limited the number of MEPs to 736. Germany has also been allowed to keep its current total of 99 MEPs until 2014, when the number will be cut to 96 as foreseen by the Lisbon Treaty. The number of MEPs per Member State is allocated roughly in proportion to its population. The President represents the European Parliament externally and is elected for a renewable term of two and a half years. The whole Parliament normally meets twice a month in plenary sessions in Strasbourg and Brussels. The meetings are open to the public.

The European Parliament has a special structure where MEPs are grouped by political group rather than nationality. There are currently seven political groups in the European Parliament. The largest is the centre right European People’s Party, followed by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. The European Parliament is assisted by a Secretariat located in Luxembourg and Brussels. The political groups also have their own staff, and MEPs have parliamentary assistants.

The preparatory work for Parliament’s plenary sessions is carried out in 20 specialised standing committees of MEPs. Committees of special interest to the environment include:

• ENVI: Environment, Public Health and Food Safety
• AGRI: Agriculture and Rural Development
• PECH: Fisheries
• REGI: Regional Development
• TRAN: Transport and Tourism
• ITRE: Industry, Research and Energy
• BUDG: Budgets

The Parliament can also set up sub-committees and special temporary committees to deal with specific issues. For example, the Policy Challenges Committee (SURE) has been set up to prepare the Parliament’s position on the post-2013 Multi-Annual Financial Perspective.

The work of the Parliamentary Committees

The Parliamentary Committees advise the Parliament as a whole on issues relating to their specialist area. Their main activity is to consider Commission legislative proposals and Council amendments to them, and, where necessary, draw up reports with recommendations and amendments to be presented and voted on in the plenary assembly attended by all MEPs. The Committee with the lead role on a Commission proposal appoints a Rapporteur, who coordinates the Parliament’s response and drafts its report. The Committees meet once or twice a month in Brussels and the debates are held in public.

The European Parliament also has special delegations for relations with countries outside the EU which help to further develop Europe’s influence abroad.

The Council of the European Union

The Council of the EU (also referred to as the Council of Ministers) directly represents the Member States in negotiations and has a central role in the EU legislative process.

The Council meets in ten different ‘formations’ depending on the subject and is attended by appropriate national Ministers and the European Commissioners responsible for the areas concerned. Each formation meets several times throughout the year, in formal and informal meetings. Council formations with particular relevance to the environment are:

• Agriculture and Fisheries Council
• Environment Council
• Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council (TTE)

The Presidency, or chair, of the Council rotates every six months between Member States (new Presidencies start in January and July). A list of past and future Presidencies can be seen below. Member States responsible for three successive Presidencies are organised into groups and adopt an 18-month work programme setting priorities and objectives across the three Presidencies. The Presidency is responsible for chairing the meetings under the different Council formations (apart from those of foreign ministers which are chaired by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) and can to some extent influence the agenda of the Council. Member States tend to use their Presidency as an opportunity to promote particular priorities and interests, often using informal Council meetings as an opportunity to focus upon these. To some extent as Chair of the Council’s meetings, the country officials from the Presidency can dictate the speed and nature of discussions and take a leading role in negotiating compromises where there are disagreements between Council members.

Member States holding the Presidency of the Council,
2010 - 2020

Year	1st half	2nd half
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020	Spain Hungary Denmark Ireland Greece Latvia Netherlands Malta Estonia Austria Finland	Belgium Cyprus Lithuania Italy Luxembourg Slovakia UK Bulgaria Romania

Activities of the Council

Before decisions are taken in the Council formations the dossier is prepared by the Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER), supported by some 250 technical working groups comprising of experts from the Member States. COREPER meets in two different formations: COREPER II is made up of the Member States' Permanent Representatives (Ambassadors) to the European Union, and considers external and financial affairs. COREPER I consists of their Deputies, and covers sectoral policies such as for instance agriculture, fisheries, and the environment.

Voting in the Council

The Council takes decisions by unanimity, simple majority or qualified majority vote (QMV), depending on the legal basis of the proposal. Under QMV Member States’ votes are weighted very roughly according to the size of their populations, in a way which protects the interests of the smaller Member States by giving them more voting power than they would be entitled to purely on the basis of their population – see table below.

Distribution of votes for each Member State

Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom Spain, Poland Romania Netherlands Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Portugal Austria, Bulgaria, Sweden Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Finland Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovenia Malta TOTAL

29 27 14 13 12 10 7 4 3 345

A qualified majority is currently 255 votes out of the total 345 (73.9%) cast by a simple majority of Member States. A Member State may ask for confirmation that the votes in favour represent at least 62% of the total population of the EU.

The Lisbon Treaty introduces a double majority voting system requiring the assent of 55 per cent of Member States (i.e. 15 Member States in a Union of 27) and 65 per cent of the EU population. A blocking minority must include at least four Member States. Double majority voting will only be applied from 2014, with a transition period from 2014 to 2017 during which a Member State can ask for the old QMV system to be used. A special clause also makes it easier to build a blocking minority during the transition period.

QMV has become the standard procedure for environmental measures, with the requirement for unanimity retained only for provisions primarily of a fiscal nature; town and country planning; land-use (with the exception of waste management); the quantitative management of water resources; and measures significantly affecting a Member State’s choice between different energy sources and the structure of its energy supply.

European Council

The European Council brings together the Heads of State or Government from each Member State, the President of the Council and the President of the Commission to provide strategic guidance to the EU institutions and contribute to the general political direction of the EU as a whole. There are two meetings of the European Council during each Presidency term, held in Brussels. The President of the Council may also convene special meetings of the European Council when necessary.

The Lisbon Treaty provided for the election of the first permanent President of the European Council. The President is elected by the European Council by qualified majority vote for a two and a half year term (renewable once). The responsibilities of the President as set out in the Treaty are to chair and drive forward the work of the European Council, ensure preparation and continuity of the work of the European Council, facilitate consensus within the European Council, and present a report to the European Parliament after each meeting of the European Council. The scope and influence of the role will to a large extent be set by its first incumbent - Herman Van Rompuy (Belgium).

Herman Van Rompuy's responsibilities are to chair and drive forward the work of the European Council, ensure continuity of the work of the European Council, facilitate consensus within the European Council, and present a report to the European Parliament after each meeting of the European Council. On the face of it, the post appears to be little more than a chairperson of European Summits. Scope and influence of the role will to a large extent be set by its first incumbent. President and the President of the Commission. The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy takes part in its work.

Decision-Making in the EU

The main EU decision-making bodies are the Commission, the Parliament and the Council. The Commission is the only institution that can table a formal legislative proposal. Although the Parliament and Council can try to initiate the process, for example through own-initiative reports or Presidency conclusions, the formal right of initiative remains with the Commission. The Council and the Parliament vote on the Commission’s proposals and their powers vary according to the different procedures for decision-making. The procedure to be used for a certain area of policy is set out in the Treaty. This determines whether the Council makes decisions on the basis of unanimity, simple majority or qualified majority; the extent of the European Parliament’s influence; and whether the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions have a right to be consulted.

The EU’s legislative procedures can be classified under two headings:

Ordinary Legislative Procedure (previously known as co-decision, referring to joint decision-making by the European Parliament and Council)

Special Legislative Procedures (covers the consultation, cooperation and assent procedures as provided for in previous Treaties).

In addition, detailed Commission implementing Decisions are agreed in a network of committees of Member State representatives, chaired by the Commission. Various committee procedures – known as ‘Comitology’ – apply eg to proposals relating to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), water, nature and biodiversity, and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). The comitology procedure is increasingly being used as a way to address issues that are regarded as too technical or complex to resolve during the ordinary legislative procedure, which implies that larger volumes and more fundamental aspects of legislation are now being dealt with in this manner.

The Ordinary Legislative Procedure (Co-decision) & How it Works

The co-decision procedure was introduced by the 1993 Maastricht Treaty, and its application has been progressively extended by subsequent treaty revisions. The co-decision procedure became known as the ‘ordinary legislative procedure’ with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty (Article 294 TFEU), thus implying that what used to be the exception in decision-making has become the norm for most policy areas. The ordinary legislative procedure now applies to 83 areas including most environment measures (with the exception of provisions of a fiscal nature, town and country planning, management of water resources, land use, supply and diversification of energy resources), energy (excluding measures of a fiscal nature), Common Agriculture Policy, Common Fisheries Policy, and the Structural and Cohesion Funds. The increasing use of the procedure has resulted in a substantial increase in the influence of MEPs during the early stages of developing legislation.

Under the ordinary legislative procedure, the European Parliament and the Council have equal weight in deciding how the final piece of legislation will look. The European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions may issue opinions in appropriate cases.

The European Parliament and Council take it in turns to issue their formal position on the Commission’s proposal. If the proposal is straightforward and there are no major areas of disagreement, the act (Directive, Regulation or Decision) can be adopted after one reading. If – as is normally the case – there are certain points of contention, the European Parliament and Council hold second readings on the proposal. If at the end of these two readings the European Parliament and Council still disagree, a ‘Conciliation Committee’ is convened to negotiate a compromise text. This is a meeting involving representatives from both institutions and the Commission. It is held behind closed doors and discusses those matters which the European Parliament and Council have been unable to agree. If, after this meeting, the two parties are able to reach an agreement, the outcome is a ‘joint text’. The joint text must then pass back to individual meetings of the European Parliament and Council for formal adoption by the Council and the Parliament. Even at this stage, however, it can still be rejected – in which case the whole process is scrapped and it is left to the Commission to bring forward a new proposal. At any stage in the process, the Commission can table an amended proposal. Figure 1 provides an overview of the ordinary legislative procedure. For further details on the ordinary legislative procedure, see the Commission’s step-by-step guide.

With this in mind, you may wonder how any policy gets adopted at all! However, both the European Parliament and Council work hard behind the scenes in Committees and Working Groups in order to formulate their positions before the item goes to the main plenary or Council meeting. In certain instances, informal trilogue discussions are convened between the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission after first reading in an attempt to reach early agreements on certain dossiers. Through such informal talks, negotiators from the three institutions seek to reach consensus on substantive amendments to the texts before formal decision-making proceeds, in order to avoid a lengthy conciliation process.

The Ordinary Legislative Procedure (Co-decision)

Source: European Commission, 2010

Special Legislative Procedures

Special legislative procedures apply to specific acts of the Council and the Parliament whenever the Treaty provides for a derogation from the ordinary legislative procedure. In the field of environmental policy a special legislative procedure applies to five categories of measures: provisions primarily of a fiscal nature; town and country planning, land use (with the exception of waste management); quantitative management of water resources; and measures which significantly affect a Member State’s choice between different energy sources and the general structure of its energy supply (Article 192(2) TFEU).

In these cases, the procedure that applies is a consultation procedure, whereby the Council is obliged to consult the European Parliament but is not bound by its opinion. The powers of the Parliament are therefore fairly limited. Decision-making within the Council is also subject to special rules, as unanimity is required in these matters.

The Consultation Procedure

The Budgetary Procedure & How it Works

The Lisbon Treaty established a budgetary procedure similar to the ordinary legislative procedure with a single reading plus conciliation to decide the EU’s annual budget (Article 314 TFEU). The Treaty also introduced deadlines and an obligation on the Commission to present a new proposal in the event of any irreconcilable disagreement between the Council and the European Parliament at the end of the procedure. The Lisbon Treaty eliminated the distinction between compulsory expenditure (including CAP expenditure) and non-compulsory expenditure; thus extending the Parliament’s influence to the whole budget.

Comitology & How it Works

The Treaty gives the Commission implementing powers for certain items of legislation. When a measure is agreed in ordinary legislative procedure certain technical or implementation aspects can be left to be determined, after the measure’s approval, by the Commission. Committees are formally established within legislation to ‘assist’ the Commission in the exercising of its power of implementation. These are composed of Member State representatives and chaired by Commission officials. The process that sees the use of these committees and the adoption of supporting legislation by the Commission in consultation with them is known as comitology.

While a highly technical and at times convoluted process, comitology is becoming an increasingly important decision making process at EU level. A larger number of decisions are being left to be dealt with under comitology. Historically, comitology has been used to agree specific technical aspects of legislation; however, the increasing recourse to framework legislation in EU environment policy which delegates important implementing powers to the Commission, and the use of comitology to address issues that were unresolved during the ordinary legislative procedure, has meant that the importance of comitology is growing in the environment policy area.

Comitology procedures are designed to allow Member States (and increasingly the European Parliament) to participate in the exercising of the Commission’s implementing powers. Initially this concept developed ad hoc but the Council’s role was later formalised, with concessions gradually made to engagement by the European Parliament. There are various types of comitology procedures, each with a different role for, and balance of power between, the Commission, the Member States, and ultimately, the Council and the European Parliament. As a result of a long-standing institutional dispute between the Parliament, the Council and the Commission, comitology procedures were substantially reformed in 2006 to increase parliamentary scrutiny, with Decision 1999/468/EC being amended by Decision 2006/512/EC. The Lisbon Treaty (Article 290-291 Treaty on the Functioning the European Union) introduced significant modifications to the comitology procedure. A new legal framework is being constructed on the basis of Articles 290 and 291 TFEU to replace the comitology system established under the previous Treaty. However, not all these changes have been implemented (see below), and certain interim arrangements are in place.

The Lisbon Treaty introduced two categories of acts:

Delegated acts - Under Article 290 of the Lisbon Treaty, a legislative act may delegate to the Commission the power to adopt non-legislative acts. Legislative acts are to define the objectives, content, scope and duration of the delegation of power and lay down the conditions to which delegation is subject, which may be that the delegation can be revoked by the European Parliament and Council or that the delegated act may only enter into force if it is not opposed by the European Parliament or the Council within a prescribed period. In the case of delegated acts, the legislator delegates the power to adopt measures that it could have adopted itself to the Commission. Thus, the legislator controls the Commission’s exercise of these delegated acts.

Article 290 TFEU became applicable with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009. Thus, provisions on delegated acts can be applied to legislation adopted after this date. The existing acquis is to be adapted, on a case-by-case basis where appropriate ¹. The Commission outlined its views on the scope of delegated acts, the framework for delegations of power and the working methods it intends to use for preparing delegated acts in a Communication on delegated acts in December 2009 (COM(2009)673).

Implementing acts - Under Article 291 of the Lisbon Treaty, when uniform conditions for implementing legally binding Union acts are needed, those acts confer implementing powers on the Commission (in special cases the Council). The provisions of the Lisbon Treaty on implementing acts do not provide any role for the European Parliament and the Council to control the Commission's exercise of implementing powers. Such control can only be exercised by the Member States. A legal framework is required to establish the mechanisms of such control and will be set out in a Regulation adopted through the ordinary legislative procedure by the Council and the European Parliament (in contrast to previous comitology decisions which were adopted by the Council).

In March 2010, the Commission presented a proposal for a Regulation on implementing acts (COM(2010)83). The proposal reduces the existing four procedures (see below) to two:

Advisory procedure - which mirrors the existing advisory procedure

Examination procedure - which would replace the existing management and regulatory procedures. This proposal must be co-decided by the Parliament and the Council. The institutions have adopted an interim solution in which the old comitology system (excluding the regulatory procedure with scrutiny – see below) will continue to apply to the existing acquis and to acts adopted from 1 December 2009 until the new Regulation on implementing acts is adopted.

The Comitology Decision will continue to apply to acts adopted before the Lisbon Treaty's entry into force, so long as those acts are not amended. The procedures set out under the 2006 Comitology Decision are as follows:

Advisory procedure – under this the Commission has the final decision making powers and any committee is purely advisory. Committees deliver their opinion by a simple majority.

Management procedure – under this the Commission still has the predominant role. The committee delivers an opinion on draft measures by qualified majority vote. Subsequently the Commission adopts measures, if these are not in accordance with the committee’s opinion the Council is informed and has a fixed time period to respond.

Regulatory procedure – Under this the Commission still has the predominant role, putting forward proposals to committee. If the committee votes to approve the measure by qualified majority vote it will be enacted. If an unfavourable opinion (or no opinion) is delivered the decision will be referred to the Council and the Parliament. The Council then has 3 months to adopt an opinion on or amend the Commission’s proposals (adopting or opposing the draft is by qualified majority vote, but any amendments must be approved by unanimity). Under the procedure the Parliament can consider whether the proposed measure exceeds the Commission’s powers and offer an opinion to the Council, however, Member States do not have to take account of this.

Regulatory procedure with scrutiny – This evolution from 2006 substantially increased the Parliament’s powers under comitology. While the Commission still has right of initiative the Council and Parliament can veto proposals under certain conditions. Under this procedure the committee (still only made up of Member State representatives) delivers an opinion on the proposed measures under qualified majority voting rules. After consultation with the committee the measure is referred to the Council and Parliament. The subsequent procedure will then vary depending on the position of the committee.

A favourable committee opinion – in this case the draft opinion is referred simultaneously to the Council and the Parliament. Within 3 months the Council (by QMV) and the Parliament (by absolute majority) may veto measures preventing their adoption by the Commission. If there is no opposition in this time period the Commission will proceed with implementation.

An unfavourable committee opinion – in the event of an unfavourable opinion this is passed to the Council and Parliament. Within 2 months the Council shall vote (under QMV) to either adopt or oppose the measure. If the Council wishes to adopt the measure it is referred to the Parliament, which may veto the measure within a further 2 month period.

The grounds on which a vote can be raised to veto a measure under this procedure are, however, limited. Measures can only be vetoed because:

• Implementing powers are exceeded
• They are incompatible with the aim or content of the original legislative act that they aim to implement
• Objections on grounds of subsidiary or proportionality

The Commission’s Comitology Register contains background information and documents relating to the work of these various committees.