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Submissions of the advocates-general
The advocates-general have the duty of assisting the Court in its work. They present in open court, acting with complete impartiality and independence, reasoned submissions on cases before the Court. In these submissions the advocate-general thus proposes a solution to the dispute, but the submissions do not bind the judges. They are an integral part of the oral procedure and are published together with the judgment in the Court Reports.
Parliamentary questions
Parliamentary questions represent a way for Members of Parliament to keep a check on the activities of the Commission and the Council. Each Member of Parliament can address to the Council and the Commission:
· written questions (requesting a written reply),
· oral questions (asked in the chamber) and
· questions during Question Time (the period reserved for questions in each part-session of Parliament).
These questions are a much-used means of keeping check. The written questions and the replies given are published in the Official Journal, C series. They are incorporated into EUR-Lex.
Legislative procedures
In contrast to the national systems, in which the will of the nation is expressed in Parliament, the European Union accords a major legislative role to the representatives of the Member States meeting in the Council. As the institutions have developed, the European Parliament has seen its powers increase: the Council now shares its legislative powers with Parliament for the adoption of general legal instruments of a binding nature (regulations and directives). The decision-making procedures comprise the consultation procedure, the cooperation procedure, the co-decision procedure and the assent procedure.
Assent procedure (Code AVC)
The assent procedure, which was introduced by the Single European Act, gives Parliament the possibility of expressing its approval or disapproval of certain Council instruments. There are certain matters on which the Council cannot legislate unless Parliament gives its consent by an absolute majority of its members. The assent procedure, which represents as it were a right of veto for Parliament, was originally intended to apply only to the conclusion of association agreements and the examination of applications to join the European Community. The areas in which the assent procedure applies at present are as follows:
· enhanced cooperation (Article 11(2)),
· specific tasks of the ECB (Article 105(6)),
· amending the Statute of the European System of Central Banks (Article 107(5)),
· Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund (Article 161),
· uniform procedure for elections (Article 190(4)),
· certain international agreements (Article 300(3)),
· violation of human rights (Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union),
· accession of new Member States (Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union).