Time to Decide: The Effect of Early Agreements on Legislative Duration in the EU

European Integration online Papers (EIoP), Vol. 14, Article 11, 2010

24 Pages Posted: 28 Aug 2012

See all articles by Dimiter Toshkov

Dimiter Toshkov

Leiden University - Department of Public Administration

Anne Rasmussen

University of Copenhagen - Department of Political Science

Date Written: May 11, 2012

Abstract

The increased use of early agreements in the EU co-decision procedure raises the concern that intra and inter-institutional political debate is sacrificed for the sake of efficiency. We investigate the effect of early agreements (trilogues) on the time it takes for legislation to be negotiated during the first reading of co-decision. We find that the first reading negotiations of trilogues on salient legislation take longer than first readings of similar files reconciled at second and third reading. First readings of early agreements also appear to last longer when considering all co-decision files submitted to the 5th and 6th European Parliaments, but the effect is masked by a general increase in first reading duration after 2004. We conclude that even if early agreements restrict access of certain actors to decision making, they allow for more time for substantive debate at the first reading stage than similar files reconciled later in the legislative process.

Keywords: co-decision procedure, Council of Ministers, early agreements, European Commission, European Parliament, institutionalization, legislative procedure, joint decision making

Suggested Citation

Toshkov, Dimiter and Rasmussen, Anne, Time to Decide: The Effect of Early Agreements on Legislative Duration in the EU (May 11, 2012). European Integration online Papers (EIoP), Vol. 14, Article 11, 2010, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2136907

Dimiter Toshkov (Contact Author)

Leiden University - Department of Public Administration ( email )

PO Box 9555
2300 RB Leiden, 2501EE
Netherlands

Anne Rasmussen

University of Copenhagen - Department of Political Science ( email )

Nørregade 10
Copenhagen, København DK-1165
Denmark

HOME PAGE: http://www.polsci.ku.dk/people/phd/~Rasmussen_Anne.htm

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