The role of the European Parliament in the elaboration of the legislative instruments of the Common Agricultural Policy for the 2007-2013 EU programming period

Kovács, Attila

Keywords: Common Agricultural Policy, European Parliament, consultation procedure, logistic regression

After the enlargement of the European Union and the European Parliament (EP) elections in 2004, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) had for the first time the opportunity to participate in the elaboration of the legislative instruments of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the 2007-2013 programming period. The EP proposed legislative amendments to the European Commission’s proposal under the consultation procedure. The EP plenary adopted 40% of the amendments tabled by the MEPs. The rate of adoption was higher in cases where the amendment was tabled by MEPs jointly, tabled by female MEPs, tabled by MEPs who are members of the EP’s green or liberal groups, or by Members of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the EP. The chance of adoption of a legislative amendment was higher when the MEP was from a net contributor Member State, and when the MEP served its first parliamentary term. The chance of adoption decreased if the MEP was neither a member nor a substitute member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the EP and when the MEP represented a constituency in its Member State. The results of this analysis might later be compared with the legislative process of the CAP in the 2011-2013 period, in which the EP was already a co-legislator after the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force in 2009.

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