Primary Legislation and Legislative Procedures

Abstract

The evolution of EU legislation and its legislative procedures can be seen as a reflection of the development of European integration from an administrative regime to a constitutional system more generally. The Coal and Steel Community of 1951 was to perform its functions with actors, legal instruments, and procedures for their adoption, which, despite their supranational nature, were inspired by national notions of administrative law. The idea that a representative and democratically accountable institution would adopt binding legal acts for its citizens seemed at this stage far-fetched. Even though the European Community Treaty of 1957, owing to its more broadly framed policies, envisaged an increased law-making activity, the dominance of executive actors (Commission and Council) in the adoption of legal acts with little or no input from the European Assembly was not conducive to an assessment of such acts as comparable to national legislation. On the other hand, it could not be argued that such acts were typically administrative either. Their normative content made them more comparable to national executive laws.