Fabian Bohnenberger

To continue last week’s theme on the EU’s current workload, I now compare the numbers of legislative files that are still waiting to be finalised prior to the European elections in June.

Given there are just a few weeks left to complete interinstitutional negotiations, legislators’ To-Do list seems almost impossible: Parliament still faces 261 pending legislative initiatives (under the ordinary, consultation and consent procedures).

To put this into context, Parliament has completed 345 files under these procedures since the start of its term in 2019! So even though work on many of the outstanding files is advanced – and no one expects that all files will be agreed prior to the elections – much remains to be done before the last plenary in April, which is the last chance for the current Parliament to formally adopt legislation.

In addition, you would assume that everyone agrees how many files are still open. Yet, surprisingly, there are some discrepancies across the various data sources.

1. Commission Work Programme 2024

The Commission Work Programme 2024 lists 182 “pending” proposals, i.e., dossiers for which the Commission has already adopted a legislative proposal. Clearly, this number has changed a bit by now because the CWP was published on 17 October 2023. The Commission adopted further proposals since then, and Parliament and Council concluded negotiations on some files.

We also need to be careful about this figure because the Commission did not commit to list all proposals in the CWP but only “major” legislative and non-legislative proposals. So the count is not comprehensive.

2. Legislative Observatory

By contrast, Parliament’s Legislative Observatory currently lists 223 pending files under the ordinary legislative procedure and 38 files under special legislative procedures (29 consultation and 9 consent). This includes 8 files from the previous parliamentary term (7 OLP and 1 consent procedure).

Not all of these files – not even the CWP’s “shortlist” of major proposal – can be adopted before the elections. Take the Single Market Emergency Instrument, which even got its own paragraph in the CWP communication. The Belgian Presidency currently faces the difficult choice whether to continue investing time and effort into this controversial file, potentially drawing attention away from other negotiations, or to shelve it for the next mandate (and someone else’s Presidency).

But the overall count does not tell us about the stage these files are in. Some just arrived with Parliament; others are already agreed and awaiting formal adoption by legislators.

3. Legislative Train

The EPRS’ Legislative Train Schedule can offer some insights here. Surprisingly, though, its data doesn’t fully align with the Legislative Observatory. It currently lists a total of 222 ongoing initiatives, but this mixes legislative and (significant) non-legislative initiatives! For example, the European Green Deal communication is counted towards this number.

If you explicitly search for legislative proposals, the figure is 212. But there are also some old files from the last parliamentary term(s) that still seem to be part of this count. For example, a 2013 proposal on a financial transaction tax is still listed as a “blocked” file in the current parliamentary term. Not sure why. (The file also appears in the Legislative Observatory, but not under the current term.)

One thing that the Legislative Train does, however, is provide some basic indication where files are at. It currently lists 49 legislative files that are close to adoption, meaning that Parliament and Council have reached a provisional agreement. This is good news, indicating that many proposals are still on track to be adopted before the elections.

Conversely, the Legislative Train also indicates 38 legislative files that are “blocked”, meaning there has been no progress over the last nine months. While this number seems less trustworthy (see financial transaction tax above), it’s clear that political differences and time pressure also mean that some negotiations – more than the 38 files listed here – will not be concluded in time.

4. Politico Pro

Finally, if you have access, Politico Pro’s database currently lists 248 pending files under the ordinary legislative procedure. This is more than Parliament knows about, which is odd. The reason for the discrepancy appears to be that Politico mixes in a few dubious entries from the UK Parliament, of all places.