The cooperation procedure (formally known as the Article 252 procedure) was one of the principal legislative procedures of the

European Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lis ...

, before the entrance into force of the

Treaty of Amsterdam The Treaty of Amsterdam, officially the Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and certain related acts, was signed on 2 October 1997, and entered into force on 1 May 1999; i ...

. It was retained after that treaty but only in a few areas. It was finally repealed by the

Treaty of Lisbon The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is an international agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed by the EU member s ...

in 2009. The procedure's introduction by the

Single European Act The Single European Act (SEA) was the first major revision of the 1957 Treaty of Rome. The Act set the European Community an objective of establishing a single market by 31 December 1992, and a forerunner of the European Union's Common Fore ...

marked the first step toward real power for the European Parliament. Under the procedure the Council could, with the support of Parliament and acting on a proposal by the Commission, adopt a legislative proposal by a

qualified majority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...

, but the Council could also overrule a rejection of a proposed law by the Parliament by adopting a proposal unanimously. Prior to the Amsterdam Treaty the procedure covered a wide variety of legislation, notably in relation to the creation of the Single Market. It was amended by that treaty when its replacement with the codecision procedure failed to be agreed. The

Nice Treaty The Treaty of Nice was signed by European leaders on 26 February 2001 and came into force on 1 February 2003. It amended the Maastricht Treaty (or the Treaty on European Union) and the Treaty of Rome (or the Treaty establishing the European ...

limited the procedure to certain aspects of economic and monetary union.Before Lisbon there were only three legal bases for the adoption of legislation under Article 252: Articles 99(5), 103(2) and 106(2). Article 102(2) only related to legislation adopted before 1994 and was therefore spent. (All article numbers refer to pre-Lisbon TEC numbering). The cooperation procedure was repealed by the

References

See also