Amsterdam Treaty, entry into force: effects on current legislative procedures

AIM: This communication from the Commission deals with the effects on current legislative procedures of the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam. CONTENT: After the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam on 1 May 1999, the Community legislature will be called upon to make a pronouncement on the proposals presented by the Commission prior to that date, proposals that are now at various stages of the legislative process. The entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam will have different types of impact on these pending proposals: 1. The articles of the EC Treaty that form the legal basis of proposals will have been renumbered. 2. Different legislative procedure will apply to a number of the pending proposals. In particular, cooperation procedure will be replaced by codecision procedure for proposals other than those relating to monetary union, which means that Parliament becomes a co-legislator. Compulsory consultation of the Committee of the Regions will also be extended. 3. For a limited number of proposals, the amendments made by the Treaty of Amsterdam will result in a change of legal basis. 4. Lastly, the legal framework for some of the proposals will be altered by the Treaty of Amsterdam: - two proposals for directives that have hitherto been based on the Protocol on social policy will henceforth be based on the EC Treaty itself; the Commission stands by the substance of these proposals and intends to base them on the appropriate provisions of the Treaty; - the other proposals were presented in the Community framework or under Title VI of the Treaty on European Union (Justice and Home Affairs) and relate to matters which are now covered by the new Title IV of the EC Treaty; these will have to be replaced by new proposals. The Commission has drawn up a list of all the proposals it has presented prior to 1 May 1999. For each proposal, the list shows the consequences of the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam. �