Legislative initiative

European Union

The European Commission has a near monopoly for legislative initiative, whereas in many parliamentary systems there is a mechanism whereby members of the parliament may introduce bills. This ranges from insignificant in the UK Parliament (see private members' bills in the Parliament of the United Kingdom), through quite significant in the Israeli Knesset, to being the only way bills can be introduced in the US Congress. In most parliaments, the ability of members to introduce legislation is common practice because parliament and government are constructed as antagonist under the system of separation of powers. Under the Treaty of Maastricht enhanced by the Lisbon Treaty, the European Parliament has an indirect right of legislative initiative that allows it to ask the Commission to submit a proposal, though to reject the request the Commission only needs to "inform the European Parliament of the reasons". Member states also have an indirect right of legislative initiative concerning the Common Foreign and Security Policy.