Main procedure for adopting EU legislative acts.

The ordinary legislative procedure (OLP) gives the same weight to the European Parliament (EP) and the Council on 85 policy areas covering the majority of the EU's areas of competence (for example, economic governance, immigration, energy, transport, the environment and consumer protection). The vast majority of EU laws are now adopted jointly by the EP and the Council, as co-legislators.

Formerly called the co-decision procedure, it was introduced by the Treaty of Maastricht and extended and made more effective by the Amsterdam Treaty. When the Lisbon Treaty entered into force on 1 December 2009, the renamed ordinary legislative procedure became the main legislative procedure of the EU's decision-making system.

The procedure comprises one, two or three readings by the EP and the Council and needs to conclude by an agreement by both institutions on the same final text. In practice, both institutions try to reach an agreement at first reading by using informal trialogue meetings with the participation of the European Commission.

For more information, including a background to the ordinary legislative procedure as well as a step-by-step description of the procedure, see Practice note, Ordinary legislative procedure.