The European Union Legislative Output [1996-2014]

The European Union's(EU) institutional system is a key element of EU policy-making, as it influences both the adoption and implementation of joint decisions. However, it remains ill understood, including by the scholarly community, to a certain extent. In order to remedy this weakness in international research on the European Union, the Centre for European Studies and the Centre for socio-political data led a systematic analysis of the decision-making at a European level through an innovative scientific approach. This inter alia led to the establishment by the research team of a database on European institutions which have no equivalent internationally. First, the research team built a database which covers all the legislative acts adopted by the European Union from 1996 to 2014.Second, to observe the decision-making, the research team defined 101 variables which explore the political logics that lead to the adoption of legislative texts by the European Union's institutions. The variables deal with three main aspects of the political activity:- the activity of European Union institutions: the European Parliament (amendments, rapporteurs), the European Commission (responsible DGs and Commissioners), the Council of Ministers (Number of points A/ points B, etc.);- the duration of the European Union legislative procedure (adoption by Commission, Transmission to Council, Final Signature);- the activity of Member States (activity of national parliaments, national governments political composition).