INFLUENCING THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 101

After receiving the Commission's proposal, the President of the European Parliament refers it to the relevant parliamentary committee for examination. The lead committee will be responsible for producing a report amending the Commission's proposal. Other relevant committees may also issue an 'opinion' on the Commission proposal. These 'opinions' are included in the final draft of the lead committee's report.

If you are following a specific Communication or proposal which is going through the ordinary legislative procedure, some of the key people you might to influence are:

Rapporteur: responsible for drafting the lead committee report. Reports are awarded to political groups on a pointssystem. MEPs can signal their interest in drafting a particular report. Usually, the drafting of the report will be coordinated by the Rapporteur's assistant.

Shadow Rapporteur: MEP from a different political group who shadows the drafting of the report.

Political Group Coordinators: in principle, political groups at the Parliament coordinate their respective positions during debates and during the votring in committee and in plenary. It is beneficial to have ccordinators on your side.

Secretarial Officials: one official from the committee secretariat will be responsible for following a draft report and closely supporting the Rapporteur (and their assistant)

Draftspersons: MEPs from other relevant committees are tasked with drafting their 'Opinions' on specific proposal.

During the development of the report, the Commission may be invited to speak to the committee in order to defend its proposal and answer questions by committee members. The report is then drafted by a rapporteur. It includes an overview of the Commission's proposal, the views of different parties involved, any possible 'opinions' from other committees and a resolution including amendments to the Commission's proposal.

Amendments can be taken by any MEP sitting on that committee. MEPs will accept suggested wording for amendments from trusted sources including NGOs. It is worth contactingany friendly MEPs at that stage, if you have not already done so, in order to raise awareness of your issues, convey any concerns on the Commission proposal being debated and offer to draft amendments. Once these are tabled by your friendly MEP, however, you should mobilise support more broadly in order to ensure your amendments are approved by the committee.

After the report has been adopted at committee level, it will go to plenary, then it will be voted on a by qualified majority voting.