EU: interview of Alejandro Cercas, Member of the European Parliament and author of the legislative initiative report on restructurings

Alejandro Cercas. We used a new article of the Lisbon Treaty, article 225. Before that, the Parliament couldn’t take an initiative and we could only give opinion on the European Commission’s. The Lisbon treaty provides for a procedure allowing the European Parliament to ask the European Commission for a legislative initiative, namely a directive or regulation. The European Commission has to give an answer within three months and, if it doesn’t agree with the Parliament’s terms, it has to give a public explanation of its refusal.