Working with partners and citizens

The Parliament adopts its positions by voting in plenary session on legislative and budgetary texts, as well as on own initiative reports and other resolutions. EP committees prepare the ground, with detailed consideration of draft legislation and public hearings on key issues. Oral and written questions can be asked to the other institutions. The Parliament also devotes considerable energy to working with Member States’ national parliaments, often in joint meetings on specific policies. In the course of the legislative process, representatives of EP committees meet frequently with their counterparts in the Council of Ministers and the European Commission, in so-called ‘trilogue’ negotiation.