How Bills Become Legislation in the European Parliament

The European Parliament as a legislature does not have a right of legislative initiative. Anything which is proposed as a future EU law has to be initiated with one or two very minor exceptions by the European Commission. So you've got the treaties to start with, which lay down what the European Union can't do. And that so-called legal basis gives a lot of wiggle room for legislators to say, well, we think this particular piece of legislation ... That's our basis for working on an addition. This is relevant, particularly for the AI Act. You've also got references in the treaty to privacy and particularly to data protection.