ABSTRACT
Until 1987, the European Parliament was a relatively obscure and uninfluential body. I During the 1970s it gained significant budgetary powers, but it lacked the political will and legitimacy to use these until after the first direct elections in 1979. In theory it could censure the Commission, but the censure motion was considered too powerful and misdirected to be used. Above all, the EP played no part in the Community'S legislative process; the Council of Ministers was the Community's sole legislature. Following an unexpected 1980 Court of Justice ruling, the EP wrested to itself the power to delay certain legislative processes, but this was never anything more than an ingenious use of its rules of procedure, a procedural legerdemain whose full extent has never been tested before the Court. Thus, until the mid-eighties, most normative debate within the Community about reforming its legislative processes tended to focus on how the European Parliament could become more fully involved. It was generally felt that national parliaments were already involved, through the clear lines of accountability running between them and the national ministers participating in the Brussels legislative process in the Council.
