A/B items

European Union

The European Council's rules of procedure lay down that "the provisional agenda shall be divided into Part A and Part B. Items for which approval by the Council is possible without discussion shall be included in Part A, but this does not exclude the possibility of any member of the Council or of the European Commission expressing an opinion at the time of the approval of these items and having statements included in the minutes". An "A" item is therefore a dossier on which an agreement already exists, enabling it to be formally adopted without debate. A "B" item is scheduled for debate. Similarly, the COREPER agenda is divided into a part "I" (items scheduled without debate) and a part "II" (items scheduled for debate). In addition, the deliberations and decisions of the Council itself under the co-decision procedure (now named ordinary legislative procedure) are public.