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For an act to be adopted under the ordinary legislative procedure, the co-legislators must at some point during the procedure agree on a common text acceptable to both the Parliament and the Council. This requires that the institutions talk to each other, which takes place in the form of trilogues: informal tripartite meetings on legislative proposals between representatives of the Parliament, Council and Commission.
Trilogues may be organised at any stage of the legislative procedure and can lead to what are known as 'first reading', 'early second reading' or 'second reading' agreements, or to a 'joint text' during conciliation. Trilogues consist of political
negotiations, although trilogues may be preceded by preparatory technical meetings (attended by the three institutions' experts). The main tool of work is the four-column document: the first three columns present each of the three institutions' respective positions and the last one is reserved for compromise proposals'. During trilogue meetings, which are chaired by the co-legislator hosting the meeting (i.e. either Parliament or the Council), each institution explains its position and a discussion in view of finding a compromise develops.
The Commission acts as a mediator with a view to facilitating an agreement between the co-legislators. The participants in trilogues operate on the basis of negotiating mandates given to them by their respective institutions. The three delegations explore possible avenues of compromise in an informal manner and report back or seek new instructions on a regular basis according to their respective institutions' internal rules, i.e. via the negotiating team and/or in committee for Parliament, in Coreper or the responsible working party for Council (see the flowchart above).
Any agreement in trilogues is provisional and has to be approved by the formal procedures applicable within each institution