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Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament
9th parliamentary term - February 2020
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CONTENTS
NOTE TO THE READER
COMPENDIUM OF THE MAIN LEGAL ACTS RELATED TO THE RULES OF PROCEDURE

TITLE VII : SESSIONS
CHAPTER 2 : ORDER OF BUSINESS OF PARLIAMENT

Rule 163 : Urgent procedure

1.   A request to treat a debate on a proposal submitted to Parliament pursuant to Rule 48(1) as urgent may be made to Parliament by the President, a committee, a political group, Members reaching at least the low threshold, the Commission or the Council. Such requests shall be made in writing and supported by reasons.

2.   As soon as the President has received a request for urgent debate this shall be announced in Parliament. The vote on the request shall be taken at the beginning of the sitting following that during which the announcement was made, provided that the proposal to which the request relates has been distributed to Members in the official languages. Where there are several requests for urgent debate on the same subject, the approval or rejection of the request for urgent debate shall apply to all such requests that are on the same subject.

3.   Before the vote, only the mover, and one speaker against may be heard, along with the Chair or rapporteur of the committee responsible, or both. None of those speakers may speak for more than three minutes.

4.   Questions to be dealt with by urgent procedure shall be given priority over other items on the agenda. The President shall determine the time of the debate and vote.

5.   An urgent procedure may be held without a report or, exceptionally, on the basis of an oral report by the committee responsible.

Where an urgent procedure is used and interinstitutional negotiations take place, Rules 70 and 71 shall not apply. Rule 74 shall apply mutatis mutandis.

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