The Council of the European Union has adopted the key elements of its negotiating position on the MISP proposal, moving the file one procedural step closer to final interinstitutional negotiations with the European Parliament.

The decision, reported by Global Regulation Tomorrow, establishes the main lines along which member states will negotiate. It does not yet constitute the full, formal common position that the Council will carry into trilogue. Rather, it fixes the core elements that the rotating presidency and national delegations have agreed to defend.

What does this change for regulated industry?

For companies tracking the file, the adoption signals that the Council has resolved its internal disagreements on the most contested points and can now bargain coherently with the Parliament. Until this stage, industry stakeholders faced a moving target: national positions could shift as member states negotiated among themselves inside the Council working party and among permanent representatives.

The next procedural milestone is the confirmation of the Council's final negotiating position, followed by trilogue negotiations among the Council, the Parliament and the Commission. Only those talks will determine the binding text that companies will have to implement.

How the position fits the ordinary legislative procedure

Under the ordinary legislative procedure, both institutions must agree on an identical text before a regulation or directive can enter into force. The Parliament adopted its own first-reading position in an earlier plenary vote, which set out the legislature's red lines.

The Council's adoption of key elements now gives the other side of that negotiation its working baseline. The presidency, acting on the member states' behalf, can convene trilogues once both institutions have completed their first-reading positions.

What to watch next

Stakeholders following the file should track three things:

• Confirmation of the Council's formal negotiating mandate, which locks the member-state position in full.
• The scheduling of the first trilogue, which opens the phase where compromises are actually struck.
• Publication of the consolidated negotiating text, which will reveal where the Council's position diverges from the Parliament's on scope, obligations and deadlines.

The gap between the two institutions' positions will define the workload of the trilogue season. Where the key elements adopted this week diverge sharply from the Parliament's plenary position, negotiators will need either a package deal or a step-by-step sequencing of dossiers to close the file.

The decisive milestone remains the final trilogue agreement. Once Council and Parliament negotiators initial a compromise text, that version returns to each institution for formal adoption before publication in the Official Journal and entry into force. Compliance planning for affected operators starts from the deadlines set in that final text, not from this week's position.