Without that, trilogue negotiations – where the three EU institutions, Commission, Parliament and Council, agree on the final text – cannot begin. However, a November progress report from the presidency was full of references to the need for "further discussions", which disappointed many observers.

Although it took the Parliament around nine months to come to a final agreement, Birgit Sippel, the German Social Democrat rapporteur for the file in Parliament, told The Register that the Council should have started its own discussions already.