You don’t get it. There is no separation of powers. Imagine if Congress had to propose laws to the President, who then decides whether to draft a bill? The European Parliament has no legislative power.
We have been over this before. The EU operates exactly the same way the USSR did and Red China does, with the Commission acting as Politburo and the Parliament acting as Supreme Soviet/National People’s Congress.
With due respect, you are partially wrong. The Eu parliament does have the legislative power to approve or disapprove laws. You are correct that they don’t posses the power of legislative initiative and can only ratify laws.
The Council and the parliament both have power to block motions or propose amendments.
It does have the right to invite the EU commission to initiate specific legislation which the EU commission MUST do or face sanction at the ECJ.
This would be a problem if the EU was a country. But it’s not a country and its political organisation doesn’t perfectly match the constitutional layout of a parliamentary democracy. The reason why EU institutions are organised like this is because member states still have the last word and the highest degree of power in relation to the big decisions which are made by the EU.
The EU Commission does act in the name of all EU member states, as the EU’s executive arm, but the big decisions on the future of the EU and guidelines on specific policies are decided by national, elected leaders from each country, in their capacity of heads of states and representing their country in the European Council.
If the European Parliament were made to play the same role as a national parliament, it would have to be the sovereign body of the EU in legislative matters and it would supersede the power of national leaders. Since the EU is not a federal state at the moment, it’s probably not necessary yet for the EU parliament to hold so much power. Such a major change in the political layout of the EU would require a change in its treaties, which would need to be approved by national parliaments or by the people of each EU country. So, for the moment, the EU parliament is in this intermediary state, much like the rest of the EU: neither just a body of an international organisation, nor a full-fledged legislative body of a superstate.