A regulation is a legal act of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
that becomes immediately enforceable as law in all
member states simultaneously.
Regulations can be distinguished from
directives which, at least in principle, need to be
transposed into national law. Regulations can be adopted by means of a variety of
legislative procedures depending on their subject matter.
Description
The description of regulations can be found in Article 288 of the
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) is one of two treaties forming the Treaties of the European Union, constitutional basis of the European Union (EU), the other being the Treaty on European Union (TEU). It was previously ...
(formerly Article 249
TEC).
Article 288
To exercise the Union's competences, the institutions shall adopt regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations and opinions.
A regulation shall have general application. It shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
A directive shall be binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is addressed, but shall leave to the national authorities the choice of form and methods.
A decision shall be binding in its entirety upon those to whom it is addressed.
Recommendations and opinions shall have no binding force.
The Council can delegate legislative authority to the Commission and, depending on the area and the appropriate legislative procedure, both institutions can make laws.
There are Council regulations and Commission regulations. Article 288 does not clearly distinguish between legislative acts and administrative acts, as is normally done in national legal systems.
Legal effect
Regulations are in some sense equivalent to "
Acts of Parliament
Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of parliament ...
", in the sense that what they say is law and they do not need to be mediated into national law by means of implementing measures. As such, regulations constitute one of the most powerful forms of
European Union law
European Union law is a system of rules operating within the member states of the European Union (EU). Since the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community following World War II, the EU has developed the aim to "promote peace, its valu ...
and a great deal of care is required in their drafting and formulation.
When a regulation comes into force, it overrides all national laws dealing with the same subject matter and subsequent national legislation must be consistent with and made in the light of the regulation. While member states are prohibited from obscuring the
direct effect
In European Union law, direct effect is the principle that Union law may, if appropriately framed, confer rights on individuals which the courts of member states of the European Union are bound to recognise and enforce.
Direct effect is not e ...
of regulations, it is common practice to pass legislation dealing with consequential matters arising from the coming into force of a regulation.
Although a regulation in principle has a direct effect, the Belgian Constitutional Court has ruled that the international institutions, such as the EU, may not derogate from the national identity as set out in the political and constitutional basic structures of the country, or the core values of the protection of the Constitution.
[https://www.const-court.be/public/n/2016/2016-062n.pdf ]
Subclasses
See also
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List of European Union directives
The following is a thematic list of European Union directives:
For a date based list, see the :European Union directives by number
Numbering
From 1 January 1992 to 31 December 2014, numbers assigned by the General Secretariat of the Council ...
*
List of European Union regulations
This is a partial list of notable European Union Regulations.
Regulations of the European Parliament and of the Council 1995
*Trade Barriers Regulation (TBR). Any EU company or group of companies can use the TBR to complain to the European Commiss ...
References
External links
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UK House of Commons: Report of the EU Legislative Process and scrutiny by national parliaments
EUR-Lex, European Union Law database
{{Legislation of the European Union
Regulation
Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...