Direct applicability refers to the fact that EU Regulations require no implementing legislation within individual member states - they take effect as soon as they are

published Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

Legal basis

Direct applicability is a concept of

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

constitutional law that relates specifically to ''regulations'', direct applicability (or the characteristic of regulations to be ''directly effective'') is set out in Article 288 (ex Article 249) 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 constitutional basis of the European Union (EU), the other being the Treaty on European Union (TEU). It was previously known as the Treaty Establish ...

(as amended by the

Lisbon Treaty The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is a European agreement that amends the two Treaty, treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed by all Member stat ...

Relation to direct effect

Direct applicability is often confused with the doctrine of

direct effect In the law of the European Union, direct effect is the principle that Union law may, if appropriately framed, confer rights on individuals which not only the courts but also the public administration (on national, regional or local level) of m ...

. This confusion is perhaps explained by reference to the treaty provision governing regulations which provides that they, and only they, have ''direct applicability'' within the member states. The early jurisprudence of the ECJ suggested that 'direct effect' was a consequence of direct applicability as it was thought that the drafters of the original treaty intended regulations, and only regulations, to be directly effective. However, the expansion of the doctrine of direct effect to include directives and other measures served to create a distinction between direct applicability and direct effect. ''Direct applicability'' is now taken to mean that regulations require no domestic implementation - if direct effect was only ever intended to be a consequence of direct applicability then the relationship has been severed by a series of ECJ cases.

References

Administrative law European Union law {{EU-stub