European Union directive

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(Redirected from Directives)

Template:Legislation of the European UnionA European Union Directive is the (mutually binding) collective decision made by the member states, acting through their national Government Ministers in the Council of the European Union and the Parliament. Both must approve a text in identical terms in order for a proposal to become law. Accordingly, it is not correct to refer to Directives as "orders from Brussels", as Eurosceptics often call them.

A directive can be distinguished from the other major type of EU legislative instruments, the European Union regulation. A regulation relies on existing legislation and is self-executing — it does not require any corresponding national legislation to come into force, and is generally used for matters where it is desired to have a highly harmonised approach. A directive, by contrast, requires national implementing legislation in each member state before it comes into effect in that state. Directives generally leave the member states a significant amount of lee-way as to the exact rules to be adopted.

If the member state fails to pass the required national legislation, or if the national legislation does not adequately comply with the requirements of the directive, the European Commission can initiate legal action against the member state in the European Court of Justice.

There is one exception, developed in the case law of the European Court of Justice, to the idea that directives are non-self executing, and that is vertical direct effect. If, for example, the EU issues a directive regarding minimum employment conditions, and a member state fails to implement the directive, then individuals cannot legally rely on the unimplemented directive against non-state actors (e.g. private employers), but they can rely on the directive against the state. Thus, a member state can be required to abide by a directive in its relations with individuals even though it has failed to implement the directive. (Frankovitch case, Factortame case)

1 Development
2 Implementation
3 Enforcement
- 3.1 Infractions/Infringements
4 See also
5 Footnotes
6 External links

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Development

The justification for a directive has to be the need for harmonisation to reduce market barriers and help to create a European single market. Through a process of multiple treaties, most policy areas are now decided under the Codecision procedure. The European Commission has the taskTemplate:Ref, after consulting member states, to submit a proposal, which may then be adopted by the Council (of responsibleTemplate:Ref Ministers) and, where required by Treaty, ParliamentTemplate:Ref. Depending on the policy area one of three different legislative procedures apply.

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Implementation

A directive fixes the agreed objectives to be pursued by the EU member states, but leaves freedom of choice for the ways of obtaining them (maintaining an obligation to achieve the result): "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." (art. 249 ex.189).

How each country puts the directive into effect depends on their legal structure, and may vary. For example, in the UK most directives are brought in via statutory instruments but some directives create such major changes to the law that Parliament passes a separate Act to incorporate the changes.

In areas covered by the EEA (European Economic Area) Agreement, directives are also bindingTemplate:Ref for Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein and are integrated into the EEA Agreement through an EEA Joint Committee decision and subsequently becomes part of the national legislation of the EEA EFTA States. See EFTA for further information.

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Enforcement

In practice, with the exception of directives related to the common agricultural policy, the UnionTemplate:Ref 'addresses' directives to all member states, and specifies a date by which the states must have put the directive into effect. (These dates are either determined by the Council of Ministers at the time of the main agreement, or the twentieth day following that of publication). Individual states often miss these deadlines, and when the deadlines slip badly, the European Commission can and does commence proceedings in the European Court of Justice against the countries involved.

Through its case law, the European Court of Justice has provided guidelines for member state judges on how to deal with cases where directives have not been transposed into national law, or have been transposed incorrectly.

When national law has multiple possible interpretations, the judge must choose the interpretation that conforms with EU law. This rule also applies to directives not yet transposed into national law.
In cases against the state or any state body, directives have "direct effect". A state that hasn't transposed a directive on time may not invoke this to its own benefit. "Direct effect" only applies to rules that are sufficiently clear.
Citizens can sue the state for damages caused because of tardy transposition.

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Infractions/Infringements

Where a Member State fails to comply with its obligations under the Treaty – for example, by not correctly transposing a directive (or not doing so on time), or by failing to implement it properly. Infringement cases are taken to the European Court of Justice by the Commission under Article 226 EC for trial if their Reasoned Opinion is not adequately answered.

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Footnotes

Template:Note It is customary to group discussions around a specific topic in the Council, allowing the member states to send the Minister which is competent for this area to the meeting. For example, a Directive on Health would be agreed by the respective Health Ministers of each member state. This custom is not always respected, in 2005 the proposed Directive on Software Patents was put on the agenda of the meetings scheduled on the topic of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Template:NoteNote therefore that, despite the fantasies of the UK tabloids, the Commission has no powers to create laws unilaterally. There is no "Federal Government" in Brussels.
Template:NoteOr not, as the case may be. In 2004, the Parliament refused to ratify the draft Software Patents directive as presented and heavily amended it. Indeed it is not untypical for a Draft Directive to go through this cycle a number of times before a final version receives ratification. In the end, Parliament refused to ratify the Software Patents measure and it was withdrawn.
Template:NoteConsequently, these countries bind themselves to accept decisions that they had no part in forming. This is one of the consequences of their choice to remain outside the EU.
Template:Noteof member states, acting collectively.

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