Draft act

Source: Europa Nu.

Draft acts are proposals from the European Commission for the adoption of an act that have not yet been adopted. Draft acts can be divided into three types:

Draft legislative acts

This category is limited to draft acts under the Regulatory Procedure with Scrutiny.1 Although these draft legislative acts modify certain aspects of an existing regulation2, directive3 or decision4, the alterations are not so deep that they may justify the application of the codecision procedure5.

Draft delegated acts

The procedure for delegated acts is one of the procedures used to establish secondary legislation. The European Commission may be granted the mandate to establish delegated acts, but only if primary legislation allows for it and only within the boundaries set by the primary legislation.

Draft implementing acts

Responsibility for implementing legally binding EU acts lies primarily with EU countries. However, some legally binding EU acts require uniform conditions for the implementation. This is secured by means of what is known in EU jargon as ‘comitology’ procedures, i.e. the Commission is assisted by committees consisting of EU countries’ representatives and chaired by a representative of the Commission.

  • 1. 
    This is a defunct comitology procedure that operated between 2006 and 2009 for quasi-legislative measures. It can no longer be used in new legislation but appears in more than 300 existing legal acts and will temporarily continue to apply in these acts until they are formally amended.
     
  • 2. 
    This legally binding act of the European Union is directly applicable in all member states of the European Union. The regulation is similar to national legislation in terms of the impact and direct effect it generates. As such the regulation is the most pervasive of all the legal instruments of the EU.
     
  • 3. 
    This legally binding act of the European Union establishes a set of objectives which all member states of the European Union must fulfil. The member states are required to implement directives. The member states are free to choose the manner they see fit to fulfil the required objectives.
     
  • 4. 
    A decision is legally binding act in its entirety. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, a decision is binding for the EU as a whole. Decisions can address specific legal entities, in which case a decision is binding only to them. In its current form the decision was introduced with the Lisbon Treaty that came into force December 2009. It replaces various legal instruments introduced by earlier Treaties.
     
  • 5. 
    This procedure is the standard decision-making procedure used in the European Union, unless the treaties specifically state one of the special legislative procedures is to be applied to a particular subject. Before the Treaty of Lisbon came into force late 2009 it was referred to as the co-decision procedure. The essential characteristic of this procedure is that both the Council of Ministers as well as the European Parliament have a deciding vote in the legislative process, and both institutions may amend a proposal.
     
  • 6. 
    The procedure for delegated acts is one of the procedures used to establish secondary legislation. The European Commission may be granted the mandate to establish delegated acts, but only if primary legislation allows for it and only within the boundaries set by the primary legislation.
     
  • 7. 
    Het uitwerken van Europese wetgeving om deze te kunnen implementeren is in beginsel een zaak van de lidstaten van de Europese Unie. In sommige gevallen is het noodzakelijk dat Europese wetgeving in alle lidstaten op eenzelfde, juiste, manier wordt geïmplementeerd.