Types of EU law

Primary law: EU treaties

Every action taken by the EU is based on the treaties. These binding agreements between EU Member States, notably the Treaty of Rome and the Treaty of Maastricht, set out objectives of the European Union, rules for EU institutions, how decisions are made and the relationship between the EU and its members.

Treaties are the starting point for EU law and are hence referred to as primary law. The EU can only pass laws in the policy areas where the Member States have authorised it to do so, via the EU treaties. This is known as the principle of conferral.

Treaties are negotiated and agreed upon by all the EU Member States and ratified by their parliaments, sometimes following a referendum. Over time, the EU treaties have been amended to welcome new member states, reform the EU institutions and to give the EU new areas of responsibility.

Secondary law: legal acts

The body of law that comes from the principles and objectives of the treaties is known as secondary law. These include binding and non-binding legal acts.

Binding legal acts

Binding legal acts are adopted following one of the legislative procedures set out in the EU treaties (ordinary or special legislative procedure). These acts are regulations, directives and decisions.

Regulations are legal acts that are binding in their entirety. They are directly and uniformly applicable to all EU Member States as soon as they enter into force, without needing to be transposed into national law.
Directives set binding objectives upon EU Member States to achieve a certain result, but leave them free to choose how to achieve these objectives. Once adopted at EU level, EU Member States must adopt measures to incorporate the directive into national law (transpose) and communicate these measures to the European Commission.
Transposition into national law must take place by the deadline contained by the directive (generally within 2 years). When a country does not transpose a directive, the Commission may initiate infringement proceedings.
Decisions are binding in their entirety. A decision which specifies those to whom it is addressed shall be binding only on them.

Non-binding legal acts

Non-binding legal acts are decisions that are not adopted by the ordinary or special legislative procedure, but rather by specific rules. These are recommendations and opinions.

Recommendations allow the EU institutions to make their views known and to suggest a line of action without imposing any legal obligation on those to whom it is addressed.
Opinions allow the EU institutions to make a statement, without imposing any legal obligation on the subject of the opinion.

Delegated and implementing acts

In certain circumstances the Parliament and Council can authorize the Commission to adopt delegated or implementing acts.

Delegated acts are non-legislative acts of general application adopted by the Commission, that supplement or amend certain non-essential elements of a legislative act. The power to adopt such acts is subject to strict limits:

the essential elements of the law cannot be changed
the legislative act must define the objectives, content, scope and duration of the delegation of power
the Parliament and Council may revoke the delegation of express objections to the delegated act

Implementing acts can be adopted by the Commission (or exceptionally the Council) in areas where uniform conditions for implementation are needed (like taxation, agriculture, the internal market, health and food safety etc.).