As the European Union evolved over time, so has the process for creating European legislation. For instance European Parliament has steadily become more embedded in the legislative process. In 1986, the Single European Act (1986) and the Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon Treaties successively extended Parliament's prerogatives.

 

The European Union implements legislation using two types of legislative procedures:

 

There are three basic types of EU legislative binding instruments:

  • A regulation, which is similar to a national law, with the difference that it is applicable in all EU countries

  • Directives, which set out general rules to be transferred into national law, by each country as they deem appropriate

  • A decision, which only deals with a particular issue and specifically mentioned persons or organisations

These laws (regulations, directives and decisions) take precedence over national law and are binding on national authorities. The EU also issues non-binding instruments, such as recommendations and opinions, as well as rules governing how EU institutions and programmes work, etc.

 

Key databases:

  • Search for legislation (EUR-lex) - Database of EU law, including the Official Journal, treaties, case law and parliamentary questions. It has a guided tour with tutorials on how to use EUR-Lex.

  • Court of Justice of the European Union - The Court of Justice interprets EU law to make sure it is applied in the same way in all EU countries. It also settles legal disputes between EU governments and EU institutions. Its database contains case-law, judgements and opinions.

  • European Court of Human Rights (HUDOC) - The European Court of Human Rights is an international court, set up in 1959. It rules on individual or State applications alleging violations of the civil and political rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.

  • Summaries of EU legislation - EU legislation by topic, from agriculture to immigration and transport

  • National Law (N-Lex) - Description and links to each Member States national law databases

  • European Parliament legislative observatory - database for monitoring the EU decision-making process

  • EuroVoc - a multilingual, multidisciplinary thesaurus covering the activities of the EU, containing terms in 23 EU languages

 

Further information: