Glossary

Defined as the body of law that comes from the principles and objectives of the treaties. Legislative acts are decisions adopted following one of the legislative procedures set out in the EU treaties.

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

Non-legislative acts are decisions that are not adopted by the ordinary or special legislative procedure, but rather by specific rules. For a non-legislative act to be adopted, a legislative act must first grant the power to adopt it.

There are two types of non-legislative acts, delegated and implementing acts.

For more information, please refer to the European Commission website.

The term ‘comitology’ refers to the set of procedures through which the European Commission exercises the implementing powers conferred on it by the European Union (EU) legislator, with the assistance of committees of representatives from EU Member States.

Under Article 291 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the EU legislator may empower the Commission to adopt ‘implementing acts’ through specific rules written into a legislative act (the ‘basic act’). This is done when it is necessary to put in place uniform conditions for the implementation of EU law, instead of letting each Member State implement it on its own in a potentially divergent manner.

The practical rules and general principles to be followed on comitology are laid down in Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 (the ‘comitology regulation’). Accordingly, the Commission consults a committee composed of representatives of all Member States and chaired by the Commission on draft implementing acts. These committees use 2 types of procedures:

• examination and
• advisory.

These procedures differ in their voting rules and in the way their votes influence the Commission’s possibilities to adopt the implementing act in question. The choice of procedure for a given act is made by the EU legislator, and depends on the nature of the implementing powers that are laid out in the basic act (regulation, directive or decision).

For more information, please refer to the EUR-Lex website.

A harmonised standard is a European standard developed by a recognised European Standards Organisation: CEN, CENELEC, or ETSI. It is created following a request from the European Commission to one of these organisations. Manufacturers, other economic operators, or conformity assessment bodies can use harmonised standards to demonstrate that products, services, or processes comply with relevant EU legislation.

The references of harmonised standards must be published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).

For more information, please refer to the European Commission website on harmonised standards.

Primary responsibility for implementing EU law lies with EU countries. However, in areas where uniform conditions for implementation are needed (taxation, agriculture, the internal market, health and food safety, etc.), the Commission (or exceptionally the Council) adopts an implementing act.

Before the Commission can adopt an implementing act, it must usually consult a committee in which every EU country is represented. This committee enables EU countries to oversee the Commission's work as it adopts an implementing act, a procedure referred to as "comitology".

As part of the Commission's better regulation agenda, citizens and other stakeholders can provide feedback on the draft text of an implementing act for four weeks before the relevant committee votes to accept or reject it. There are some exceptions, for example, in case of emergency or when citizens and stakeholders have already contributed. 

For more information, please refer to the European Commission's website.

The Commission adopts them on the basis of a delegation granted in the text of an EU law, in this case a legislative act.

The Commission's power to adopt delegated acts is subject to strict limits:

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

For more information, please refer to the European Commission's website.