EU law is enforced by national courts using direct effect and supremacy.
Types of EU Law:
Types of EU laws (beyond the Treaties): Regulations, Directives and Decisions. (TFEU Art 288)
Regulations:
Regulations do not have to be implemented nationally as they are directly applicable, even without transposition. National law modifying or restricting a Regulation would be illegal.
Advantages:
Creates a uniform standard across member states.
Directives:
Directives are binding as to the result to be achieved, but discretionary as to the means and form which member states choose to implement them.
Advantages:
Explicitly recognises that member states need a degree of discretion in how EU obligations fit in varying national legal orders.
Therefore, Directives require national governments to transpose them into national law before they become binding. They contain transposition dates which member states must have put the provisions of the Directive into national law by.
Member states must notify the Commission when they do this. If they do not transpose them, enforcement can come from infringement action initiated by the Commission. (TFEU Art 258)
Infringement Process: Assessment by Commission > Letter of Formal Notice (Commission sets out concerns about breach of EU law) > Response from MS > Commission sets reasons for legal case and a final deadline to comply > CJEU finding whether EU law is breached > Imposition of sanctions by CJEU (separate case).
‘gives enormous power to an institution, the European Commission, with significant expertise and limited levels of political accountability … always an imperfect balance’. [1]
Decisions:
Decisions are binding acts that often emerge from a single institution directed towards a single institution / member state / individual.
EG: ECB decisions about the Banking Union.
References:
[1] Dawson and De Witte, EU Law and Governance (Cambridge University Press 2022) 100
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