Implementing acts

Under Article 291 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the European Commission (or in exceptional cases the Council of the European Union) may be given the powers to adopt implementing acts by the EU legislator — through specific rules included in a legislative act (the ‘basic act’). These acts aim to create uniform conditions for the implementation of the legislative act in question, if and when this is necessary.

Implementing acts are non-legislative acts and may have individual or general applications. They are often of an administrative or technical nature and may take various forms, such as individual financing decisions, authorisation decisions to place certain products on the market, or models for certificates required under EU law. They are adopted in fields as diverse as spending programmes, environmental and health protection or taxation.

Procedurally, implementing acts are adopted by the Commission after it consults committees comprising technical experts from the EU Member States, following the rules and procedures laid down in Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.

The European Parliament and the Council are kept informed during the preparation of implementing acts and have a right of scrutiny, but cannot block the adoption of implementing acts.

SEE ALSO:

• Comitology
• Council of the European Union
• Delegated acts
• European Commission
• European Parliament
• European Union (EU) hierarchy of norms
• Legislative acts
• Non-legislative acts
• Member States
• Treaties
• Committees’ role in European Commission’s implementing powers (summary)
• The European Union’s secondary law (summary)
• Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (summary).