Legislative Texts

The legislative process in the EU

Proposal, recommendation, communication from Commission, Green Paper, consultation, studies, draft legislation, debate, amendments, final draft, adoption

Consolidation = incorporating changes (no official authenticity)

Legislative consolidation = consolidated version goes through legislative procedure to become adopted

EP and Council procedures

• Assent procedure• Cooperation procedure (few areas)• Co-decision procedure (most areas)• Consultation procedure (little used

now)

Assent procedure

Tracing the procedure

• Oeil: Legislative Observatory analyses and monitors – the interinstitutional decision-making

process– role of EP in shaping legislation– activities of various institutions

involved in legislative process

Oeil

• http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/• Contains procedural factfiles

– searchable by type, topic, institution

Types of EU legislation

• EU: primary legislation– treaties– international agreements

• EU: secondary legislation– binding: regulations, directives,

decisions – non-binding: recommendation, opinion

EU Binding instruments

• Regulation: general application, binding in all Member States, no need for national authorities to do anything

• Directive: binding but Member States decide how to implement

• Decision: binding for those to whom it applies

UN Resolutions and decisions

‘Resolutions’ are formal expressions of the opinion or will of United Nations organs.

‘Decisions’

Legally binding status

• Resolutions of the Security Council• Treaties• International Law

EU drafting principlesThe Joint Practical

Guide• The drafting of a legislative act must be:

– clear, easy to understand and unambiguous– simple, concise, containing no unnecessary

elements– precise, leaving no uncertainty in the mind of

the reader– appropriate to type of act and addressee– succinct, internally consistent and consistent

with other legislation

Translation issues

1. “The original text must be particularly simple, clear and direct, since any over-complexity or ambiguity, however slight, could result in inaccuracies, approximations or real mistranslations in one or more of the other Community languages”.

2. “The use of expressions and phrases — in particular, but not exclusively, legal terms — too specific to the author’s own language or legal system, will increase the risk of translation problems”.

UN drafting guidelines

• UN editorial manual states:

• Goals: clear, simple, concise, action-oriented writing

Structure of acts 1

• Title = info to identify act– if amending act, all acts amended need to be given by

number– number, date, year– short title possible

• Preamble = citations, recitals– Citation: sets out legal basis of act (e.g. treaty): ‘Having

regard to …’– Recital: reasons for/background to provisions of

enacting terms : ‘Whereas…’ – numbered

Structure of acts 2

• Enacting terms = legislative part: articles may be grouped in titles, chapters, sections– no non-normative statements– no reproduction or paraphrasing from other

legislation– first article may define subject matter and scope

of act– terms can be defined in single article at

beginning

Translation and drafting guides

EU Access to language resourceshttp://ec.europa.eu/translation/index_en.htm

EU Interinstitutional style guide, in all languages:http://publications.europa.eu/code/en/en-

000500.htmEU Joint Practical Guide (drafting)http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/techleg/index.htmUN Editorial Manualhttp://69.94.137.26/editorialcontrol/index.htm

EU TASK

• Consult the annex of the Joint Practical Guide. Find the model for a Regulation in English. You can also look at examples of Regulations in Eur-lex. Draft a simple Regulation in English on the topic you researched last week. Investigate how it might be translated into your other language by looking at the other language versions of the model for a Regulation. Work individually or in

pairs.

UN Task

• Look at Resolutions in English (eg. of the General Assembly or Security Council) in the document section of the UN website. Also look at the UN editorial manual to learn about the format of a Resolution. Draft a simple Resolution in English on the topic you researched last week. Investigate how it might be translated into your other language by looking at the other language versions of resolutions. Work individually or in pairs.