The directive is a normative provision of Community law. It binds the States of the Union, or more specifically, the recipient State in the achievement of goals or concrete results within a specified period. However, this leaves to the competent internal authorities the proper choice of the appropriate form and means for this purpose. The directive is community but also internal and specific to national legal systems. This means that it requires a regulatory complement from the States to carry out a good implementation. In short, directives are legislative acts in which objectives are established that all EU countries must comply with. Each country is then tasked with developing its own laws to achieve those goals.
Policy types
Since the Lisbon treaty was signed in 2009, there are 3 kinds of directives: legislative, delegated and executing.
- Legislative Directive: emanates from the legislating authority of the European Parliament and the Council, or one of these two institutions, which adopt it precisely so that it appears in their exercise of community legislative power.
- Delegated Directive: it is activated after a mandate or authorization contained in a legislative act (which is normally a directive). Their objective is for the Commission to complete or modify, in non-essential elements, its application.
- Execution directive: the commission, or in specific and duly justified cases, the Council, may adopt in the exercise of its executive functions when it is preferable the application of a legally binding act with the Union, in substitution of whatever national mechanism. In this type of act, the indirect nature of the directive should be noted. In either case, this type is quite rare.