International Law

Implementation of Lisbon Treaty and Delegated Acts : Commission Communication on Article 290 TFEU

By Bartolus

The new Article 290 TFEU provides:

1. A legislative act may delegate to the Commission the power to adopt non-legislative acts of general application to supplement or amend certain non-essential elements of the legislative act. The objectives, content, scope and duration of the delegation of power shall be explicitly defined in the legislative acts. The essential elements of an area shall be reserved for the legislative act and accordingly shall not be the subject of a delegation of power.
2. Legislative acts shall explicitly lay down the conditions to which the delegation is subject; these conditions may be as follows:
(a) the European Parliament or the Council may decide to revoke the delegation;
(b) the delegated act may enter into force only if no objection has been expressed by the European Parliament or the Council within a period set by the legislative act.
For the purposes of (a) and (b), the European Parliament shall act by a majority of its component members, and the Council by a qualified majority.
3. The adjective "delegated" shall be inserted in the title of delegated acts.

That is a new category of acts.

The Commission has recently published an interesting Communication on the implementation of Article 290 TFEU (COM(2009) 673 final) which sets out the Commission's views on the scope of the delegated acts, the framework for delegations of power, the working methods the Commission intends to use for preparing the adoption of delegated acts and, finally, the conditions under which the legislator might exercise control over the way the powers conferred on the Commission are implemented.

Well worth reading.

Full post as published by EU Law Blog on January 15, 2010 (boomark / email).