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The fundamental laws or rules of the European Union (EU) are set out in the Treaties. All treaties must be agreed and ratified by the Member States. A treaty is ratified when it becomes part of the law of the Member States.

The most important treaty is the Treaty of Rome, which created the European Economic Community in 1957. Since the Treaty of Rome, there have been four treaties agreed and ratified by all the Member States;

The Merger Treaty in 1967, which merged the institutions of the three communities
The Single European Act in 1986, which provided for completion of the single market
The Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty) in 1992, which provided for political and economic union amongst the Member States
The Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997, which made some changes to the powers of the institutions of the EU and paved the way for EU enlargement
The Treaty of Nice 2001 which made further changes to the powers and structures of the institutions to facilitate enlargement
The Treaty of Lisbon 2007 which came into effect on 1 December 2009 made changes to how decisions are made at EU level.

Treaties are the primary source of EU law but there are also secondary sources of EU law; the institutions of the EU have the power to make legislation. This power is shared between the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. You can view an animation outlining this process on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website, www.eumatters.ie.

Rules

There are different types of secondary legislation:

Regulations. These are laws that apply to everyone including all Member States. Regulations become part of national law and are enforceable in national courts immediately once they come into force. They do not need to be brought in by any national legislation.
Directives. A Directive is a form of order to Member States to implement national legislation to achieve a specific result. It is up to the national governments to decide on the form and method of the legislation necessary to achieve that result. Usually, a Directive will specify a deadline for the implementation of legislation.
Decisions. A decision is addressed to a limited and defined group of persons, e.g., one Member State or a corporation. They are binding upon those to whom they are addressed.
Recommendations and opinions. These are not binding - they are simply recommendations.

EU legislation is published in the Official Journal of the Community and the date that it comes into effect is stated in the Journal. The Official Journal is published every working day and consists of a number of sections including legislation, information and notices and public tenders. You can search for EU legal texts on the EUR-Lex website. One of the most important aspects of the European Union is that its legislation is superior to all national legislation. This means that European law is supreme. Nothing in our national laws can override or take precedence over an EU law.

Page updated: 2 February 2012

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