Legal Act of the European Union

Legal Acts of the European Union are laws which are adopted by the Institutions of the European Union in order to exercise the powers given to them by the EU Treaties.

They come in five forms: regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations and opinions.

[1] Regulations and directives can be either legislative or non-legislative acts.

Legislative acts are normally adopted by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament acting together, and have their legal basis in the treaties.

Their function is to fill in the detail omitted by legislative acts.