EU Treaties, Regulations and Directives: The Difference

EU treaties set the EU’s legal framework. Regulations and directives are laws made under the powers the treaties provide. The key difference between a regulation and a directive is how each takes effect in member states: a regulation applies without needing a national law to bring it into force, while a directive usually requires member states to pass or change their own laws to achieve a stated result.

Treaties: the foundation

Treaties are agreements between EU member states. They establish EU institutions, give them powers and set limits on those powers. They are known as primary EU law. A treaty provides the legal basis for the EU to legislate, but it is not the same thing as a regulation or directive made using that power.

Regulations and directives

Regulations are secondary EU law. They are binding in their entirety and directly applicable in member states. This means a state does not need to enact its own law before the regulation becomes part of its law.

Directives are also secondary EU law. They bind member states as to the result to be achieved, but generally leave each state a choice about how to achieve it. This process of putting a directive into national law is called implementation.

For example, if the EU wanted member states to meet a particular product-safety standard, a regulation could set rules that apply directly. A directive could instead require each state to achieve that standard through its own legislation.

Exam mistake to avoid: “Directly applicable” does not simply mean “can always be relied on in court”. That separate question is called direct effect. Also, do not say that directives have no legal effect until implemented: in certain circumstances, an unimplemented directive may be relied on against the state. For a question about current UK law, distinguish EU rules for member states from the UK’s position after leaving the EU.