Number of laws

Number of laws, updated May 2015

There are now more than 40,000 legal acts in the EU. There are also 15,000 Court verdicts and 62,000 international standards, all of which must be respected nd obeyed by citizens and companies in the EU.

It is very difficult to define the exact number of valid legal acts in the European Union. No institution publishes official tables. Here we assemble numbers from several different sources.

Some acts are legally binding, such as regulations, directives, decisions and international agreements. Some are not, such as white papers, green papers and communications. Recommendations sometimes can have legal effects. Resolutions of the European Council and the European Parliament can be used to understand and give new interpretations to legally binding acts.

Verdicts of the EU Court can change European law and the interpretation of the treaties.

Standards from European standard organisations such as CEN, Cenelec and ETSI can bind member states, companies and citizens in the same way as regulations. Standards from United Nations specialised bodies such as Codex Alimentarius for food become part of EU law when the EU enters these agreements. They become binding supranationally rather than internationally.

A technical standard referred to in a directive or regulation can be legally binding in the same way as the mother legal act. A standard from Codex Alimentarius permitting hormones in beef must also be respected by countries that have voted against that standard, unless the EU chooses to pay a fine to the World Trade Organisation as they did in this case. An issue such as hormones in beef demonstrates that even sensitive political matters may be decided in the form of a "technical" standard.

A decision by a Commission official in the name of and on behalf of the Commission is just as binding on member states as treaty articles. There is no hierarchy of laws in the EU. The number of more or less binding acts was greater than 134.500 in 2015 if these different types of acts are counted together.

See the table below and see under Democracy, Accountability, Transparency and Subsidiarity for how decisions are made in the EU.

EXAMPLES OF LAW THAT PEOPLE CANNOT CHANGE AS VOTERS

Directives

A directive binds member states as regards its content, leaving it to them to decide the means of implenting it. For example, the EU chemical directive, REACH, came partly into force on 1 July 2009.

Thus, a member state is unable to ban a particular chemical on its own, not even if it believes it causes cancer. Only the non-elected Commission can propose a change in the relevant EU legislation. Not a National Parliament ... not the European Parliament ...Not the voters.

Environmentalists wanted to ban 267 chemicals. The Commission would only investigate seven of them. Voters in any member state cannot ban any of the 260 unwanted chemicals by mesns of normal elections.

Even if these additives may cause allergies, cancer, diminished fertility, hormonal effects etc., democracy will lose out unless one can convince a majority of governments to agree a new Commission following the next European elections whkch will propose such a ban and then have an amendment to that effect adopted by a qualified majority in the Council of Ministers.

Regulations

These are directly binding on all member states throughout the EU, without the need for being adopted by national Governments or Parliaments. They are directly applicable and come legally into force from the date mentioned in them. It is illegal for a member state to change EU regulations in any way when putting them into national laws.

Decisions

These are binding on those to whom they are addressed, but not on all EU members or citizens.

Recommendations

Recommendations are formally non-binding legal acts. However, a recommendation from the Commission on the music industry has been used to change the market regarding copyright for authors and composers.

The European Parliament was almost unanimous in opposing this particular Recommendation and asked the Commission to withdraw it. Again, the non-elected decide. . . Not the elected. However, this time the European Parliament reacted with a very big majority and pushed the Commission to put forward a proposal for reform which has been now carried due to the influence of the MEPs.

Court Verdicts

An EU Court verdict binds everyone directly. If the Court establishes a new interpretation of a treaty article or law, the law can be changed ... But only if a proposal to that effect comes from the non-elected Commission.

If a court verdict makes an unwanted interpretation of the treaties, it can only be changed through an amendment of the treaties themselves – which must be agreed by all 28 governments and ratified by all member states. Again, voters are sidelined.

For example, the 2007 Laval case limited the right of trade unions to embark on industrial action for higher salaries than the state minimum or prevailing applicable salaries where foreign workers in a host country were concerned.

This EU Court judgement was based on an interpretation of the treaty principle of free movement of workers. Therefore, only a social protocol in a new treaty – as proposed by the European Trade Unions in ETUC – can change this law. Citizen voters can change nothing in normal elections, whether for their national parliament or the European Parliament.

Standards

A standard laid down in the international Codex Alimentarius which has been agreed by the EU, is binding as EU law in all member states. If hormones in beef or additives in milk are permitted by the Codex, voters cannot change this in elections.

That can only be done if the Commission drafts a proposal and has it agreed in the Codex Alimentarius – or breaches its international obligations. Voters, MPs and MEPs have no say and cannot have any influence unless they are backed up by the Commission.

CEN and CENELEC standards are mainly mandatory, ETSI standards are mainly voluntary.

A Democratic Solution to this problem

EU Commissioners could be elected and kept accountable either indirectly by the European Parliament or directly by the voters in each member state.

The Number of laws, other acts, verdicts and standards in the EU

LEGISLATION TOTAL¹	40163
SECONDARY LEGISLATION	34707
Regulations	11547
Directives	1842
Decisions	18545
Other acts	2773
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS	5456
Agreements with non-member states or international organisations	1721
Acts of bodies created by international agreements	3700
Other acts	35
NON-BINDING ACTS²	16917
Recommendations	1599
Communications	15136
White papers	36
Green papers	146
^{VERDICTS FROM THE}^{EU COURT OF JUSTICE 3)}	15023
STANDARDS TOTAL	62397
CEN (European Committee for Standardization)⁴	14163
CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization)⁵	6519
ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute)⁶	36932
CODEX ALIMENTARIUS (WHO&FAO food standards system)⁷	4783
GRAND TOTAL	134500

[1] Eur-lex search results as of March 23, 2015 (advanced search: Domain: EU law and related documents, Subdomain: Legislation, Limit to legislation in force, Exclude corrigenda).

[2] Eur-lex search results as of March 23, 2015 (advanced search by Form. Communications limited to Author: European Commission).

[3] Eur-lex search results as of March 23, 2015. (advanced search: Domain: All documents, Type of act: EU court case, Exclude corrigenda, Form: Judgment, Exclude consolidated versions)

[4] CEN web page: Cen.eu: CEN in figures, 2015

[5] Cenelec.eu: CENELEC facts and figures, 2015

[6] Etsi.org: Annual report 2015

[7] WHO&FAO (2006): Understanding the Codex Alimentarius, third edition, Page 11,ftp://ftp.fao.org/codex/Public......rstanding/Understanding_EN.pdf. Data refers until end of July 2006. The number includes Special reports, technical reports and ETSI guides.