Measures
Measures are usually taken to support, encourage and coordinate member states' activities in fields where the EU has no competence and when national laws should not be harmonised, for example in the areas of culture and employment policy.
Measures may also include legally binding instruments as regulations and directives.
The Lisbon Treaty has introduced the terms "supporting, coordinating and complementary actions" in the new art. 6 TFEU. They may also include legally binding rules with primacy over national law and constitutions.