European Union regulation

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A Regulation is a legislative act of the European Union which has a general scope, is obligatory in all its elements and is directly applicable in all Member States. Regulations constitute one of the most powerful forms of EU law and must be given immediate force of law in Member States without the need to enact implementing measures.

In contrast directives are only binding as to the objectives to be achieved, bind only those Member States to whom they are addressed and require implementation in order to have the force of law vis-à-vis third parties.

The European Court of Justice has established a differentiation between what it calls 'Basic Regulations' and 'Execution Regulations':

'Basic Regulations' establish essential rules governing a certain matter, and are normally adopted by the Council.
Execution Regulations technically organise these principles; they are usually taken by the European Commission or the Council acting on the basis of article 211.

Because regulations have direct effect, the individual countries do not need to pass local laws to bring them into effect, and indeed any local laws contrary to the regulation are overruled, as European Union Law is supreme over the laws of the Member States. Member states therefore have to legislate in the light of, and consistently with the requirements of, EU Regulations.

Examples of matters introduced by regulation were the new '.eu' domain name, and the new European-level 'Community Design Right' an example of intellectual property right. An example of currently debated project of regulation is the Community patent.

If the European Constitution is ratified and enters into force, regulations will become known simply as European laws, with the term "regulation" shifting to what were previously known as "decisions".