What are EU directives and what will happen to them when the UK
leaves the EU? This paper looks at EU directives in force and how
they are implemented in the UK. This will give some idea of the
task ahead for UK legislators.
How many EU laws are there?
According to the EU’s Eur-lex database, there are at present
around 19,000 EU legislative acts in force. These are mainly
directives, regulations, decisions and external agreements, but
they include other instruments, such as resolutions, reports,
rules of procedure, guidelines, declarations, inter-institutional
and internal agreements, programmes, opinions, communications,
conclusions and statutes.Of these, in December 2016 there
were nearly 900 Directives in force, almost all of
which apply to the UK.
EU directives
This paper considers EU directives and lists EU directives in
force, linking them to implementing measures in the UK, and to
some extent the devolved administrations and Gibraltar.
The powers of the European Communities Act 1972
Section 2(1) of the European Communities Act
1972 (ECA) provides a power for subordinate legislation
to be made where the EU Treaties require Member States to make
provisions in their domestic law, such as for the implementation
of directives.The ECA also provides that other powers to adopt
subordinate legislation in other Acts are interpreted as enabling
them to be used to implement EU obligations.
Statutory Instruments to implement EU law
Most EU directives and a small number of EU regulations and
decisions are implemented in the UK by Statutory Instrument (SI)
under the authority of the ECA - the majority - or another
enabling Act. Some EU directives are implemented by primary
legislation (Act of Parliament).
The Great Repeal Bill will provide for EU-based SIs to
continue in UK law where practicable
The aim of the proposed Great Repeal Bill will be to ‘convert’
the EU acquis into UK law, so that the Government and Parliament
can then decide what to do with them as UK, not EU, measures. So
most SIs implementing EU directives will continue in force on
Brexit day.
UK Acts of Parliament implementing EU law may have to be amended
EU directives that are implemented by statute will already be
enshrined in UK law but the relevant Acts of Parliament might
need to be amended if they provide explicitly that they are based
on EU law.
Other Library papers on the EU acquis and the Great Repeal
Bill
The repeal and conversion process is discussed in Commons
Briefing Paper 7793, Legislating for Brexit:
the Great Repeal Bill, February 2017. Briefing Paper
7867, Legislating for Brexit:
Statutory Instruments implementing EU law, 16 January
2017, looks at UK secondary legislation which implements EU
directives and other EU acts which are not directly
applicable. Briefing Paper 7863, Legislating for Brexit:
directly applicable EU law, 12 January 2017, looks at EU
regulations, which will cease to have effect in the UK if the ECA
is simply repealed without a saving provision, pending decisions
on their future status. Briefing Paper 7850, Legislating for Brexit: EU
external agreements, 5 January 2017, looks at the EU’s
external agreements, stating whether they are exclusive EU
competence or mixed competence agreements.
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