The Gazette 1989

FEBRUARY

1989

GAZETTE

mendations and opinions —are not binding. They are published in the Official Journal L Series. Official Journal The Official Journal is the official gazette of the European Com- munities. It carries the text of all EC primary and secondary legislation and official announcements as well as information on the activities of the EC institutions. The Official Journal is published almost daily in two main series, issued separately. It is available in paper copy and microfiche. 1. The L series (legislation) con- tains the text of enacted legisla- tion divided into two sequences: (a) Acts whose publication is obligatory (EEC regulations and ECSC general decis- ions), (b) Acts whose publication is not obligatory (all other legislation referred to above). 2. The C Series (Information and Notices) contains different categories of information from the various Community institu- tions. Not all categories will be necessarily included in any one issue. The following is covered: (a) Commission - the text of proposed legislation which requires an Opinion from the European Parliament, rates of the European Currency Unit. (b ) Court of Justice - a list of new cases brought before the Court and summaries of the judgments of the Court. (c) European Parliament - minutes of the Plenary Ses- sions and written questions and answers. (d ) Economic and Social Com- mittee - opinions of the ESC. (e) Notices of invitation to In addition to the two main series an S Series (Supplement) gives details of public supply contracts and the Official Journal: Annex publishes the full text of the debates of the European Parliament. On the accession of the UK, Ireland and Denmark in 1973 Special Editions of the Official Journal were published in English and Danish versions giving official translations of the legislation tender for commercial and research contracts and staff vacancies.

enacted between 1952-1972 and still in force in January 1973. Indexes to the Official Journal The index is issued monthly with an annual cumulation. It is divided into two parts: (a ) Methodological Table, (b) Alphabetical Index. The Methodological Table lists the legislative Acts by document number; the Alphabetical Index is a keyword subject Index. Because of the lack of cumulation of the annual indexes and the previously complicated classification arrangement of the alphabetical Index it is often easier to trace legislative acts through other sources such as Butterworth's European Communities Legislation: Current Status, published annually and kept up to date by 3 cumulative supplements published during the year; Sweet and Maxwell's Encyclopaedia of European Community Law - C volumes; the EC's Directory of Community Legislation in Force, published twice yearly (not as easy to use as Butterworths' Current Status); the tables of EC secondary legislation in Halsbury's Laws of England, 4th ed., Vol. 52 and current service to Halsbury. The full text of EC legislation is searchable on CELEX, the Commission's computerised information retrieval system. National implementation of secondary legislation As stated above, in the category of obligatory acts, EEC regulations are directly applicable in all member states and ECSC decisions are directly applicable to those to whom they are addressed. Directives, being binding as to the result to be achieved in the member states con- cerned, are intended to be implement- ed by national legislation within a specific period. In Ireland the imple- mentation of directives is usually by statutory instrument, though where a directive requires a major reform of the law, such as the second and fourth Directives on Company Law, implementation is by statute - in these cases by the Companies (Amendment) Act, 1983 and the Companies (Amendment) Act, 1986, respectively. To find out if a particular directive has been implemented by legis- lation, the Indexes to the Statutory instruments (published by the

They consist of obligatory acts: regulations, directives and decisions under the EEC and Euratom Treaties and decisions and recommendations under the ECSC Treaty and non-obligatory acts: recommendations and opinions under the EEC and Euratom Treaties and opinions under the ECSC Treaty. The names of the legal acts under the EEC and Euratom Treaties differ from those of equivalent effect under the ECSC Treaty. The following tables illustrate the equivalent nature of the acts under the three Treaties: EEC/Euratom ECSC Regulations Decisions (General) Directives Recommendations Decisions Decisions (Individual) Recommendations Opinions Opinions In terms of the acts made under the EEC Treaty, regulations are binding in their entirety and are directly applicable in all member states, without the necessity of national implementing legislation. Regulations are published in the Official Journal L Series (Acts whose publication is obligatory) and enter into force on the date specified in the text or, in the absence of a commencement date, on the twentieth day following publication. Publication is a neces- sary condition of the regulations having effect. Directives are binding as to the result to be achieved upon each member state to which they are addressed. Directives are intended as instruments of approximation or harmonisation and they are normally issued with a set time limit within which member states must implement their requirements by national legislation. Directives are published in the Official Journal L Series. Decisions are binding in their entirety upon those to whom they are addressed - individuals, member states or corporate groups. They are published in the Official Journal L Series. The majority of Commission decisions are deter- minations of specific cases. Many of these cases, largely concerned with restrictive practices, are reported in the Common Market Law Reports and are included in the Indexes to EC case law. The non-obligatory acts, recom-

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