There seems to be an impression that the EU is legislating more.
And, even if it is is not passing more ordinary legislation, it is passing more secondary legislation.
And, if that is not the case, the legislation that is being passed is more ‘transformative’.
I’ve updated a previous post, on whether President von der Leyen passed a lot more ordinary legislation. The answer was no.
EU law making since 2010
Below I’ve added the numbers of delegated and implementing acts adopted since 2010. And, I’ve added what percentage they are of total legislation.
|
Year
|
Commission President
|
Ordinary Legislation
|
Delegated Acts
|
Implementing Acts
|
Link
|
|
2010
|
Barroso II
|
57
47%
|
4
3%
|
60
49%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2010/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2011
|
Barroso II
|
77
7%
|
6
.5%
|
996
92%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2011/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2012
|
Barroso II
|
69
8%
|
38
4%
|
776
88%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2012/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2013
|
Barroso II
|
114
10%
|
56
5%
|
921
84%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2013/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2014
|
Barroso II
|
142
12%
|
132
11%
|
870
76%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2014/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2015
|
Juncker
|
72
6%
|
99
9%
|
893
84%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2015/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2016
|
Juncker
|
72
7%
|
127
12%
|
850
81%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2016/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2017
|
Juncker
|
72
6%
|
133
12%
|
935
82%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2017/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2018
|
Juncker
|
73
7%
|
116
11%
|
893
82%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2018/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2019
|
Juncker
|
126
11%
|
155
14%
|
881
75%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2019/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2020
|
von der Leyen I
|
63
5%
|
132
11%
|
1004
84%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2020/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2021
|
von der Leyen I
|
87
6%
|
225
17%
|
1026
77%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2021/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2022
|
von der Leyen I
|
73
5%
|
196
14%
|
1086
80%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2022/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2023
|
von der Leyen I
|
77
6%
|
170
13%
|
1053
81%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2023/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
|
2024
|
von der Leyen I
|
135
10%
|
142
11%
|
1053
79%
|
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/statistics/2024/legislative-acts-statistics.html
|
Over time, there appears to be some constants.
Ordinary legislation makes up 10%, Delegated acts 10% and 80% are implementing acts. Those figures seem to be more or less constant over time. This has some practical impacts for lobbyists. Many focus their time on ordinary legislation.
So most EU laws are in the technical measures group: authorizations for products etc, implementing agency opinions etc.
Over a 10 year period.
The number of implementing acts has increased by 21% over 10 years. For delegated acts it is an increase of 7%. And, for ordinary legislation it was a decrease of 7%.
There has been a 17% update in implementing acts under VDL I compared to Juncker. A lot of that is likely to be measures being taken during COVID and measures to address Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This academic note by Giulia Gallinella is helpful on the point on the use of secondary legislation in a crisis.
Secondary legislation slight uptake is likely because the co-legislators embrace on can kicking. Issues that they can’t resolve in legislative negotiations, gets kicked down the road to secondary legislation. This is a constant over time. Passing secondary legislation to fill in the technical gaps that the co-legislators decided to leave blank or fuzzy is a good thing.
More Transformative?
I can’t say if the measures passed over the last 5 years were more transformative than under previous Commissions. For the areas that I know best, I saw them in the main as technical upgrades, building on long established rules. Incremental rather the transformative. Important yes but updating in the main (with exceptions).
The major work on climate change started many years ago. I recall Anita Pollack MEP, the Labour MEP who I worked for, attending the Kyoto talks back in 1997. The ETS regulation was adopted in 2003 and the system launched in 2005.
Does the EU Pass More Rules than USA
Reading the excellent Free Market Think Tank, CEI’s work, the EU seems to pass far fewer laws than the DC.
They note that “During calendar year 2022, while agencies issued 3,168 rules, Congress enacted 247 laws. Thus, agencies issued 13 rules for every law enacted by Congress.”
p.16, CEI, Crews: Ten Thousand Commandments 2023
In the same year, the EU managed the equivalent of 77 laws and 1222 implementing laws. It would appear that the EU legislates around 70% less than USA and passes 58% less implementing rules.