Publications Office – Interinstitutional Style Guide – 3. Rules on drafting documents – 3.2. Titles and references to an act

3.2.2. Referring to other acts

(a)

In a title

The title of an act never includes the full title of another act. There is never a footnote reference to the title of the other act.

Date

The date of the cited act is normally not mentioned:

Commission Regulation (EU) No 127/2010 of 5 February 2010 amending Regulation (EC) No 2042/2003 (no date) on the continuing airworthiness of aircraft and aeronautical products, parts and appliances, and on the approval of organisations and personnel involved in these tasks

The date is only mentioned where there is no number assigned to the cited act:

Council Decision 2008/182/Euratom of 25 February 2008 amending the Decision of 16 December 1980 setting up the Consultative Committee for the Fusion Programme

Commission Decision 2005/769/EC of 27 October 2005 laying down rules for the procurement of food aid by NGOs authorised by the Commission to purchase and mobilise products to be supplied under Council Regulation (EC) No 1292/96 and repealing its Decision of 3 September 1998

Author

The author of the act referred to is only mentioned if the author is different:

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/281 of 26 November 2014 replacing Annexes I and II of Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters

NB:

Nevertheless, to avoid certain unclear hybrid forms, when several acts of different authors are cited, reference is always made to their respective authors (even if this involves repeating the name of the author of the citing act), for example:

Commission Regulation (EU) No 86/2010 of 29 January 2010 amending Annex I to Council Regulation (EC) No 1005/2008 as regards the definition of fishery products and amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 1010/2009 as regards exchange of information on inspections of third country vessels and administrative arrangements on catch certificates

Statement of subject matter

The statement of the subject matter of the act referred to may be shortened or omitted:

Regulation (EU) 2015/1525 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 September 2015 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 515/97 on mutual assistance between the administrative authorities of the Member States and cooperation between the latter and the Commission to ensure the correct application of the law on customs and agricultural matters (full statement of subject matter)

Commission Directive 2010/3/EU of 1 February 2010 amending, for the purpose of adaptation to technical progress, Annexes III and VI to Council Directive 76/768/EEC concerning cosmetic products (shortened statement of subject matter)

Regulation (EU) 2015/847 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015 on information accompanying transfers of funds and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006 (statement of subject matter omitted)

The parts ‘[and] amending …’ or ‘[and] repealing …’ in the act referred to are omitted:

Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 February 2014 on tachographs in road transport, repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3821/85 on recording equipment in road transport and amending Regulation (EC) No 561/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of certain social legislation relating to road transport

To sum up, an act cited in the title of another act is cited without its date (save for a few exceptions), with its author if it is different and with all or parts of its subject matter, or without it, according to the author’s needs.

(b)

In citations

Primary acts are cited without a footnote reference. International agreements may, however, be cited using their short form or with a footnote reference, see Section 2.2(a).

However, the full title of a secondary act is always given and is followed by a footnote reference indicating the Official Journal in which it was published:

Having regard to Directive 2010/30/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 2010 on the indication by labelling and standard product information of the consumption of energy and other resources by energy-related products (¹), and in particular Article 10 thereof,

[…]

(¹)

OJ L 153, 18.6.2010, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2010/30/oj.

NB:

In the case of a reference to the Staff Regulations, the main part of the subject matter is cited, followed only by the author and the number of the regulation:

Having regard to the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union and the conditions of employment of other servants of the European Union, laid down by Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No 259/68 (¹),

[…]

(¹)

OJ L 56, 4.3.1968, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/1968/259(1)/oj.

(c)

In recitals, articles and annexes

In recitals, articles and annexes, only the short title of an act is cited:

—

If the act is cited for the first time, the short title includes the name of the author of the act. It is followed by a footnote reference indicating the full title of the act and the Official Journal in which it was published:

(5)

Where trade defence measures become necessary, they should be adopted in accordance with the general provisions laid down in Regulation (EU) 2015/478 of the European Parliament and of the Council (⁶) …

(⁶)

Regulation (EU) 2015/478 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2015 on common rules for imports (OJ L 83, 27.3.2015, p. 16, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2015/478/oj).

In principle, the enacting terms (i.e. the articles) should not refer to acts that have not already been referred to in the citations or recitals.

—

Where the act has already been cited (except in the title), the short title does not include the author and is not followed by a footnote reference:

2. For the purpose of Articles 5 to 8 of this Regulation, the Commission shall be assisted by the Committee on Safeguards established by Article 3(1) of Regulation (EU) 2015/478.

There can be certain exceptions to this rule, in particular in the case of annexes comprising forms or other documents that may be used in isolation, where it may be necessary to repeat the full title and the Official Journal reference of an act that has already been cited.

For the sake of readability, long lists of acts may present the full titles in the body of the text and only the Official Journal references in the footnotes.