Publications Office – Interinstitutional Style Guide – 1.2. L series

1.2. L series

1.2.1. Classification of acts

The sections and subsections are listed in order below (see also EUR-Lex and Visual Guide – Official Journal typographical rules).

Official Journal – L series

L I – Legislative acts

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Regulations

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Directives

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Decisions

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Budgets

L II – Non-legislative acts

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International agreements

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Regulations

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Directives

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Decisions

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Recommendations

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Guidelines

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Rules of procedure

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Acts adopted by bodies created by international agreements

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Interinstitutional agreements

L III – Other acts

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European Economic Area

L IV – Acts adopted before 1 December 2009 under the EC Treaty, the EU Treaty and the Euratom Treaty

NB:

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The order in which the authors appear in each section (‘Regulations’, ‘Directives’, etc.) can be found in Section 3.4.2.

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Under Section L II, in ‘Regulations’, ‘Directives’ and ‘Decisions’, in accordance with the order mentioned above and for the authors concerned, the acts are classified in the following order: 1. acts based directly on the Treaty; 2. delegated acts; 3. implementing acts (for examples, see ‘Summary tables’).

Sections

Acts published in the L series of the Official Journal are divided into various sections.

L I – Legislative acts

This section covers ‘legislative acts’ (within the meaning of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)): regulations, directives and decisions that are adopted:

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by ‘the ordinary legislative procedure’ (joint adoption by the European Parliament and the Council),

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by ‘a special legislative procedure’ (adoption by the Council with the participation of the European Parliament or adoption by the Parliament with the participation of the Council).

L I also covers the European Union’s budget (along with any related amending budgets), as it is adopted according to a special legislative procedure.

NB:

Before 1 December 2009, the general budget of the European Union was published under Section L II, with the title ‘Final adoption of the general budget of the European Union’. Moreover, the statements of revenue and expenditure of the agencies that were published in the L series are now to be found in the C series.

L II – Non-legislative acts

This section covers ‘non-legislative acts’ within the meaning of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union: regulations, directives and decisions that are not adopted by legislative procedure (delegated acts (Article 290) and implementing acts (Article 291) and acts based directly on the Treaties (acts relating to international agreements, CFSP decisions, etc.)), along with other acts, such as recommendations and ECB guidelines.

L III – Other acts

This section groups together the ‘other acts’, such as those of the European Economic Area.

L IV – Acts adopted before 1 December 2009 under the EC Treaty, the EU Treaty and the Euratom Treaty

This temporary section (now obsolete) included acts adopted before 1 December 2009 under the EC Treaty, the EU Treaty and the Euratom Treaty.

Classification

Within each section, acts are classified according to two criteria:

(a)

according to their type (regulation; directive; decision);

(b)

then, if necessary, according to the order of publication of the originating institutions (see Section 3.4.2): European Parliament, European Council, European Parliament and the Council, Council, European Commission, Court of Justice of the European Union, European Central Bank, Court of Auditors, etc.