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2.3. Articles (enacting terms)

General information

The enacting terms, which constitute the normative part of the act, are divided into articles. Where the enacting terms are simple, they may be set out in a ‘Sole Article’.

NB:
Where an act contains more than one article, the articles are numbered consecutively throughout (Article 1, Article 2, Article 3, etc.). The numbering must be continuous from the beginning to the end of the enacting terms.

Articles may be grouped in ‘parts’, ‘titles’, ‘chapters’ and ‘sections’ (see Section 2.7 ‘Subdivisions of acts’).

Articles may be subdivided into paragraphs, subparagraphs, points, indents and sentences.

Paragraphs may be unnumbered or numbered with Arabic numerals and may contain points or indents, which may be preceded by a dash. (For the terminology of the various parts of an article, see the diagram in Section 2, Section 2.7 and ‘Summary tables: structure of an act’.)

NB:
In French, numbered paragraphs are termed ‘paragraphe’ and unnumbered paragraphs are termed ‘alinéa’.)

Final article (in directives and decisions)

In directives and, where applicable, decisions, the addressees are specified in the last article.

Directives

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

or

This Directive is addressed to the Member States in accordance with the Treaties.
(Where the directive is not addressed to all Member States: Member States whose currency is not the euro etc.)

or

This Directive is addressed to the Member States which [e.g. have inland waterways as referred to in Article 1(1)].

or

This Directive is addressed to [the full (official) name of the Member State(s)].

Decisions
Decisions addressed to all Member States:
This Decision is addressed to the Member States.

Decisions addressed to specific Member States:

This Decision is addressed to the Member States in accordance with the Treaties.

or

This Decision is addressed to [the full (official) name of the Member State(s)].

Decisions addressed to specific parties:
This Decision is addressed to [full name and address of party].
NB:
It is the full names, in protocol order, of the Member States (see Section 7.1.1) that are used:
This Decision is addressed to the Federal Republic of Germany, the Italian Republic and Romania.
The last article of European Central Bank guidelines also indicates the addressees:
This Guideline is addressed to all Eurosystem central banks.
Last updated: 28.8.2019
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