EU Legislative Politics: A Strategic Choice

Directives and regulations are the two main instruments of the legal system of the Union. They differ greatly from each other with regard to their major purpose of use, their scope of binding force, the effect they may produce in the internal legal order of the member states, and the frequency with which they are used by the institutions of the Union. In contrast to regulations, which possess general legal applicability, directives need to be transposed by the member states to have full legal effect. This study analyses whether the legislative actors strategically choose between the two different legal instruments. More specifically, do the legislative actors take into account the risks and advantages of each legislative instrument? Theoretically it might be possible that the responsible legislative actors indeed make a trade-off between informational advantages and the risk of possible non-compliance the case of the legislative instrument of directives.