In
European Union law, transposition is a process by which the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
's member states give force to a
directive by passing appropriate implementation measures. Transposition is typically done by either
primary legislation
Primary legislation and secondary legislation (the latter also called delegated legislation or subordinate legislation) are two forms of law, created respectively by the legislative and executive branches of governments in representative democ ...
or
secondary legislation.
The
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
closely monitors that transposition is timely, correctly done and implemented, so as to attain the results intended. Incorrect transposition may be the result of non acting (leaving aside certain provisions), diverging (other scope, definition or requirement), "
gold-plating" (exceeding the requirements of the directive), "double-banking" (overlapping between existing national laws and the transposed directive), or "regulatory creep" (overzealous enforcement or a state of uncertainty in the status of the regulation).
The European Commission may bring a case in the
European Court of Justice
The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European U ...
against states which have not transposed directives adequately.
Additionally, any individual or business in a Member State may lodge a complaint with the Commission about the incorrect or delayed transposition of an EU directive or "for any measure (law, regulation or administrative action) or practice attributable to a Member State which they consider incompatible with a provision or a principle of EU law".
The Commission publishes an annual report summarising how EU law has been transposed, with statistics on the numbers and types of infringements, per country and sector.
References
European Union constitutional law
{{EU-law-stub