Minimum harmonisation is a term used in

European Union law European Union law is a system of rules operating within the member states of the European Union (EU). Since the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community following World War II, the EU has developed the aim to "promote peace, its valu ...

. Minimum harmonisation describes a piece of law (usually a directive but occasionally a

regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a ...

) that sets a threshold national legislation must meet. EU Member State national legislation may exceed the terms of minimum harmonisation law. Much EU legislation has been implemented on a minimum harmonization basis as it can be easier to reach agreement, allowing existing EU Member State national legislation on issues such as consumer protection or the environment to remain in place. In more recent years, the burden of EU law has led to calls for

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a r ...

and accusations that some member states indulge in

protectionism Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulation ...

when implementing directives into EU Member State national law by gold-plating. Therefore, on the opposite end of the regulation spectrum, a growing minority of EU law contains

maximum harmonisation Maximum harmonisation is a term used in EU law. If a piece of law (usually a directive but occasionally also a regulation) is described as maximum harmonisation, national law may not exceed the terms of the legislation. In practice, that prohi ...

provisions. It is quite common for a directive or recommendation to consist of a mixture of minimum harmonisation and maximum harmonisation clauses.

References

* European Union law {{Europe-law-stub