Day 1
The three dimensions of EU policy and law implementation
Linking EU and national legislation
Treaty obligations regarding implementation, self-imposed legal obligations (acquis) and definitions and structure of EU legal acts will be reviewed and discussed. Also questions related to so-called “soft law” and “approximation versus harmonisation” will be considered.
Identifying legal acts after Lisbon
Working in groups, participants will be asked to analyze legal acts (regulations, directives, decisions and delegated acts) and identify obligations in terms of implementation measures, organizational and reporting requirements, time limits, etc.
Implementation process management
How to efficiently organize and work in an ”implementation project”? (consultation procedures, relations between ministries and agencies, the role of process planning and the ever important question: Who takes the lead?)
National processes of implementation and stakeholders
Who does what and when? Involvement of national governments, NGOs and local and regional governments in dealing with the EU. Participants will be asked to identify national tasks, stakeholders, sources of information and elements to consider when planning the implementation process.
Day 2
Implementing measures and administrative capacities
Building upon the previous day’s sessions, this session reviews the national implementation measures, which Member States need to introduce into national law, when transposing directives and establishing the legal and organizational frameworks to apply and enforce regulations.
Delegation and coordination at the national level
This session pays particular attention to the importance of national coordination when deciding upon delegation and adopting implementation measures as well as the reasons why, including the links between the implementers and those, who negotiated the EU legislation to be implemented.
Exchange of experiences: national coordination of law approximation – the Belgian case
Formalities not to be forgotten: notification instruments
Upon completing the national law approximation process, Member States must notify the Commission and/or the Council Secretariat of the result. Although attempts are being made to streamline these notifications, various notification instruments are still being used by different MS. While examples hereof will be given, special attention will be paid to the Commission’s web-based notification system – NEM. In addition, Correlation Tables and Tables of Concordance and their uses as planning instruments will be reviewed.
Simulation: planning the law approximation process
Participants are divided into groups and given different tasks, which normally need to be considered when preparing a plan to implement an EU legal act. They are also asked to identify problems and come up with solutions.
Consequences of not meeting the implementation obligations
What reactions can be expected? This session provides a practical overview of the impact of the direct effect of EU law, the principle of state liability and the infringement procedure after Lisbon.