Joint Political Declaration of 28 September 2011 of Member States and the Commission on explanatory documents

2011/C 369/02

Pursuant to Article 288 TFEU, ‘A directive shall be binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is addressed, but shall leave to the national authorities the choice of form and methods’.

Member States and the Commission recognise that the effective implementation of Union law is a prerequisite for achieving the policy objectives of the Union and that, whilst the responsibility for such implementation lies primarily with Member States, it is a matter of common interest since it aims, inter alia, to create a level playing field in all Member States.

Member States and the Commission acknowledge that the correct and timely transposition of Union directives is a legal obligation. They note that the Treaties entrust the Commission with the task of overseeing the application of Union law under the supervision of the Court of Justice and share the common understanding that the notification of transposition measures should facilitate the achievement by the Commission of this task.

In this context, Member States acknowledge that the information they supply to the Commission as regards the transposition of directives in national law ‘must be clear and precise’ and ‘must indicate unequivocally the laws, regulations and administrative provisions’, or any other provisions of national law, as well as, where relevant, the jurisprudence of national courts, by means of which the Member States consider that they have satisfied the various requirements imposed on them by the directive (1).

In order to improve the quality of information on the transposition of Union directives, where the Commission considers that documents explaining the relationship between the components of a directive and the corresponding parts of national transposition instruments are required, it shall justify on a case by case basis, when submitting the relevant proposals, the need for, and the proportionality of, providing such documents, taking into account, in particular and respectively, the complexity of the directive and of its transposition, as well as the possible additional administrative burden.

In justified cases, Member States undertake to accompany the notification of transposition measures with one or more explanatory documents, which can take the form of correlation tables or other documents serving the same purpose.

(1)  See Judgment of the Court of Justice of 16 July 2009 in case C-427/07, point 107 and the case-law cited therein.