1.2.1. Classification of acts

Acts are classified by heading (L I, L II, etc.) and subheading (‘Regulations’, ‘Directives’, etc.) in a specific order.

Acts are classified by heading (L I, L II, etc.) and subheading (‘Regulations’, ‘Directives’, etc.) in the order given below (see also the structure of the Official Journal on EUR-Lex).

info:
Official Journal – L series

L I – Legislative acts

  • Regulations
  • Directives
  • Decisions
  • Budgets

L II – Non-legislative acts

  • International agreements
  • Regulations
  • Directives
  • Decisions
  • Recommendations
  • Guidelines
  • Rules of procedure
  • Acts adopted by bodies created by international agreements
  • Interinstitutional agreements

L III – Other acts

  • European Economic Area
NB:

Heading L IV – Acts adopted before 1 December 2009 under the EC Treaty, the EU Treaty and the Euratom Treaty, was temporarily used after 1 January 2010 to include acts adopted before 1 December 2009 under the EC Treaty, the EU Treaty and the Euratom Treaty. This heading is now obsolete.

Under each heading, acts are classified according to:

  • type (regulation, directive, decision, budget, etc.), and
  • order by author (see Section 3.4.2): European Parliament, European Council, European Parliament and the Council, Council, European Commission, Court of Justice of the European Union, European Central Bank, Court of Auditors, etc.
NB:

Under Heading L II, subheadings ‘Regulations’, ‘Directives’ and ‘Decisions’, in accordance with the order mentioned above and for the authors concerned, the acts are classified in the following order:

  1. acts based directly on the Treaties;
  2. delegated acts;
  3. implementing acts.

For examples, see ‘Summary tables’.

Headings

decisionsCFSP

The L series of the Official Journal includes the following headings.

L I – Legislative acts

This heading covers ‘legislative acts’ (within the meaning of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)): regulations, directives and decisions that are adopted:

  • by ‘the ordinary legislative procedure’ (joint adoption by the European Parliament and the Council),
  • by ‘a special legislative procedure’ (adoption by the Council with the participation of the European Parliament or adoption by the Parliament with the participation of the Council).

Legislative acts also cover the annual budget of the European Union (along with any related amending budgets), as it is adopted according to a special legislative procedure.

NB:

The European Union’s ‘annual budget’ was previously called the ‘general budget’. In 2022, the title of the act definitely adopting the budget changed accordingly (‘Definitive adoption of the European Union’s annual budget’).

Before 1 December 2009, the budget of the European Union was published under Heading L II (Non-legislative acts), with the adopting act titled ‘Final adoption of the general budget of the European Union’. The statements of revenue and expenditure of the agencies that were published in the L series are now to be found in the C series.

L II – Non-legislative acts

This heading covers ‘non-legislative acts’ within the meaning of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union: regulations, directives and decisions that are not adopted by legislative procedure (delegated acts (Article 290) and implementing acts (Article 291) and acts based directly on the Treaties (acts relating to international agreements, CFSP decisions, etc.)), along with other acts, such as recommendations and ECB guidelines.

L III – Other acts

This heading covers the ‘other acts’, such as those of the European Economic Area.