Directive (European Union) in the context of "Citizens' Rights Directive"

In the law of the European Union, direct effect is the principle that Union law may, if appropriately framed, confer rights on individuals which not only the courts but also the public administration (on national, regional or local level) of member states of the European Union are bound to recognise and enforce.

Direct effect is not explicitly stated in any of the EU Treaties. The principle of direct effect was first established by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Van Gend en Loos v. Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen. Direct effect has subsequently been loosened in its application to treaty articles and the ECJ has expanded the principle, holding that it is capable of applying to virtually all of the possible forms of EU legislation, the most important of which are regulations, and in certain circumstances to directives.

A national mapping agency (NMA) is an organisation, usually publicly owned, that produces topographic maps and geographic information of a country. Some national mapping agencies also deal with cadastral matters.

According to 2007/2/EC European directive, national mapping agencies of European Union countries must have publicly available services for searching, viewing and downloading their spatial data. Maps produced by some of them are available under a free license that allows re-use, such as a Creative Commons license.

A regulation is a legal act of the European Union which becomes immediately enforceable as law in all member states simultaneously. Regulations can be distinguished from directives which, at least in principle, need to be transposed into national law. Regulations can be adopted by means of a variety of legislative procedures depending on their subject matter. Despite their name, Regulations are primary legislation rather than regulatory delegated legislation; as such, they are often described as "Acts" (e.g. the Digital Services Act).

The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) is a European Union (EU) mechanism aimed at increasing direct democracy by enabling "EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies", introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007. This popular initiative enables one million citizens of the European Union, with a minimum number of nationals from at least seven member states, to call directly on the European Commission to propose a legal act (notably a Directive or Regulation) in an area where the member states have conferred powers onto the EU level. This right to request the commission to initiate a legislative proposal puts citizens on the same footing as the European Parliament and the European Council, who enjoy this right according to Articles 225 and 241 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TEFU). The commission holds the right of initiative in the EU.[1] The first registered ECI, Fraternité 2020, was initiated on 9 May 2012 (Europe Day), although the first submitted ECI (but second registered) was One Single Tariff.

The European Communities Act 1972 (c. 68), also known as the ECA 1972, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which made legal provision for the accession of the United Kingdom as a member state to the three European Communities (EC) – the European Economic Community (EEC, the 'Common Market'), European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC, which became defunct in 2002); the EEC and ECSC subsequently became the European Union.

The Act also incorporated Community Law (later European Union Law), along with its acquis communautaire, its treaties, regulations, directives, decisions, the Community Customs Union (later European Union Customs Union), the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Common Fisheries Policy (FCP) together with judgments of the European Court of Justice into the domestic law of the United Kingdom.

In European Union law, transposition is a process by which the European Union's member states give force to a directive by passing appropriate implementation measures. Transposition is typically done by either primary legislation or secondary legislation.

The European Commission 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).