Joint Practical Guide of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission for persons involved in the drafting of European Union legislation

About this document

Jurisdiction

European Union (supranational · supranational)

Issuing body

European Parliament, Council of the European Union, European Commission

Document type

Drafting guide

Legal status

Interinstitutional guidance (implements the 1998 Interinstitutional Agreement on the quality of drafting)

Edition

2nd edition

First published

2015

Last updated

2015

Currency

Current Second edition (2015) remains the published edition; available in all EU official languages. Checked 2026-10-29.

Language(s)

English

Original format

PDF

Source URL

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/content/techleg/KB0213228ENN.pdf

Publisher page

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/3879747d-7a3c-411b-a...

Retrieved

Not yet retrieved

Licence / reuse

© European Union; reuse authorised under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU

Topics

recitals, enacting_formula, multilingual_drafting, definitions, amending_acts

Key drafting rules

• Rule 1: Legislative acts must be drafted clearly, simply, and precisely to ensure equality before the law across all 24 official languages.
• Rule 2 & ISG § 2.3: English operative articles of binding acts use 'shall' to impose obligations; French and German use the indicative present.
• Rule 10: Recitals ('Whereas') must set out concise reasons for the chief provisions of the enacting terms and must NEVER contain normative rules or political appeals.
• Rule 14: Definitions must never contain autonomous normative provisions.
• Rule 16: Avoid cascading or imprecise cross-references; never modify an act substantively merely via a cross-reference.