Twinning Project No 00MAC01/02/006: Approximation of Legislation to the Internal Market Acquis An EU-funded project managed by the European Agency for Reconstruction LEGAL ALIGNMENT IN SLOVENIA Lessons Learnt Barbara Vrečko Office for Legislation of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia Skopje, 20 April 2005

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt2 Objective of the Presentation To stress the importance of the preparation of the national version of the EU legal acts as the basis of legal alignment To point out the differences in the legal alignment process before and after accession To present the different modes of legal alignment for the different types of EU legal acts To give some recommendations concerning the organization of the legal alignment process

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt3 National version of EU legal acts - necessary basis for legal alignment To guarantee correct and full understanding of the legal content of the EU legal acts To create the national expert and legal terminology necessary for the legal alignment process To ensure that the basis for legal alignment will not be changed in the future

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt4 Legal alignment before and after accession The difference of applicability of the acquis communautaire before and after accession

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt5 Legal alignment before accession Before accession, the need for harmonisation, transposition and implementation necessarily gives rise to adoption of national legislative measures. Since Community rules are not directly applicable in the acceding countries, the latter have to adopt national rules in order to implement Community policies and legal rules before accession. If the date of entry into force of such national rules is before accession, they have to be adopted according to the national rules in order to become applicable and operational. This means that not only those rules have to be adopted, which are necessary for the applicability of Community rules, but the Community rules (regulations, decisions) as such have to be transposed into the national law.

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt6 Legal alignment after accession When becoming a member state, regulations and decisions are directly applicable and when specific national rules are required for their implementation or transposition, as in the case of directives, references to EU acts can be made according to the rules of the acquis communautaire.

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt7 Examples: 32003L0085 Council Directive 2003/85/EC of 29 September 2003 on Community measures for the control of foot-and- mouth disease repealing Directive 85/511/EEC and Decisions 89/531/EEC and 91/665/EEC and amending Directive 92/46/EEC Article 68 National Laboratories 1. Member States shall ensure that: (a) laboratory testing for foot-and-mouth disease is carried out in laboratories authorised for such testing by the competent authorities; (b) laboratory testing to confirm the presence of foot-and-mouth disease virus or other vesicular disease viruses is carried out in accordance with Article 71 by one of the laboratories listed in Part A of Annex XI;

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt8 Before accession Slovenia had to transpose this provision of the directive by adopting a national legal act, which determined which laboratory, is authorized to carry out testing for foot-and-mouth disease. With accession and with the coming into force of the Act of Accession an amendment of the Directive came into force, which amended the Annex XI adding the name of the laboratory authorized to perform laboratory testing for foot-and-mouth disease in Slovenia.

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt9 Legal alignment before accession subject to different rules than alignment after accession those rules dependent on national legal order of individual accession state in order to be legally effective: rules to be in line with the constitution and other legal acts

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt10 Article 249 of the EC Treaty regulation, directive, decision, recommendation... can not be applied before the accession – all acts have to be transposed into national law

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt11 National rules for legal alignment before accession the same legal effect has to be achieved before accession as in member states

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt12 Legal alignment – never ending story reference to community legal acts system of keeping track of transposition and harmonisation

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt13 Reference to Community legal acts before accession Government decision on the publication of certain government and ministerial regulation in the Official gazette of the Republic of Slovenia (UR.l.RS, št. 72/00) legal acts adopted for purposes of harmonisation – special mark (*) and corresponding citation of Community legal act

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt14 Keeping track of transposition Rules of procedure of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia (UR.l.RS, št. 43/01) Compatibility statement

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt15 Alignment upon accession? adopting national legal acts transposing directives and giving effect to regulations in- line with Article 249 of the EC Treaty but with implementation postponed until accession

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt16 Different modes of transposition of directives transposition of provision by adopting or amending different national rules transposition by reference to the directive

Barbara Vrečko, Legal Alignment in Slovenia - Lessons Learnt17 Some organizational aids a central body that checks the legal adequateness of transposition and harmonization a central body that performs notification transposition tables for all acts that are being harmonized a centralized database unified rules for legal alignment

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