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EU Secondary Legislation can be organized in accordance with the
following hierarchy:
- “Legislative Acts:” documents which are adopted either
through the Ordinary Legislative Procedure; i.e., a document
initiated by the European Commission is jointly approved
by the Council of the EU and the European Parliament, or
by using the Special Legislative Procedure - the European
Commission initiative is approved by the EU Council alone.
- “Delegated Acts:” compulsory documents which may mandate
the European Commission to amend some EU laws or expand
the Commission’s competences in one or several areas but
with no right to change the purposes and the objectives of
such laws.
- “Implementing Acts” are mainly approved by the
European Commission in order to ensure the timely and
efficient implementation of EU laws. Before approving an
implementing act, the Commission is supposed to consult
with a special committee which is composed of EU member
state representatives. The EU Council and the European
89
Parliament may review such documents without the right to
prevent their implementation.

Division of Competence Between the European Union and its
Member States in the EU Law-making Process

90
The “Precedence Principle” is the main building block upon which
EU law rests. It explains that if an EU law comes into contradiction
with a national law of a member state, EU law prevails. Therefore, the
“Precedence Principle” is a key principle for understanding the EU’s
legislative setup. The principle has not been specified by any EU treaty;

89 Comitology
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/summary/glossary/comitology.html
90 Precedence of European law
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/
TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM%3Al14548#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20precedence%20
principle,which%20contradicts%20to%20European%20law.