Recommendations in Europe

Recommendations and Opinions

A final category of legal measures explicitly provided for in the Treaties is recommendations and opinions. They enable the Union institutions to express a view to Member States, and in some cases to individual citizens, which is not binding and does not place any legal obligation on the addressee.

Context of Recommendations in the European Union

In recommendations, the party to whom they are addressed is called on, but not placed under any legal obligation, to behave in a particular way. For example, in cases where the adoption or amendment of a legal or administrative provision in a Member State causes a distortion of competition in the European internal market, the Commission may recommend to the State concerned such measures as are appropriate to avoid this distortion (Article 117(1), second sentence, TFEU).

More about Recommendations in the European Union

Opinions, on the other hand, are issued by the Union institutions when giving an assessment of a given situation or developments in the Union or individual Member States. In some cases, they also prepare the way for subsequent, legally binding acts, or are a prerequisite for the institution of proceedings before the Court of Justice (Articles 258 and 259 TFEU).

Other Aspects

The real significance of recommendations and opinions is political and moral. In providing for legal acts of this kind, the drafters of the Treaties anticipated that, given the authority of the Union institutions and their broader view and wide knowledge of conditions beyond the narrower national framework, those concerned would voluntarily comply with recommendations addressed to them and would react appropriately to the Union institutions’ assessment of a particular situation. However, recommendations and opinions can have indirect legal effect where they are a preliminary to subsequent mandatory instruments or where the issuing institution has committed itself, thus generating legitimate expectations that must be met.