Delegated Acts, implementing acts and the new Comitology Regulation

The hierarchy of norms was central to the Lisbon Treaty reforms. This hierarchy is crucially dependent on the divide between delegated and implementing acts, since differing regimes of oversight and accountability apply to the two types of act. The first half of this article is concerned with the tenability of this divide and it is argued that there are five problems with the Lisbon dichotomy. The focus then shifts to analysis of the new Comitology Regulation that applies to implementing acts as governed by art.291 TFEU. The difficulties with the new regime will be highlighted and the official orthodoxy to the effect that the new Regulation simplifies the previous rules will be questioned.