How to Find EU Delegated and Implementing Acts in 3 Steps

This guide explains the step-by-step process for how you can find EU delegated and implementing acts online. We use the Ecodesign Directive 2009/125/EC and its implementing measure Regulation (EU) 2019/2020 as examples.

Option A: Use guidance pages

The European Union publishes guidance pages for specific directives and regulations. These pages may also list relevant delegated or implementing acts.

For example, the “Ecodesign and Energy Labelling” guidance page provides a table that lists products covered by the Ecodesign Directive 2009/125/EC and the Energy Labelling Framework Regulation (EU) 2017/1369, and the corresponding implementing measures for each product, where they exist.

This section explains how you can use guidance pages to find delegated and implementing acts, using the ecodesign implementing measure (EU) 2019/2020 for light sources as an example.

Step 1: Find guidance pages

First of all, you will have to find a guidance page concerning the directive and regulation that you are looking for. You can search for the guidance page using the search bar on the Europa.eu website.

In this example, we found the “Ecodesign and Energy Labelling” guidance page, which is relevant for the Ecodesign Directive 2009/125/EC.

You should then look for your product (in this example, light sources), if necessary. Note that not all guidance pages list different delegated or implementing acts for different products. Here are some examples of information that you can generally find on guidance pages:

• General information and guidance related to the regulation
• Publications (e.g. implementing acts)
• Links to summary lists of harmonised standards

On the “Ecodesign and Energy Labelling” guidance page, scroll to the section titled “Implementing measures – Ecodesign and Energy labelling”. Here, you’ll find a table with four columns:

• Product category
• Specific products
• Ecodesign implementing measures
• Energy labelling implementing measures

Scroll down and you will find your product – light sources – in the table.

Step 2: Find delegated and implementing acts

The table may:

a. Provide a direct link to the implementing measure, or

b. Only show the document reference (e.g. 2019/2020) – in this case, click on the product category on the first column or the specific product in the second column to find the link.

For our example, in column 3, you can access the ecodesign implementing measure for light sources by clicking on (EU) 2019/2020.

Step 3: Browse the source document

As said, click on (EU) 2019/2020 to open the text of the regulation. To access the latest version, click on the most recent consolidated version (01/09/2021 in this case).

You shall now be able to read the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2019/2020 laying down ecodesign requirements for light sources and separate control.

Option B: Search the register of delegated and implementing acts

The European Union also maintains a Register of delegated and implementing acts. This register provides you access to planned, adopted, published and cancelled delegated and implementing acts.

This section explains how to use the register to find delegated and implementing acts. In our example, we are interested in the implementing measure (EU) 2019/2020 for light sources, so that is what we will be searching for.

Step 1: Go to the Register of delegated and implementing acts

Start by visiting the EU’s Register of delegated and implementing acts. At the top of the page, there are several menu items:

a. Delegated acts – You can search for specific delegated acts.

b. Implementing acts – You can search for specific implementing acts.

c. Legislative acts – You can search for specific legislative acts.

d. Expert group meetings – You can search for specific expert group meetings by navigating the calendar on the page.

You can also use the search bar to look up a specific delegated or implementing act, which is what we will do.

Step 2: Search for delegated or implementing acts

You can use the search bar to find the delegated or implementing act you are looking for. If you already know the document reference of the act (e.g. 2019/2020), you can search directly for it.

However, there may be cases in which you do not know the specific document reference of the delegated or implementing act that you are searching for. In this case you can still:

1. Enter the document reference of the directive or regulation related to the act (e.g. “2009/125/EC” for the Ecodesign Directive), or

2. Search for other relevant keywords, such as the name of your product (e.g. “light sources”, in our example) or directive

In this example, we want to look up the implementing measure (EU) 2019/2020 for light sources, so we typed “2019/2020” into the search bar and clicked the blue search button.

Step 3: Click on the delegated or implementing act

Assuming you searched for the document reference “2019/2020”, you should see the results featured in the above image.

Click on “Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/2020 of 1 October 2019 laying down ecodesign requirements for light sources and separate control gears pursuant to Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Commission Regulations (EC) No 244/2009, (EC) No 245/2009 and (EU) No 1194/2012 (Text with EEA relevance.)”

The resulting page contains several information:

1. “Status” bar – Shows the current stage of the act. You can see that the implementing measure (EU) 2019/2020 for light sources is “published”.

2. Implementing act details – This section lists:

• Title (this is the title of the delegated or implementing act)
• Short title
• Basic legislative act (e.g. Ecodesign Directive 2009/125/EC)
• A summary
• The policy area (e.g. Energy)
• A link to the text of the delegated or implementing act (in this case, a link to Regulation (EU) 2019/2020)
• Other information

3. Committee meetings – Lists meeting dates and locations.

4. Events – Shows the type of event, the institution responsible, and the date.

5. Documents – Lists the type of document, the institution responsible, the date, and a download button