Drafting EU Acts. A technical change leading to radical reform

Legislative Drafting for the EU: Transposition Techniques as a Roadmap for Better Legislation and a Sustainable EU argues that the effectiveness, legitimacy, and long-term sustainability of the European Union depend fundamentally on the quality of its legislation. The book challenges the traditional view of drafting as a purely technical activity and presents it instead as a core component of governance, directly affecting legal certainty, implementation, compliance, public trust, and the rule of law. Its central innovation is to place transposition at the heart of legislative design, treating it not merely as a Member State obligation but as the most revealing test of legislative quality. Drawing on Thornton’s methodology, the book advocates a transposition-centred, citizen-focused approach in which implementation challenges, accessibility, multilingual communication, and practical effectiveness are considered from the earliest stages of drafting. It argues that EU law should be assessed not simply by whether it is validly adopted, but by whether it works in practice, achieves its objectives, and can be implemented consistently across diverse legal systems. While recognising the institutional and political constraints of EU law-making, the book concludes that current Better Regulation initiatives create a realistic opportunity for reform through a gradual shift from a formalistic, process-driven culture towards an effectiveness-based model of legislative governance. Ultimately, it contends that better drafting leads to better legislation, better legislation to better governance, and better governance to a stronger, more trusted, and more sustainable European Union.