The dividing line between delegated and implementing acts, part two: the Court of Justice settles the issue in Commission v. Parliament and Council (Visa reciprocity)

The present case is one of the many inter-institutional conflicts which recently came before the Court of Justice, dealing with controversies resulting from the Lisbon Treaty. That Treaty introduced the terms “delegated act” and “implementing act”, two non-legislative acts, in Articles 290 and 291 TFEU without making a clear distinction between them. It was therefore only a matter of time before the Court would be called upon to draw the dividing line. Biocides provided the first occasion to do so, but that opportunity was not fully seized by the Court. In Visa reciprocity however, the second case on the demarcation line between delegated and implementing acts, the Court seems to have settled the issue.