Legislation in Member States of the European Union is derived from European Union Law, which consists of Directives, Regulations and Decisions.

Legislation has been developed over many years and is always subject to review and amendment. There are a number of European bodies involved in the development and scrutiny of any changes or new proposals. This is essentially a consultative process in which all interested parties have the opportunity to comment. The EU Commission takes the lead in proposing legislation for which scrutiny is provided by the EU Parliament and EU Council of Ministers backed by a network of official and unofficial trade, professional, and consumer bodies at national level.

An EU Directive is not directly applicable. Member States must introduce 
national legislation, which meets the aims of a Directive within a given timescale, usually of the order of two years from publication of a Directive in the Official Journal of the European Union.

EU Regulations are directly applicable in Member States and come into force very shortly after their publication in the Official Journal, unless otherwise specified.Decisions only apply to the Member States, institutions or individuals specified.
The European Court of Justice has also developed case law and the EU has also ratified international agreements.
The essential aim of legislation in the EU is to provide harmonised rules throughout all Member States within the Union.

Some of the rules refer to internationally agreed standards such as those developed by ISO (International Organization for Standardization).

Some regulations such as the ATP agreement is by United Nations Treaty and is agreed between signatory states. National legislation is then developed to reflect the content of the Treaty.

CRT has many years of experience working with legislation and applicable standards in the field of refrigeration across the entire distribution chain and provides an expert resource in this area.