ABSTRACT
Article 249 (formerly 189) EC provides that the Community’s political institutions, acting in their law making capacity, shall make Regulations, issue Directives and take Decisions ‘in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty’, indicative of the fact that the institutions only have ‘attributed’ powers. Article 253 (formerly 190) states that Community acts ‘shall state the reasons on which they are based’. The Council’s rules of procedure provide that every Community act which it adopts (and those it adopts jointly with the Parliament) shall contain a reference to the provisions on which the measure is based.
