If a single treaty article anchors more EU Knowledge questions than any other, it is Article 288 TFEU. It defines the toolbox of Union action — what a regulation is, how a directive binds, whom a decision reaches — in language so precise that examiners can build four distractors by swapping a single property between instruments. Master the matrix below and an entire question family becomes free points.
What makes an act a legislative act is defined one article earlier, in Article 289 — covered in the ordinary legislative procedure guide. For the institutions doing the adopting, see Articles 15 and 16 TEU; for policy areas where the instrument choice matters, Article 107 (State aid), Article 191 (environment) and Article 207 (common commercial policy).
This is part of our TFEU series — see also Article 45 (free movement of workers), Article 258 (infringement), Article 267 (preliminary rulings) and Article 294 (ordinary legislative procedure).
The five instruments, as the treaty defines them
The consolidated text (OJ C 202) opens with the inventory: to exercise the Union's competences, the institutions adopt regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations and opinions. Then it defines each in turn.
Regulation. General application; binding in its entirety; directly applicable in all Member States. Three properties, all three testable. "Directly applicable" means it takes legal effect in national legal orders by itself — no transposition, no national copy-paste law. When you read that the GDPR applied identically from Dublin to Nicosia on 25 May 2018, that is Article 288 doing its work.
Directive. Binding as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is addressed — but leaving the choice of form and methods to national authorities. A directive is an obligation of outcome: Member States transpose it into their own law by a deadline. That gap between adoption and transposition is where Article 258 infringement procedures are born.
Decision. Binding in its entirety. A decision which specifies addressees — a government, an airline, a tech platform — is binding only on them. This is the targeted instrument: competition fines, State-aid rulings, sanctions designations.
Recommendations and opinions. "No binding force." Full stop. They steer without compelling — soft law, and the eternal wrong answer to "which of the following is binding?".
The trap matrix
Nearly every Article 288 question is one of these four swaps:
| The statement says… | Why it is wrong |
|---|---|
| "Directives are directly applicable in all Member States" | Direct applicability is the regulation's property; directives need transposition |
| "A regulation must be transposed into national law" | Transposition is the directive's mechanism; regulations apply by themselves |
| "A regulation binds only the Member States to which it is addressed" | That is the addressed decision; regulations have general application |
| "Recommendations are binding on those to whom they are addressed" | Recommendations and opinions have no binding force at all |
A subtler fifth: "a directive is binding in its entirety" — the treaty reserves in its entirety for regulations and decisions; a directive binds as to the result. EPSO's paraphrases live and die on exactly these prepositions.
The two distinctions the article is built on
Every question on Article 288 is, underneath, a test of two axes. Getting them straight covers the article.
Binding or not. Regulations, directives and decisions are binding. Recommendations and opinions have no binding force — the Treaty says so in the same sentence, which is why "a recommendation obliges the Member State to…" is always wrong, however reasonable it sounds.
Directly applicable or requiring transposition. A regulation has general application, is binding in its entirety and is directly applicable in all Member States — no national act is needed. A directive is binding as to the result to be achieved upon each Member State to which it is addressed, while leaving to national authorities the choice of form and methods. A decision is binding in its entirety, and where it specifies those to whom it is addressed, it is binding only on them.
The distractors are built by moving one attribute across the line: a directive said to be directly applicable, a regulation said to need transposition, a decision said to bind everyone. Check each attribute against the article's own wording rather than against the general sense of the sentence.
Two study notes worth keeping
Hierarchy is not in the list. Article 288 defines instrument types, not rank — a regulation does not "outrank" a directive. What separates acts hierarchically is whether they are legislative or non-legislative (delegated, implementing), which flows from the procedures of Article 294 and Articles 290–291, not from 288.
Direct applicability ≠ direct effect. Direct applicability (a regulation entering national law automatically) is a treaty property from Article 288. Direct effect (an individual invoking a provision before a national court) is case-law, born in Van Gend en Loos, with its own conditions — and, for directives, its own limits. Questions that blur the two are testing whether you know the difference exists.
Turn the matrix into reflexes with the EU Knowledge practice hub — free weekly questions, official sources behind every answer — and slot the topic into your plan with the EPSO Preparation 2026 complete guide.
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