Glossary · Rule layers and human rights
Primacy of EU law
Also known as: Supremacy of EU law, Primacy of Union law
German: Vorrang des Unionsrechts
The primacy of EU law is the principle, developed by the Court of Justice of the European Union since Costa v E.N.E.L. (1964), that Union law takes precedence over conflicting national law of the member states, so that national courts and authorities must leave a conflicting national provision unapplied.
- AI regulation
- EU
In one sentence
Primacy of EU law: Union law prevails over conflicting national law. How it works for the AI Act and where national constitutional courts set limits.
Example
A national rule that set different transparency duties for chatbots covered by Article 50 of the AI Act would have to be left unapplied where it conflicts with the regulation.
Explained in context
Context cards connect this term with others to answer one question. Also in British English and German.
How it applies
- Regulations apply directly. A regulation such as the EU AI Act is binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all member states (Article 288 TFEU); it needs no transposition. Directives, such as the Product Liability Directive (EU) 2024/2853, bind the member states as to the result and take effect through national law.
- Primacy is a rule of application. A conflicting national provision is not void; it is left unapplied in the case at hand. The principle is case law of the Court of Justice and is recalled in Declaration 17 annexed to the Treaty of Lisbon; it is not written in the treaties themselves.
- National constitutional reservations. Several national constitutional courts accept primacy on the basis of their own constitutions and reserve a review of their constitutional identity and of acts beyond the EU's competences. The German Federal Constitutional Court did so in its Lisbon judgment of June 30, 2009 (2 BvE 2/08), with reference to Article 23 and Article 79(3) of the Basic Law. How the two views fit together is debated; this entry states both and decides neither.
- For documentation: Name the legal order a statement comes from. A duty from the AI Act is the same in every member state; national rules can add to it only where the regulation leaves room.