Legal instruments

The Treaty establishing the Benelux Economic Union has provided the Committee of Ministers with the following legal instruments :

	Decisions
	The Committee of Ministers can promulgate decisions in the fields for which it has competence - those fields are explicitly set down in the Union Treaty or the additional conventions. When the Committee of Ministers adopts a decision, it immediately becomes binding on the three governments. For a decision to be also applicable to the citizen, it must be transposed into national law.
	Conventions
	The Union Treaty is not exhaustive. For this reason, Article 19 of the Treaty provides that the Committee of Ministers may conclude additional conventions. These therefore constitute extensions of the Union Treaty. They are submitted to the national parliaments for approval in keeping with the ratification procedure applied in each of the Member States.
	Recommendations
	Approval of a recommandation by the Committee of Ministers is not legally binding, but rather a moral stance by the three governments. Recommendations are not devoid of any binding effect in that their approval implies an undertaking in view of their execution.
	Directives
	The Committee of Ministers can issue directives to the Council of Economic Union, the Committees, the General Secretariat and the joint services.