Collective Commentary about the New Package Travel Directive

594 COLLECTIVE COMMENTARY ABOUT THE NEW PACKAGE TRAVEL DIRECTIVE b) As a result of a commencement date of another law or other instrument. Sometimes the commencement date is linked to the production of another law or a decision by the government. As with explicit commencement dates, different parts of a law may be brought into force by different commencement instruments at different times. c) Automatically. c) A law that does not include explicit commencement dates will typically be interpreted as having come into effect at a certain time relative to its publication in the official journal (supplementary vacatio legis ). This time is usually specified in the law. Regarding the EU, this time is established by each of the Member States. In fact, each Member State has the freedom to choose its own legislative approach as regards the time frame for the entry into force of a national provision. c) For example, in the United Kingdom, until late in the eighteenth century, legal rules came into force at the start of the legislative session in which they were passed, but an Act of 1793 stipulated that future laws without explicit commencement provisions would come into effect on the day on which they received royal assent. d) Finally, it is possible for a law to come into effect through any combination of the three previous methods. 3. SUPPLEMENTARY VACATIO LEGIS PERIODS ACROSS EUROPE Supplementary vacatio legis periods vary across Europe and, in some Member States, within the Member State itself 3 . Some of these periods, counted from publication and as an example, are as follows: (1) Austria: the day after; (2) Belgium: 10 days; (3) Bulgaria: 3 days; (4) Czech Republic: 15 days; (5) France: the day after; (6) Germany: 14 days; (7) Greece: 10 days; (8) Italy: 15 days; (9) Malta: day of publication; (10) Poland: 14 days; (11) Portugal: 5 days; (12) Spain: 20 days; (13) United Kingdom 4 : at the beginning of the day on which the Act receives Royal Assent 5 . 3 See Legislation in Europe – A Comprehensive Guide for Scholars and Practitioners , edited by Ulrich Karpen and Helen Xanthaki, Bloomsbury, 2017. 4 At the time of writing this commentary, the UK is still a member of the EU. 5 Royal Assent is the method by which a country’s monarch formally approves an act of that nation’s parliament.