his briefing is one in a series of 'implementation appraisals', produced by the European Parliamentar y Research S ervice (EPRS ), on the operation of existing EU legislation in practice. Each briefing focuses on a specific EU law, which is likely to be amended or reviewed, as envisaged in the European Commission's annual work programme. 'Implementation appraisals' aim to provide a succinct overview of publicly available material on the implementation, application and e