The legal basis defines the Community's competence ratione materiae and specifies how that competence is to be exercised, namely the legislative instrument(s) which may be used and the decision-making procedure.
Tiesiskais pamats definē Kopienas kompetences ratione materiae un nosaka, kā šī kompetence ir jāizmanto, t. i., nosaka likumdošanas instrumentus, kurus var izmantot, un lēmumu pieņemšanas procedūru.