Prime Minister José Rodríguez Zapatero has said he supports the European Union's tough Return Directive, which would allow illegal migrants to be held for as long as 18 months.
Yet when describing high performing bosses, we're more likely to talk about being decisive, tough and directive.
Denis MacShane, the Rotherham MP and former Labour Europe minister, said: "PIP was not adequately supervised by the French authorities and without a much tougher EU directive transposed into national law, we will see other scandals emerging, perhaps in new EU member states.
A tough new EU directive on fridge recycling has caught Britain seemingly unprepared, and led to old fridges piling up, rather than meeting the orderly end planned by the Eurocrats.
New European Union rules in the Large Combustion Plant Directive impose tough limits on emissions of nasty oxides of sulphur and nitrogen, which cause acid rain, as well as of carcinogenic particulates.
Leading doctors are calling on the government to lean on the European commission to press ahead with the promised tough new tobacco products directive, in spite of the resignation of the EU health commissioner and a growing scandal in Brussels around alleged tobacco industry influence.
The EU vehicle waste directive sets tough recycling and re-use requirements for the cars of the future.
But Koriyama went further than the government's mandates, removing the surface soil from its schools before national directives and imposing tougher inspection standards than those set by the country's education officials.
Samantha Livesey, a partner at law firm Pinsent Masons who specialises in technology law, said the directive brings in tough rules on what firms must do once they discover data has gone astray.
In their contracts, some airlines state they will allow you to purchase reasonable replacement items or perhaps (big deal) give you an "amenity kit," but recent US DOT directives have gotten tougher on airlines in such circumstances.
