The ABC of European Union Law
Content
T h e A B C o f E u r o p e a n U n i o n l a w
r P o f e s s o r K l a u s D
i e t e r B o r c h a r d t
The ABC of European European Union law by Professor Klaus-Dieter Borchardt
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Klaus-Dieter Borchardt is a
European Union Uni on offi cial since s ince 1987. 1987. He was Deputy Head of Cabinet and then Head of Cabinet for the Commissioner for Agriculture from 2004 to 2010. He is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Würzburg, where he has taught European law since 2001.
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The ABC ABC of European Union law by Professor Klaus-Dieter Borchardt This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Union. The information and opinions contained herein are the sole responsibility of the author.
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N OT OTE E TO TH E READER
Te ABC of European Union law takes takes account of the modications made to the European reaties by the reaty reaty of Lisbon. Unless there t here is a direct citation, or the historical context demands, the articles cited refer exclusively to the This website stores data such as consolidated versions of the European reaties (Official Journal of the European cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, Union C 83 of 30 March 2010) 2010).. Te information given in this edition is correct correc t personalization, and analytics. You at settings March at2010. may changeas your any time or accept the default settings.
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Contents
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007 007
FOREWORD
009 009
FROM PARIS TO LISBON, VIA ROME, MAASTRICHT, MAASTRICHT, AMSTERDAM AND NICE
019 01 9
FUNDAMENTAL FUNDAMENT AL VALUES VALUES OF THE EUROPEAN EU ROPEAN UNION UNIO N
021 021 021 02 1
The EU as guarantor of peace Unity and equality as the recurring theme
022
The fundamental freedoms
022
The principle of solidarity
024
Respect of national identity
024
The need for security
024
The fundamental rights
029 029
THE ‘CONSTITUTION’ OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
029
The legal nature of the EU
033
The tasks of the EU
038
The powers of the EU
042
The institutions of the EU
045
Institutions: European Parliament — European Council — Council — — European Commission — Court of Justice of the European Union —
075 07 5
European Central Bank — Court of Auditors Advisory bodies: European Economic and Social Committee — —
079
The EU as a creation of law and a Community based on law
080
The legal sources of Union law
This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential siteCommittee of the Regions functionality, as well as marketing, 078 European Investment Bank personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time 079 THE LEGAL ORDER OF THE EU 079 or accept the default settings.
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081 The EU founding Treaties Treaties as the primary primary source of Union Union law — The EU
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legal instruments as the secondary source of Union law — Interna International tional agreements of the EU — General principles of law — Legal custom — Agreements between the Member States
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087
The EU’s means of action
088
Regulations — Directives — Decisions D ecisions — Recommendations Recommendations and and opinions — Resolutions, declarations and action programmes
098
The legislative process in the EU
099
Ordinary legislative procedure — Approval procedure — Simplified Simplified procedure
103 The EU system of legal protection 103 Treaty Treaty infringement proceedings proceedings — Actions Actions for annulment annulment — Complaints Complaints
for failure to act — Actions for damages — Actions by Community staff
This website stores data such as — Disputes over Union patents — Appeals procedure — Provisional legal legal cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well asprotection marketing, — Preliminary rulings personalization, and analytics. You 110settings Liability the Member States for infringements of Union law may change your at any of time or accept the 1 default Member States’ liability liability for legal acts or failure f ailure to act — Liability for for 11 settings.
infringement of Union law by the Courts Privacy Policy
113
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THE POSITION OF UNION LAW IN RELATION TO THE LEGAL LEGAL ORDER AS A WHOLE
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113
Autonomy of the EU legal order
114
Interaction between Union law and national law
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Conflict between Union law and national law Accept All Direct applicability of Union law to national law — Primacy of Union law law
over national law 125 25
CONCLUSIONS
127 27
ANNEX
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Interpretation of national law in line with Union law
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T H E A B C O F E U R O P E A N U N I O N L A W
Foreword Te legal order created by the European Union (EU) has already become an established component of our political life and society. Each year, on the
This website stores suchUnion as basis data of the reaties, thousands of decisions are taken that crucially cookies to enable essential site affect themarketing, EU Member States and the lives of their citizens. Individuals have functionality, as well as personalization, andsince analytics. You to be merely citizens of their country, town or district; they long ceased may change your settings at any time alsosettings. Union citizens. For this reason reas on alone, it it is of crucial importance importa nce that or accept the are default
they should be informed about the legal order that affects their daily lives. Yet Y et the complexities of the Union’s Union’s structure struct ure and its legal lega l order are not easy Privacy Policy Marketing
to grasp.somewhat Tis is partly due to theimplications wording of the reaties themselves, which is often obscure, with which are not easy to appreciPersonalization ate. An additional factor is the unfamiliarity of many concepts with which Analytics the reaties reaties seek to master ma ster the situation. Te following pages page s are an attempt the structure of the Union and the supporting pillars of the EuroSave to clarify Accept All pean legal order, and thus help to lessen any lack of understanding among
the citizens of the EU.
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0 07
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7 May 1948, The Hague. Personalization Winston Churchill is warmly welcomed at the Analytics Congress of Europe. The former British Prime Minister, and leader of the opposition at the time, Save chaired Accept All session of the Congress. On the inaugural 19 September 1946, he had called for European unity in his Zurich address.
T H E A B C O F E U R O P E A N U N I O N L A W
From Paris to Lisbon, via Rome, Maastricht, Amsterdam This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
and Nice
Until shortly after af ter the end of the Second World World War War our concept c oncept of the state Privacy Policyand our political life had developed almost entirely on the basis of national constitutions and laws. It was on this basis that the rules of conduct binding Marketing not only on citizen citizenss and parties part ies in our democratic states but also on the state Personalization and its organs were created. It took the complete collapse of Europe and its Analytics political and economic decline to create the conditions for a new beginning Save and giveAccept Allimpetus to the idea of a new European order. a fresh In overall terms, moves towards unication in Europe since the Second
World War have created a confusi World confusing ng mixt mixture ure of numerous and complex organisations that are difficult to keep track of. For example, the OECD (Organisation Economic Cooperation and Development), WEU (Western European for Union), NAO (North Atlantic reaty Organisation), the Council of Europe and the European Union coexist without any real links between them. Te number of member countries in these various organisations ranges ran ges from 10 (WEU) (W EU) to 47 (Council of Europe). Europe). Tis variety of organisations only acquires a logical structure if we look at their specic aims. Tey can be divided into three main groups.
FIRST GROUP:
TH E E UR URO O -A TLANTIC ORGANISATIONS
Te Euro-Atlantic organisations came into being as a result of the alliance between the United States of America and Europe after the Second World War. W ar. It was no coincidence that the rst European Europea n organisation organi sation of the post war period, the OEEC OEEC (Organi (Organisation sation for for European Economic Cooperation), Cooperation), founded in 1948, was created at the initiative of the United States. Te US Secretary of State at the time, George Marshall, called on the countries of Europe in 1947 to join forces in rebuilding their economies and promised This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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009
America n help. American help. Tis came in the form of the Marshall Marsha ll Plan, which provided provided the foundation for the rapid reconstruction of western Europe. At rst, the main aim of the OEEC was to liberalise trade between countries. In 1960, when the USA and Canada became members, a fur further ther objective objective was added, namely to promote economic progress in the t he Tird World World through throug h development aid. Te OEEC then became bec ame the OECD. In 1949, NAO was founded as a military alliance with the United States and Canada. In 1954, the Western European Union (WEU) was created to strengthen security policy cooperation between the countries of Europe. It brought together the countries that had concluded the Brussels reaty (Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and a nd the United Kingdom) with the addition of the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy. Greece, Spain and Portugal have also become members. Te WEU marked the beginnings of a security secur ity and a nd defence policy in i n Europe in 1954. However, However, its role has not developed further, since the majority of its powers have been transferred to other international institutions, notably NAO, the Council of Europe and the EU. Te WEU has retained the responsibility for collective defence, a role which has yet to be transferred to the EU.
S ECOND AND D OSCE This website stores data such as GROUP : C OUNCIL OF E UROPE AN cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well asTe marketing, feature common to the second group of European organisations is that personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time they are structured enable as many possible to participate. or accept the default settings. the same time, theretowas an awareness awa renesscountries that theseasorganisations orga nisations would not At go beyond customary international cooperation. Privacy Policy
Tese organisations include the Council of Europe, which was founded as a political institution on 5 May 1949. Its statute does not make any reference Personalization to moves towards a federation or union, nor does it provide for the transfer Analytics or merging of sovereign rights. Decisions on all important questions require Marketing
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unanimity, which means that every country has a power of veto; the same set-up is to be found in the United Nations (UN) Security Council. Te
Council of Europe is therefore designed only with international i nternational cooperation in mind. Numerous conventions have been concluded by the Council in the elds of economics, culture, social policy and law. Te most important — and best-known — of these is the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention
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on Human Rights R ights or ECHR) ECH R) of 4 November 1950. 1950. Te convention convention not only enabled a minimum standard for the safeguarding safegua rding of human rights to be laid down for the member countries; it also established a system of legal protection which enables the bodies established in Strasbourg under it (the EuroThis website stores data such as cookies to enable site peanessential Commission on Human Rights and the European Court of Human functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You Rights) to condemn violations of human rights in the member may change your settings at any time or accept the Tis defaultgroup settings. of organisations also includes the Organisation for
countries.
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), founded in 1994 as the successor to the Privacy PolicyConference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Te OSCE is bound by the principles and aims set out in the 1975 Helsinki Final Act and the 1990 Marketing Charter of Paris. Alongside measures measure s to build up up trust between bet ween the countries Personalization of Europe, these aims also include the creation of a ‘safety net’ to enable Analytics conicts to be settled by peaceful means. As events of the recent past have Save shown, Accept EuropeAllstill has a long way to go in this respect.
THIRD GROUP: E UROPEAN U NION Te third group of European organisations comprises the European Union. Te feature that is completely new in the EU and distinguishes it from the usual type of international association of states is that the Member States have ceded some of their sovereign rights to the EU and have conferred on the Union powers to act independently. In exercising these powers, the EU is able to issue sovereign sovereign acts which wh ich have the same force as laws in individual states. Te foundation stone of the European Union was laid by the then French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman in his declaration of 9 May 1950, in which he put forward the plan he had worked out with Jean Monnet to bring Europe’s coal and steel industries together to form a European Coal and Steel Community. Tis would, he declared, constitute a historic initiative for an ‘organised and vital Europe’, which was ‘indispensable for civilisation’ and without which the ‘peace of the world could not be maintained’. Te ‘Schuman Plan’ nally became a reality with the conclusion of the founding reaty of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) by the six founding States (Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) Net herlands) on 18 18 April 195 951 1 in Paris Pari s (reaty of Paris) and its entry This website stores data such as intoessential force on cookies to enable site23 July 1952. Tis Community was established for a period functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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TSave H E A B C O F EAccept U R O P EAll AN UNION LAW
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of 50 years, and was ‘integrated’ into the European Community when its founding reaty expired on 23 July 2002. A further f urther developm de velopment ent came some years later with the reaties of Rome of 25 March 1957, which created the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom); these began their work when the reaties entered into force on 1 January 1958. Te creation of the European Union by means of the reaty of Maastricht marked a further step along the path to the political unication of Europe. Although the reaty was signed in Maastricht on on 7 February 1992, 1992, a number of obstacles in the ratication process (approval by the people of Denmark only after a second referendum; legal action in Germany Ger many to have Parliament’s Parliament’s approval of the reaty reaty declared decla red unconstitutional) meant mea nt that it did not enter into force until 1 Novembe Novemberr 1993. 1993. Te reaty reaty referred to itself as a s ‘a new stage in the process proces s of creating an a n ever closer union among a mong the peoples of Europe’. Europe’. It contained the instrument establishing the European Union, although it did not bring this process to completion. It was a rst step on the path leading ultimately to a European constitutional system. Further development came in the form of the reaties of Amsterdam and
This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential Nice,sitewhich entered into force on 1 May 1999 and 1 February 2003. Te functionality, as well as marketing, aim of You these reforms was to preserve the EU’s capacity for effective action in personalization, and analytics. may change your settings at any enlarged time a Union from 15 15 to 27 or more members. Te two reaties therefore or accept the default settings.
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focused on institutional reforms and, compared with previous reforms, the political will to deepen European integration in Nice was relatively weak.
Te subsequent criticism from several quarters resulted in the start of a dePersonalizationbate on the future of the EU and its institutional set-up. As a result, on Analytics 5 December 2001 in Laeken (Belgium), the Heads of State or Government adopted a Declaration on the Future of the European Union, in which the Save Accept All EU undertook to become more democratic, transparent and effective and Marketing
to open the road to a constitution. Te rst step to achieving this goal was
taken by setting set ting up a European Europe an convention, chaired by the former President of France, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, with the remit of drafting a European constitution. On 18 July 2003 the Chairman, on behalf of the convention, officially submitted the draft of the reaty drawn up by the convention to the President of the European Council. Tis draft was adopted, with certain amendments, by the Heads of State or Government on 17 and 18 July in
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Brussels after the t he accession of the 10 new Member States on 1 May 2004 and the European Parliament elections in mid-June 2004.
This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site Te constitution was intended to turn the European Union and the Eurofunctionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and Community analytics. You as we knew them into a new, single European Union pean may change your settings at any time or accept the based default settings. on a single Constitutional reaty. Only the European Atomic Energy
Community would continue to exist as a separate Community — although Privacy Policyit would continue to be closely associated with the European Union. Marketing However,
this attempt at a constitution failed in the ratication process. Personalization After Af ter the initial votes votes were positive in 13 of the 25 25 Member States, the reaty Analytics was rejected in referendums in France (54.68 % agai against, nst, from f rom a turnout t urnout of 69.34 %) and the Netherlands (61.7 % against, from a turnout of 63 %). Save Accept All Following a period of reection of almost two years, a new package of re-
forms was launched in the rst half of 2007. Tis reform package represented a move away from the idea of a European constitution under which all existing ex isting reaties would be revoked and replaced by a single text called the ‘reaty establishing a Constitution for Europe’. Instead, a Reform reaty was drawn dr awn up, which, like the reaties of Maastricht, Maastr icht, Amsterdam Amsterda m and Nice before it, made fundamental changes to the existing EU reaties in order to strengthen the EU’s capacity to act within and outside the Union, increase its democratic legitimacy and enhance enha nce the efficiency of EU action overall. In line with tradition, this Reform reaty was called the reaty of Lisbon. Te reaty was drafted unusually quickly, chiey due to the fact that the Heads of State or Government themselves set out in detail in the conclusions of the meeting of the European Council of 21 and 22 June 2007 in Brussels how and to what extent the changes negotiated at the Intergovernmental Conference of 2004 were to be incorporated into the existing reaties. Teir approach was unusual in that they did not limit themselves to general directions to be implemented by an Intergovernmental Conference, but themselves drew up the structure structu re and content content of the changes to be made, and indeed often set out the exact wording of a provision. Te main points of contention were the delimitation of competences between the Union and the Member States, the future of the common foreign and security policy, the
This website stores data such as national parliaments in the integration process, the incorpnew role of the cookies to enable essential site oration the Charter of Fundamental Rights into Union law and possible functionality, as well as of marketing, personalization, and analytics. progress in theYouarea of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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T H E A B C O F E U R O P E A N U N I O N L A W
As a result, resu lt, the Intergovernmen Intergovernmental tal Conference conven c onvened ed in i n 2007 20 07 had little room for manoeuvre and was only empowered to implement the required changes technically. Te work of the Intergovernmental Conference was completed by the 18 and 19 October 2007, and obtained the political approval of the European Council, which was meeting informally in Lisbon at the same time. ti me. Finally, the reaty reaty was wa s formally signed sig ned by the Heads of State or Government of the 27 Member States of the EU on 13 December 2007 in Lisbon. However, the ratication process for this reaty proved extremely difficult. Although the Lisbon reaty, unli unlike ke the reaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, was successfully ratied in France and the Netherlands, it initially fell at the hurdle of a rst referendum in Ireland on 12 June 2008 (53.4 % against, agai nst, in a turnout of 53.1 53.1 %). %). Only after a number of legal lega l assurances assu rances on the (limited) scope of the new reaty were Irish citizens called to vote in a second referendum on the Lisbon reaty in October 2009. Tis time the reaty received the broad support of the Irish population (67.1 % for, in a This website stores data such asof 59 %). Te success of the referendum in Ireland also opened the turnout cookies to enable essential site way for ratication of the Lisbon reaty in Poland Poland and the Czech Republic. functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You President Kaczyński had made signature of the instrument of In Poland, may change your settings at any time ratication raticat ion dependent dependent on a favourable outcome in the Irish Ir ish referendum. Te or accept the default settings. Czech President, Václav Klaus, also initially wanted to wait for the Irish Privacy Policy
referendum, but then made his signature of the instrument of ratication dependentt on a guarantee dependen gua rantee that the t he ‘Beneš decrees’ of 194 1945, 5, which disallowed disa llowed Marketing Personalizationclaims to land in areas of the Czech Republic that were formerly German, would remain unaffected unaffec ted by the Lisbon reaty, and in part particular icular the Charter Analytics of Fundamental Rights incorporated into the EU reaty. Once a solution Save Accept All had been found to this demand, the Czech President signed the instrument of ratication on 3 November 2009. Tus, Tus, the ratication rati cation process was wa s com-
pleted in the last of the 27 Member States, and the reaty of Lisbon could enter into force on 1 December Dec ember 2009. Te reaty of Lisbon merges the European Union and the European Community into a single European Union. Te word ‘Community’ is replaced throughout by the word ‘Union’. Te Union replaces and succeeds the European Community. However, Union law is still shaped by the following three reaties.
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This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site Treaty on European Union functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your Te settings at anyon time reaty reaty Eu ropean Union European or accept the default settings.
(EU reaty — ‘EU’) has been be en completely restructured into the following six titles: Common provisions (I), Provisions on democratic principles (II), Provisions Privacy Policy on institutions (III), Provisions on enhanced cooperation (IV), Marketing General provisions on the Union’s Union’s external externa l action and specic spe cic Personalization provisions on the common foreign and security policy (V) and Analytics Final provisions (VI). Save
Accept Treaty on All the Functioning of the European Union
Te reaty on the Functioning of the European Union ( FEU ) has been developed from the reaty establishing the European Community. It has more or less the same structure as the EC reaty. Te main changes concern the external action of the EU and the introduction of new chapters, in particular on energy policy, police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, space, sport and tourism. Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community C ommunity Te reaty reaty establishing e stablishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC reaty — ‘Euratom reaty’) has been amended at different stages. In each case, ca se, the specic amendments have been made in protocols annexed to the reaty of Lisbon.
Te EU and the FEU have the same legal standing. Tis explicit legal clarication clari cation is necessar neces saryy, since the new title of the former EC reaty reaty (‘reaty on the Functioning of the EU’) and the levels of regulation in both reaties give the impression that the EU is a sort of constitution or basic treaty, whilst the t he FEU is intended as an implementing implementing treaty treat y. However, However, the EU and the FEU are not constitutional in nature. Te terms used in the reaties overall reect this change of approach from the former draft constituThis website stores data such as cookies to enable site tion.essential Te expression ‘constitution’ is no longer used; the ‘EU foreign minisfunctionality, as well as marketing, ter’and is referred to as the ‘High Representative of the Union for Foreign Foreign Affairs Aff airs personalization, analytics. You may change your at any time and the denitions of ‘law’ and ‘framework law’ have andsettings Security Policy’; or accept the default settings. been abandoned. Te amended reaties also contain no articles referring to Privacy Policy Marketing
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the the EU, laid suchdown as theinag, anthem motto. Te primacy of EU symbols law is notofexplicitly a treaty treat y, but or is derived, as before, from the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and this case-law cas e-law is referred to in an explanatory declaration. Te reaty of Lisbon also abandons the EU’s ‘three pillars’. Te rst pillar, consisting essentially of the single market and the EC policies, is merged with the second pilla pillar, r, consistin consistingg of of the common foreign foreign and securit securityy policy, policy, and the third pillar, covering police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. However, the special procedures relating to the common foreign and security policy, including European defence, remain in force; the Intergovernmental Conference declarations attached to the reaty underline the special nature of this policy area and the particular responsibilities of the Member States in this respect. Te EU currently has 27 Member States. Tese comprise rst of all the six founder This website stores data such as members of the EEC, namely Belgium, Germany (including the territory cookies to enable essential site of the former GDR following the unication of the two Germafunctionality, as well asnies marketing, on 3 October 1990), France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. personalization, and analytics. You Onat1anyJanuary 1973, Denmark (now excluding Greenland, which in a may change your settings time or accept the default settings. referendum in February 1982 voted by a narrow majority not to remain Privacy Policy Marketing
in the EC), Ireland and the United Kingdom joined the Community; Nor way’ss planned accession was rejected in a referendum way’ referendum in October 1972 (with (with 53.5 53 .5 % E Cofmembership). EC membership) Te ‘enlargement the south’ wa s begun theagainst accession Greece on 1. January 1981 and to 198 com completed pleted onwas 1 January
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1986 with the accession of Spain and Portugal. Te next enlargement took place on 1 January Januar y 1995 1995 when Austria, Austria , Finland and a nd Sweden joined the EU. Accept All In Norway, a referendum referendum led to a repeat of the t he outcome 22 years before, with a small majority (52.4 %) against Norwegian membership of the EU. On
1 May 2004 the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the east and central European States of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia and the two Mediterranean Mediterranea n islands of Cyprus and a nd Malta joined the EU. Only a little over two years later, the enlargement to the east was completed for the time being with the accession of Bulgaria and Romania on 1 January 2007. Tis extended the number of Member States from 15 to 27 and increased the EU population by around 90 million, bringing it to 474 million. Tis historic enlargement of the EU is the centrepiece of a long process leading to the reunication of a Europe that had been divided for over half a century by the Iron Curtain and the cold war. Above all, it 01 6
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This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, reects the desire personalization, and analytics. You to bring may change your at anycontinent. time edsettings European or accept the default settings.
peace, stability and economic prosperity to a uni-
Further accession negotiations are under way, notably with urkey, which Privacy Policy
submitted its application for membership on 14 April 1987. However, relabetween the EU and urkey go back further than this. As long ago as 1963, urkey urkey and a nd the EEC entered into an association a ssociation agreement ag reement which rePersonalization ferred to the prospect prospec t of membership. In 1995, 1995, a customs union was wa s formed Analytics and, in Helsinki Helsink i in December 1999 1999,, the European Council Counci l decided to grant Save All urkey Accept officially the status of an accession candidate. Tis was a reection of the belief that the country had the basic features of a democratic system, tions Marketing
although it still displayed serious shortcomings shortcoming s in terms of human rights and the protection of minorities. In December 2004, on the basis of the Commission’s recommendation, the European Council nally gave the go-ahead for the opening of accession negotiations with urkey; these negotiations have been ongoing since October 2005. Te ultimate aim of these negotiations is accession, but there is no guarantee that this aim will be achieved. Tere is also agreement within the EU that accession is not possible before 2014. Any such accession must be thoroughly prepared to allow for smooth integration and to avoid endangering the achievements of over 50 years of European integration. Other candidates for accession are Croatia, where the path to the start of accession negotiations was cleared in October 2005, and the former Yugoslav Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which was wa s given official candic andidate country status in December 2005 without an actual date for the start of negotiations being set. Iceland submitted an application for membership on 17 July 2009. On 24 February 2010 the European Commission recommended that the Council open accession negotiations with Iceland. Te EU is now also working resolutely for new enlargements in the western Balkan region. It has decided to apply the same methodology to the western Balkan countries as it used previously for the new Member States. An extended stabilisation and association process therefore remains the overall framework forasthe progression of the countries of the western Balkans, all This website stores data such cookies to enable the essential way to site their accession. A rst important step in this direction is the functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You ‘European partnerships’ established with Albania, may change your settings at any time and Serbia and Montenegro, including Kosovo (1). or accept the default settings.
Bosnia and Herzegovina Te role of the European
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partnerships, updated as necessary, is to assist the western Balkan countries in preparing for membership within a coherent framework and in developing action plans with timetables t imetables of reforms and details in terms of the means by which they intend to address the requirements requi rements for further integration into the EU. Provision has also been made for withdrawal from the EU. A withdrawal clause has been incorporated into the EU reaty, allowing a Member State to leave. Tere are no conditions for such a withdrawal from the Union; all that is required is an agreement between the EU and the Member State concerned on the arrangements for its withdrawal. withdrawa l. If such agreement cannot be reached, the withdrawal becomes effective without any agreement two years after the notication of the intention to withdraw. However, there is no provision for expulsion of a Member State from the EU for serious and persistent breaches of the reaties.
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T H E
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Article 2 of the TEU (values (values of the Union) Union)
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The Union is founded on the t he values of respect resp ect for fo r human dignity, digni ty, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, non-discriminatio n, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.
Article 3 of the TEU (aims (aims of the Union) Union) 1. The Union’s aim is to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples. 2. The Union shall offer its citizens an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers, frontier s, in which whic h the free fre e movement of persons p ersons is ensured in conjunction with appropriate measures with respect to external border controls, asylum, immigration and the prevention and combating of crime. 3. The Union shall establish an internal market. It shall work for the sustainable development of Europe based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and a high level of This website stores data such and as improvement of the quality of the environment. It shall protection cookies to enable essential site promote scientific and technological advance. functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You shall combat social exclusion and discrimination, and shall promote may change your It settings at any time or accept the default settings.
social justice and protection, equality between women and men,
solidarity between generations and protection protection of the rights of the child. Privacy Policy Marketing
It shall promote economic, social and territorial cohesion, and solidarity among Member States.
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It shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe’s cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced. 4. The Union shall establish an economic and monetary union whose currency is the euro. 5. In its relations with the wider world, the Union shall uphold and promote its values and interests and contribute to the protection of its citizens. It shall contribute to peace, security, the sustainable development develop ment of the Earth, solidarity and mutual respect among peoples, free and fair trade, eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights, in particular the rights of the child, as well as to the strict observance and the development of international law, including respect for the This website stores data such as principles of the United Nations Charter. cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, […] personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
Te foundations of a united Europe were laid on fundamental ideas and Privacy Policy values to which the Member States also subscribe and which are translated into practical reality by the Community’s operational institutions. Tese Marketing Personalizationare lasting peace, unity, equality, freedom, solidarity and security. Te EU’s avowed aims are to safeguard the principles of liberty, democracy and the Analytics Save
rule of law which are shared by all the Member States, and to protect funAccept All damental and human rights. Tese values are also those to be aimed for by states wishing to join the EU in the future. In addition, penalties can
be applied to any Member State which seriously and persistently breaches these values and principles. If the Heads of State or Government, acting on a proposal by one third of the Member States or by the Commission, and after obtaining the assent of the European Parliament, declare that a serious and persistent breach of the EU’s underlying values and principles has occurred, the Council may, acting by a qualied majority, suspend certain of the rights deriving from f rom the application of the EU reaty reaty and a nd the reaty reaty on the Functioning of the European Union to the Member State in question, including voting rights in the Council. On the other hand, the obligations on the Member State in question under u nder the reaties reaties continue c ontinue to be binding. Particular account is taken of the effects on the rights and obligations of citizens and enterprises.
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EU U AS GUARANTOR OF PEACE Privacy PolicyTHE E Marketing
Tere is no greater motivation for European unication than the desire for
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In that theat last century, two States world of wars wagedUnion. in Europe countries th are now Member the were European Tus,between a policy for Europe means Accept All at the same time a policy for peace, and the establishment of the EU simultaneously created the centrepiece of a framework for peace
in Europe that renders a war between the Member States impossible. Fifty years of peace in Europe are proof of this. Te more European States that join the EU, EU, the stronger this framework fra mework of peace will wi ll become. Te last two enlargements of the EU, including 12 predominantly east and central European States, have made a major contribution in this respect.
U NITY AN D EQUALITY AS TH E RECURRING THEME Unity is the t he recurring theme. Te present-day present-day problems can be mastered ma stered only if European countries c ountries move forwa forward rd along the path that leads them to unity. Many people take the view that without European integration, without the European Union, it would not be possible to secure peace (both in Europe and worldwide), democracy, law and justice, economic prosperity and social security, sec urity, and guarantee guar antee them for the future. Unemployment, Unemployment, inadequate growth and environmental pollution have have long ceased ceas ed to be merely national problems, probl ems, and they cannot be solved at national level. It is only in the context c ontext of the EU that a stable economic order can be established and only through joint European efforts that we can secure an international economic policy polic y that improves the performance of the European economy and contributes contributes to social justice. Without internal cohesion, Europe cannot assert its political and economic independence independence from the rest of the world, win back its inuence This website stores such as on thedata international stage and regain regai n its role in world politics. politics. cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, Unity can endure personalization, and analytics. You only where equality is the rule. may change your at any at time maysettings be placed a disadvantage or discriminated or accept the default settings.
No citizen of the Union against because of his or her nationality. Discriminatory treatment on the grounds of gender, race, ethnic origin, orig in, religion or beliefs, disability, dis ability, age or sexual orientation must be Privacy Policy combated. Te Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Europea n Union goes Marketing still furt f urther. her. Any discrimination discri mination based on any ground such as colour, colour, genetic Personalization features, language, political or any other opinion, membership of a national Analytics minority, property or birth is prohibited. In addition, all Union citizens Save
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are equal before the law. As far as the Member States are concerned, the principle of equality means that no State has precedence over another, and natural differences such as size, population and differing structures must be addressed only in accordance with the principle of equality.
THE FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS Freedom results directly from peace, unity and equality. Creating a larger entity by linking 27 States affords at the same time freedom of movement beyond national frontiers. Tis means, in particular, freedom of movement This website stores data such for as workers, freedom of establishment, freedom to provide services, cookies to enable essential site free movement of goods and free movement of capital. Tese fundamental functionality, as well as marketing, freedoms personalization, and analytics. You guarantee business people freedom of decision-making, workers may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
freedom to choose placevariety of work and consumers freedom of choice between the greatesttheir possible of products. Freedom of competition permits businesses to offer their goods and services serv ices to an incomparably wider Privacy Policy circle of potential customers. cu stomers. Workers Workers can seek employment and change job Marketing according to their own wishes and interests throughout the entire territory Personalization of the EU. EU. Consumers can ca n select the cheapest and best products from the far Analytics greater range of goods on offer that results from increased competition. Save
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However, transitional rules still apply in some cases to citizens of the Member States which joined the EU on 1 May 2004 and 1 January 2007. Te
Acces sion reaty Accession reaty contained exceptions e xceptions in part particular icular with regard re gard to the free movement of workers, the freedom to provide services and the freedom of establishment. As a result, the ‘old’ EU Member States can restrict the free movement of workers who are nationals of the ‘new’ Member States for a period of up to seven years by making access to employment subject to national or bilateral bilatera l law.
THE PRINCIPLE OF SOLIDARITY Solidarity is the necessary corrective to freedom, for inconsiderate exercise of freedom is always at the expense of others. For this reason, if a Community framework is to endure, it must also always recognise the solidarity of its members as a fundamental principle, and share both the advantages, i.e. prosperity, and the burdens equally and fairly among its members.
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This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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Accept All 1 to 3 June Jun e 1955, Taormina Taormina (Italy). Joseph Bech, Paul-Henri Paul-H enri Spaak and Johan Willem Beyen in the garden
of the hotel where they were staying during the Messina Conference. These three Foreign Affairs Ministers drew up the Benelux Memorandum which was discussed by the Six during this conference.
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R ESPECT OF NATIONAL IDENTITY Te national identities of the Member States are respected. Te idea is not for the Member States to be ‘dissolved’ ‘di ssolved’ into the EU, but rather for them to contribute their own particular qualities. It is precisely this variety of national characteristics and identities that lends the EU its moral authority, which in turn is used for the benet of the EU as a whole.
THE NEED FOR R SECURITY This website stores data such as FO cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, Alll of these Al t hese funda fundamental mental values are ultimately dependent on securit securityy. Parpersonalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any ticularly ticula rly time since the attack at tack on the USA of 11 September September 2001, 2001, the ght against ag ainst or accept the default settings. terrorism and organised crime in Europe has also been in the spotlight again. agai n.
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Police and judicial cooperation continues to be consolidated, and protection of the EU’s external borders intensied.
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security in the European context also means the social security of all citizens living in the EU, job security and secure general economic and business conditions. In this respect, the EU institutions are called upon to Accept All make it possible for citizens and a nd businesses to work out their future f uture by creat-
ing the conditions on which they depend.
THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS Te fundamental values and concepts at the heart of the EU also include the fundamental rights of individual citizens of the Union. Te history of Europe has for more than 200 years been characterised char acterised by continuing efforts to enhance the protection of fundamental rights. Starting with the declarations of human and civil rights in the 18th century, fundamental rights and civil liberties have now become rmly anchored in the constitutions of most civilised states. Tis is especially true of the EU Member States, whose legal systems are constructed on the basis of the rule of law and respect for the dignity, freedom and the right to self-development of the individual. Tere are also numerous international conventions on the protection of human rights, among which the European Convention on Human Rights is of very great signicance.
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not until 1969 that the Court of Justice established a body of caselaw to serve as a framework of fundamental rights. Tis was because in the Accept All
early years theit Court hadconcern rejecteditself all actions relating to basic rights the grounds that need not with matters falling within theon scope
of national constitutional law. Te Court had to alter its position not least because it was itself the embodiment of the primacy of Union law and its precedence over national law; this primacy can only be rmly established if Union law is sufficient in itself to guarantee the protection of basic rights with the same legal lega l force as under the national constitutions. Te starting point in this case-law was the Stauder judgment, judgment, in which the point at issue was the fact that a recipient of welfare benets for war victims regarded the requirement that he give his name when registering for the purchase of butter at reduced prices at Christmas time as a violation of his human dignity and the principle of equality. Although the Court of Justice came to the conclusion, in interpreting the Community provision, that it was not necessa necessary ry for recipients recipients to give their name so that, in fact, consideration of the question of a violation of a fundamental right was superuous, it declared nally that the general fundamental principles of the Community legal order, which the Court of Justice had to safeguard, safegu ard, included respect for fundamental rights. Tis was the rst time that the Court of Justice recognised the existence of an EU framework of fundamental rights of its own. Initially, the Court developed its safeguards for fundamental rights from a number of provisions in the reaties. Tis is especially the case for the numerous bans on discrimination which, in specic circumstances, address This website stores data such as particular aspects of the general principle of equality. Examples are the procookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, hibition of any discrimination on grounds of nationality (Article (A rticle 18 FEU), personalization, and analytics. You preventing people being treated differently on the grounds of gender, race, may change your settings at any time or accept the ethnic default settings. origin, religion or beliefs, disability, age or sexual orientation (Article 10 FEU), the equal treatment of goods and persons in relation Privacy Policyto the four basic freedoms (freedom of movement of goods — Article 34 FEU; freedom of movement of persons — Article 45 FEU; the right of Marketing establishment Personalization
— Article 49 FEU; and freedom to provide services — Article 57 FEU), freedom of competition (Article 101 et seq. FEU) and Analytics equal pay for men and women (Article 157 FEU). Te four fundamental Save freedoms Accept AllCommunity, which guarantee the basic freedoms of profesof the sional life, can also be regarded as a Community fundamental right to free-
dom of movement movement and freedom to choose and a nd practise a profession. Explicit
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guar antees are also guarantees a lso provided for the right of association (Article (A rticle 153 153 FEU), the right to petition (Article 24 FEU) and the protection of business and professional secrecy (Article 339 FEU). Te Court of Justice has steadily developed and added to these initial attempts at protecting fundamental rights through Community law. It has done this by recognising and applying general legal principles, drawing on the concepts that are a re common to the constitutions of the Member States and This website stores data such as on the international conventions on the protection of human rights rig hts to whose cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well asconclusion marketing, the Member States have been party part y. Prominent among the latter personalization, and analytics. You is the European Convention on Human Rights, which helped to shape the may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings. substance of fundamental rights in the Union and the mechanisms for their protection. On this basis, the Court has recognised a number of freedoms Privacy Policy as basic rights secured by Community law: right of ownership, freedom to engage in an occupation, the inviolability of the home, freedom of opinion, Marketing Personalizationgeneral rights of personality, the protection of the family (e.g. family members’ rights to join a migrant migra nt worker), worker), economic freedom, freedom of religion Analytics or faith, as well as a number of fundamental procedural rights such as the Save Accept All right to due legal process, the principle of condentiality of correspondence between lawyer and client (known as ‘privileged communications’ in the
common-law countries), the ban on being punished twice for the same offence, or the requirement to provide justication for an EU legal act. One particularly important principle principle regularly regula rly invoked invoked in legal lega l disputes is the principle of equal treatment. Put simply, this means that like cases must be treated alike, unless un less there is some objectively justiable justiable ground for distinguishing them. But the Court of Justice has held, contrar contraryy to international custom, that this principle does not preclude nationals and home-produced goods from being subjected to stricter requirements than citizens or products from other Member States. Tis ‘reverse discrimination’ is the inevitable result of the limited scope of the Union’s powers and cannot be remedied by Community law. Under the Court’s judgments issued up to now, now, the rules rule s requiring liberalilibera lisation, which ow from the fundamental freedoms, apply only to cross-border trade. Rules regulating regu lating the production and marketing of home-produced home-produced goods or the legal status of nationals in their own Member State are affected by Community law only if the Union has introduced harmonisation measures.
Te jurisprudence of the Court of Justice has given the Union an extensive body of quasi-constitutional law. In practical terms, the principle of propor-
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All tionalityAccept is foremost among these. What it means is that the objectives pursued and the means deployed must be weighed up and an attempt made to
keep them in proper balance so that the citizen is not subjected to excessive burdens. Among the other fundamental funda mental principles underlying Union law are the general principles of administrative law and the concept of due process: legitimate expectations must be protected, retroactive provisions imposing burdens or withdrawing legitimately acquired advantages are precluded and the right to due legal process — natural justice is the traditional term for this — must be secured in the administrative administrat ive procedures of of the Commission and the judicial procedures of the Court of Justice. Particular Particula r value is also attached to greater transparency, which means that decisions should be taken as openly as possible, and as closely as possible to the citizen. An important aspect of this transparency tra nsparency is that th at any EU citizen or legal person registered in a Member State may have access to Council or Commission documents. All grants and a nd subsidies from the EU budget budget must also be disclosed disc losed to natural or legal persons by means of databases accessible to every Union citizen. With all due respect respec t for the achievements of the Court of Justice in the development of unwritten fundamental rights, this process of deriving ‘European fundamental rights’ had a serious disadvantage: the Court of Justice was conned to the particular case in point. It was therefore unable to develop fundamental rights from the general legal principles for all areas in which this appeared necessary or desirable. Nor was it able to elaborate the scope of and the limits to the protection of fundamental rights as generally and distinctively as This website stores data such as was essential necessary. necessa ry. As A s a result, the EU institutions i nstitutions could not asses a ssesss with enough cookies to enable site functionality, as well as marketing, precision whether they were in danger of violating violatin g a fundamental funda mental right or not. personalization, and analytics. You Norsettings could atany may change your anyUnion time citizen who was affected judge without further effort in or accept the every default case settings. ca se whether one of his or her fundamental rights had been infringed. For a long time, EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights was regarded as a way out of this situation. In its Opinion 2/94, Marketing however, the Court held that, as the law stood, the EU had no competence Personalization to accede to the convention. Te Court stated that respect for human rights Analytics was a condition for the lawfu lawfulness lness of EU acts. However However,, accession to the would entail a substantial change in the present Union system Save convention Accept All for the protection of human rights in that it would involve the EU entering
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into a distinct international institutional system as well as integration of all the provisions of the conven c onvention tion into the Union legal order order.. Te Court Cour t took the view that such a modication of the system for the protection of human
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rights in the EU, with equally fundamental funda mental institutional implications for the Union and for the Member States, would be of constitutional signicance and would therefore go beyond the scope of the t he dispositive powers provided for in Article 352 FEU. Te EU’s accession to the convention was therefore specically specica lly provided for in Article A rticle 6(2) of the EU reaty. reaty. However, However, the reaty of Lisbon Li sbon made a further, fur ther, decisive step towards the creation of a comThis website stores data such as monsite constitutional law for the EU and put the protection of fundamental cookies to enable essential functionality, as well asrights marketing, in the EU on a new footing. Te new article on fundamental rights personalization, and analytics. You in the EU reaty (Article 6 EU) refers to the European Union’s Charter may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings. of Fundamental Rights, declaring it to be binding for the actions of the EU institutions and the Member States, insofar as they apply and implement Privacy Policy Union law. Marketing PersonalizationTis Analytics Save
Char ter of Fundamental Rights Charter Rig hts is based on a draft previously drawn up by a convention of 16 representatives of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States and of the President of the European Europea n Commission, Commis sion, 16 16 Accept All of the European Parliament, and 30 members of national parliaMembers ments (two (two from each eac h of the then Member States) under the chairmanship chairm anship of
Professor Roman Herzog, and was solemnly proclaimed proclai med to be the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights’ by the Presidents of the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission on 7 December 2000. During the negotiations on a European constitution, this Charter of Fundamental Rights was revised and made an integral part of the reaty establishing a Constitution for Europe of 29 October 2004. Following the failure of the reaty, reaty, the Charter of Fundamental Fundamental Rights R ights was again ag ain solemnly proclaimed as the ‘European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights’, this time as a separate separ ate instrument, by the Presidents of the European Parliament, Parlia ment, the Council and the European Commission C ommission on 12 December December 2007 in Strasbourg. Te EU reaty refers to this version of the charter in binding form. Tis makes the Charter of Fundamental Rights legally binding and also establishes the applicability of fundamental rights in Union law. However, this does not apply to Poland Poland and the t he United Kingdom. Tese two Member States were unable, or did not wish, to adopt the system of fundamental rights of the charter, as they were concerned that they would be obliged to surrender or at least change certain national positions concerning, for example, religious issues or the treatment of minorities. Tey are therefore not bound by the fundamental rights of the charter, but by the case-law of the Court of Justice, as previously. This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site 0 2 8as well as marketing, functionality, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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The con onsti stitu tuti tion on of the European Union Every social organisation has a constitution. A constitution is the means by which the structu structure re of of a political political system is dened, i.e. i.e. the relationship of of the various parts to each other and to the whole is specied, the common objectives are dened and the rules for making binding decisions are laid down. Te constitution of the EU, as an association of states to which quite specic speci c taskss and functions have been allotted, must thus be able to answer the same task questions as the constitution of a state. In the Member States the body politic is shaped by two overriding principles: the rule of law and democracy. All the activities of the Union, if they are to be true to the fundamental requirements of law and democracy, must therefore have both legal and democratic legitimacy: the elements on which it is founded, its structure, structu re, its powers, the way it operates, the position of the Member States and their institutions, and the position of the citizen. This website stores data such as Following reaty establishing est ablishing a Constitution Const itution for Europe of of cookies to enable essentialthe site failure of the reaty functionality, as well as marketing, 29 October 2004, the EU ‘constitution’ is still not laid down in a comprepersonalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time hensive constitutional document, as it is in most of the constitutions of its or accept the default settings.
Member States, but arises from the totality of rules and fundamental values by which those in authority perceive themselves to be bound. Tese rules Privacy Policy are to be found partly in the European reaties or in the legal instruments Marketing produced by the Union institutions, but they also rest partly on custom. Personalization Analytics Save
Accept All THE LEGAL NATURE OF TH E EU
Any consideration c onsideration of the legal nature of the EU must start star t by looking at its
characteristic features. Although the EU’s legal nature was set out in two precedent-settin precedent -settingg judgments of the Court of Justice in 1963 and 1964 1964 relating to the then European Economic Community, the judgments are still valid for the European Union in its current form.
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VAN GEND & LOOS
In this legal dispute, the Dutch transport company Van Gend & Loos led an action against the Netherlands customs authorities for imposing an import duty on a chemical product from Germany which was higher than duThis website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site earlier imports. Te company considered this an infringement of ties on functionality, as well as marketing, Article Ar ticle You 12 of the EEC EE C reaty, reaty, which prohibits the introduction i ntroduction of new impersonalization, and analytics. may change your settings any timeor any increase in existing customs duties between the Member portat duties or accept the default settings. States. Te court in the Netherlands then suspended the proceedings and referred the matter to the Court of Justice for clarication as regards the Privacy Policy scope and legal implications of the abovementioned article of the reaty Marketing establishing the EC. Personalization Analytics Save
Te Court of Justice used this case as an opportunity to set out a number of observations of a fundamental nature concerning concern ing the legal nature of the EU. Accept All In its judgment, the Court stated that:
Te objective of the EEC reaty, reaty, which is to establish establis h a common market, the functioning of which is of direct concern to interested parties in the Community, implies that this reaty is more than an agreement which merely creates mutual obligations between the contracting States. Tis view is conrmed by the preamble to the reaty, reaty, which refers not only to governments but to peoples. It is also conrmed more specically by the establishment of institutions endowed with sovereign rights, the exercise of which affects Member States and also their citizens ... Te conclusion to be drawn from this is i s that the Community constitutes a new legal order of international law for the benet of which the States have limited their sovereign rights, albeit within limited elds, and the subjects of which wh ich comprise not only Member States but also their nationals.’ COSA v ENEL ENEL
Just a year later later,, the Costa v ENEL case gave the Court of Justice an opportunity to set out its position in more detail. Te facts of this case were as follows. In 1962, Italy nationalised the production and distribution of electricity and transferred the assets of the electricity undertakings to the national electricity board, ENEL. As a shareholder of Edison Volt, one of the companies that was nationalised, Mr Costa considered that he had been deprived This website stores data such as of his dividend and consequently refused to pay an electricity bill cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change 0 3 0your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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for IL 1 926. In proceedings before the arbitration court in Milan, one of the arguments put forward by Mr Costa to justify his conduct was that the nationalising act infringed a number of provisions of the EEC reaty. In order to be able to assess Mr Costa’s submissions in his defence, the court requested the Court of Justice to interpret various aspects aspec ts of the EEC reaty. reaty. In its judgment, the Court of Justice stated the following in relation to the legal nature of the EEC: ‘By contrast contrast with ordinar ordin aryy international treaties, the EEC reaty has created its own legal system which ... became an integral part of the legal systems of the Member States and which their courts are bound to apply. By creating a Community of unlimited duration, having its own institutions, its own personality, its own legal capacity and capacity of representation on the international plane and, more particularly, real powers stemming from a limitation of sovereignty or a transfer of powers from f rom the States to the Community, the Member States have limited their sovereign rights ... and have thus created a body of law which binds both their nationals and themselves.’ On the basis of its detailed observations, the Court reached the following This website stores data such as conclusion:
cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, ‘Itand follo follows ws fromYou a ll these observations all obser vations that the law stemming stemm ing from the t he reaty, reaty, personalization, analytics. may change your settings at any time an independent source of law, could not, because of its special and original or accept the default settings.
nature, be overridden by domestic legal provisions, however framed, fra med, without Privacy Policybeing deprived of its character as Community law and without the legal basis of the Community itself being called c alled into question. Te transfer by the Marketing States from their domestic legal system to the Community legal lega l system of the Personalization rights and obligations arising under the reaty carries with it a permanent Analytics limitation of their sovereign rights, against again st which a subsequent subsequent unilateral act Save Accept All incompatible with the concept of the Community cannot prevail.’
In the light of these judgments, the elements which together typically characterise the special legal nature of the EU are: ■
the institutional set-up, which ensures that action by the EU is also charcha racterised by the overall European Europea n interest, i.e. is reected in or inuenced by the Union interest as laid down in the objectives;
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the transfer of powers to the Union institutions to a greater degree than in other international organisations, and extending to areas in which normally retain their sovereign rights; This website stores data suchStates as ■
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the establishment of its own legal order which is independent of the Member States’ legal orders;
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the direct applicability of Union law, which makes provisions of Union law fully and uniformly applicable in all Member States, and bestows rights and imposes obligations on both the Member States and their citizens; the primacy of Union law, which ensures that Union law may not be
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or amended by national law and that it takes precedence over national law if the two conict.
Te EU is thus an autonomous entity with its own sovereign rights and a legal order independent of the Member States, to which both the Member States themselves and their nationals are subject within the EU’s areas of competence. Te EU has, by its very nature, certain features in common with the usual usu al kind ki nd of internatio international nal organisation or federal-type federal-type structure, as well as a number of differences. Te EU is itself not yet a ‘nished product’; it is in the process of evolving and the form it nally takes still cannot be predicted. Te only feature that the EU has in common with the traditional international organisations is that it too came into being as a result of an international treaty. However, the EU has already moved a long way from these beginnings. Tis is because, although the reaties establishing the EU were based on international treaties, they led to the creation of an independent Union with its own sovereign rights and responsibilities. resp onsibilities. Te Member States have ceded some of their sovereign powers to this Union. In addition, the tasks have been allotted to While the EUthe arelatter very mainly differenthave from thosedeof other which international organisations. clearly This website stores data such as nedsite tasks of a technical nature, the EU has areas of responsibility which cookies to enable essential functionality, as well astogether marketing,constitute essential attributes of statehood. personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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Trough these differences between the EU and the traditional type of international organisation, the EU is in the process of acquiring a status similar simi lar to that of an individual indiv idual state. In particular, particu lar, the Member Member States’ partial partia l surrender of sovereign rights was taken as a sign that the EU was already structured along the lines of a federal federa l state. However, However, this view fails fa ils to take ta ke into account that the EU institutions only have powers in certain areas to pursue the ob jectives specied in the t he reaties. reaties. Tis means that they are not free to choose their objectives in the same way as a sovereign state; nor are they in a position to meet the challenges facing modern states today. Te EU has neither the comprehensive jurisdiction enjoyed enjoyed by sovereign states nor the powers to establish new areas area s of responsibility (‘jurisdiction (‘jurisd iction over jurisdiction’). jurisdiction’). Te EU is therefore neither an international organisation in the usual sense nor an association of states, but rather an autonomous entity somewhere in between the two. In legal circles, the term ‘supranational organisation’ is now used.
THE TASKS OF TH E EU This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site Te of tasks entrusted to the EU strongly resembles the constitutional functionality, as welllist as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You Tese are not the narrowly circumscribed technical tasks order of a state. may change your settings at any time assumed by international organisations, orga nisations, but elds of competence or accept the commonly default settings. which, taken as a whole, form essential attributes attr ibutes of statehood. Privacy Policy
Te list of tasks entrusted to the EU is very wide-ranging, covering ecoMarketing nomic, social and political action. Personalization
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economic tasks are centred around establishing a common market that unites the national markets of the Member States and on which all goods Accept All and services servic es can be offered and sold on the same conditions conditions as on an internal market and to which all Union citizens have the same, free access.
Te plan to create a common market has essentially been fullled through the programme aimed at completion of the internal market by 1992, which was initiated in itiated by the then President of the Commission, Jacques Delors, and approved by the Heads of State or Government, with the Union institutions succeeding in laying down a legal framework for a properly functioning single market. Tis framework has now been eshed out very largely by national transposition measures, with the result that the single market has
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already become a reality. Tis single market also makes ma kes itself felt in everyday
This website stores data such as life, site especially when travelling within the EU, where identity checks at nacookies to enable essential functionality, as well astional marketing, borders have long since been discontinued. personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time Te internal market is backed up by the economic and monetary union. or accept the default settings.
Te EU’s task in economic policy is not, however, to lay down and operate a European economic policy, but to coordinate the national economic polMarketing icies so that the policy decisions of one or more Member States do not have Personalizationnegative repercussions for the operation of the single market. o this end, a Analytics Stability and Growth Pact was adopted to give Member States the detailed criteria which their decisions on budgetary policy polic y have to meet. If they fail to Save Accept All do this, the European Commission can issue warnings and, in cases of continuing excessive budgetary decit, the Council can also impose penalties.
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Te EU’s task in monetary policy was and is to introduce a single currency in the EU and to control monetar monetaryy issues centrally centra lly.. Some success has already a lready been achieved in this area. On 1 January 1999, the euro was introduced as the single European currency in the Member States which had already met the convergence criteria established for that purpose. Tese were Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland. On 1 January 2002 the national currencies of these States were replaced with euro bank notes and coins. Since then, their day-to-day payments and nancial transactions have been made in only one currency — the euro. Greece and Sweden had, initially, initia lly, failed to meet the convergence criteria. Greece was included on 1 January 2001. Sweden, which could not meet the criteria principally due to the fact that it did not participate in the exchange rate mechanism mechani sm of the European Monetary Monetar y System (the (the ‘waiting room’ for the euro),, is subject to a derogation in that the Commission euro) Comm ission and the European Europea n Central Bank Ba nk must present convergence convergence reports for Sweden at least every two years, year s, in which they can recommend Sweden’s participation to the Council. If such a recommendation is made and approved by the Council, Sweden will not be able to refuse to participate. par ticipate. However, However, there is currently cur rently little support amongst the Swedish population populat ion for joining joining the t he euro area. In I n a 2003 referendum, 55.9 55.9 % were agai against nst the introduction of the euro. In a sur survey vey in December 2005, This website stores data such as 49 %sitewere still against the euro, while 36 % were in favour. Te situation is cookies to enable essential functionality, as well asdifferent marketing,with regard to Denmark and the United Kingdom. Tese Member personalization, and analytics. You red an opt-out, which allows them to decide if and when the proceStates secured secu may change your settings at any time dure for verifying compliance with the criteria for joining the single currency or accept the default settings.
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6 December Decemb er 1977, 1977, Brussels. Demonstration in favour of elections based on universal suffrage for the European Parliament and of the single currency during the European Council meeting on o n 5 and 6 December Dece mber 1977. 1977.
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This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site initiated. Te new Member States are also obliged to adopt the euro as their functionality, as well asismarketing, personalization, and analytics. nationalYoucurrency as soon as they meet the convergence criteria. None of the may change your settings at any time new Member States has an a n opt-out opt-out clause, and a nd most of the new Member States or accept the default settings.
wish wis h to intro introduce duce the euro as soon as pos possible. sible. Slovenia (1 Janua Ja nuary ry 20 2007), 07), Privacy Policy
Cyprus (1 January 2008), Malta (1 January 2008) and Slovakia (1 January 2009) have already achieved this, t his, extending extendi ng the ‘euro ‘euro area’ — countries which Marketing have the euro as their currency — to a current total of 16 Member States. Personalization Analytics
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In addition to the area of economic and monetary policy policy,, there are many m any other economic policy areas policy area s in which the EU has responsibili responsibilities. ties. Tese include in Accept All particularr agricultural particula agricultur al and sheries policy, transport policy, policy, consumer policy, policy, structural structur al and a nd cohesion policy, policy, research resea rch and a nd development development policy, space policy,
environment policy, health policy, trade policy and energy policy. In social policy the EU has the task of ensuring that the benets of economic integration are not only felt by those active in the economy, but also shape the social dimension of the single market. One of the starting points for this has been the introduction of a social security system for migrant workers. Under this system, workers who have worked in more than one Member State, and therefore fallen under different social insurance insura nce schemes, will not suffer a disadvantage with wit h regard to their social security secur ity (old-age (old-age pension, invalidity pension, health care, family benets, unemployment benets). A further priority task of social policy, in view of the unemployment situation in the EU, which has been a source of concern for a number of years, has been the need to devise a European employment strategy strateg y. Tis calls cal ls on the Member States States and the t he EU to develop a strategy for employment and particularly to promote a skilled, trained and adaptable workforce, in addition to which labour markets should also be made adaptable to economic change. Employment promotion is regarded regarded as a matter of common concern, and requires Member States to coordinate their national measures mea sures within the t he Council. Te EU will contribute to a high level of employment by by encouraging cooperation c ooperation between Member States and, a nd, if necessary, complementing their action while respecting their competences.
With reg t he actual ac tual area of politics, politic s, the EU has ha s task taskss in the areas of This website stores data suchregard as ard to the cookies to enable essential site citizenship, policy on judicial cooperation in criminal matters and Union functionality, as well as marketing, common citizenship ip has further furt her strengthpersonalization, and analytics. Youforeign and security policy. Union citizensh may change your settings at any ened thetime rights and interests of nationals of the Member States within the or accept the default settings. Privacy Policy
EU. Citizens enjoy the right to move freely within the Union (Article 21 FEU), the right to vote and stand as a candidate in local elections (Article (Ar ticle 22
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FEU), entitlement entitlement to protection by the diplomatic d iplomatic and consular authorities of any Member State (Article 23 FEU), the right to petition the European Parliament (Article (Ar ticle 24 FEU) and, in the context of the general ban on discrimination, the right to be treated by all Member States in the same way as they treat their own nationals (Article 20(2) in conjunction with Article 18 FEU). With respect to common foreign and security secu rity policy polic y, the EU has, in particular, the tasks of: ■
safeguarding the commonly held values, fundamental interests and independence of the EU; independence
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strengthening the security of the EU and its Member States;
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securing world peace and increasing international security;
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promoting international cooperation;
This website stores data such as promoting democracy and the rule cookies to enable ■ essential site functionality, as well rights as marketing, and basic freedoms; personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time ■ establishing a common defence. or accept the default settings.
of law, and safeguarding human
Since the EU is not an individual state, these tasks can only be carried out step by step. raditionally, foreign and especially security policy are areas in Marketing which the Member Member States are partic particularly ularly keen to to retain their own (national)
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sovereignty. Another reason why common interests in this area are difficult
Analytics to dene is that only France and a nd the United Kingdom have nuclear nuclear weapons. Save
AnotherAccept problem problem is that some Member States are not not in NAO NAO or the WEU. All Most ‘common foreign and security policy’ decisions are therefore still currently taken on the basis of cooperation between states. In the meantime,
however, a range of tools has emerged in its own right, thus giving cooperation between states a rm legal framework. In the area of judicial cooperation in criminal matters, the main role of the EU is to carry out tasks that are in the interests of Europe as a whole. Tese include, in particular, combating organised crime, preventing trafficking in human beings and a nd prosecuting prosecuting criminal offences. Since organised crime can no longer be effectively countered at national level, a joint response at EU level is needed. wo very positive steps have already been taken with the directive on money-laundering and the creation of a European police authority, Europol, which has been operationa operationall since 1998 (Ar (Article ticle 88 FEU). Tis cooperat cooperation ion
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T H E A B C O F E U R O P E A N U N I O N L A W This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time is also concerned or accept the default settings.
with facilitating and accelerating cooperation in relation to proceedings and the t he enforcement enforcement of decisions, facilitating extradition between Member States, establishing minimum rules relating to the t he constituent constituent elemPrivacy Policy ents of criminal acts and to penalties in the elds of organised crime, terrorMarketing ism, trafficking in human beings and the sexual exploitation of women and Personalization children, illicit illicit drug trafficking and illicit arms trafficking, money money-laund -laundering ering Analytics and corruption (Article 83 FEU). One of the most signicant advances in EU judicial Save Accept All cooperation was the creation of Eurojust in April 2003 (Article 85 FEU). Based in Te Hague, Hag ue, Eurojust Eurojust is a team of magistrates and a nd prosecutors prosecutors
from all EU countries. Its job is to help coordinate the investigation and prose cution of serious cross-border crimes. From Eurojust the Council may establish est ablish a European Public Prosecutor’s Office in order to combat crimes affecting the nancial interests of the Unio Union n (Article (Ar ticle 86 FEU). Further progress has been made with the European arrest warrant, warra nt, which has been valid throughout throughout the EU since January 2004. Te warrant can be issued for anyone accused of an offence for which the minimum penalty is more than one year in prison. Te European arrest warrant is designed to replace lengthy extradition procedures.
THE POWERS OF TH E E EU U Te reaties establishing the EU do not confer on the Union institutions any general power to take all measures necessary to achieve the objectives of the reaty, but lay down in each chapter the extent of the powers to act. As a basic principle, the EU and a nd its institutions do not have the power to decide on their legal basis basi s and competencies; the principle of specic conferment of powers (Article 2 FEU) continues to apply. Tis method has been chosen by the Member States in order to ensure that the surrender of their own powers can be more easily monitored and controlled. Te range of matters covered by the specic conferment of powers varies according This website stores data such as to the nature of the tasks allotted to the EU. Competences which cookies to enable essential site have not been transferred to the EU remain in the exclusive power of the functionality, as well as marketing, Member personalization, and analytics. YouStates. Te EU reaty explicitly states that matters of national semay change your settings at any time curity stay under the exclusive authority of the Member States. or accept the default settings. Privacy Policy Marketing
Tis naturally begs the question of where the dividing line is between EU competences and those of the Member States. Tis dividing dividi ng line is drawn draw n on the basis of three categories of competence:
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exclusive competence of of the EU (Article (Art icle 3 FEU) in areas where it can be assumed that a measure at EU level will be more effective than a measure in any Member State that is not coordinated. Tese areas are clearly set out and comprise the customs union, the establishing of the competition rules necessary for the functioning of the internal market, the monetary policy of the euro States, the common commercial policy and parts of the common sheries policy. In these policy areas only the European Union may legislate and adopt legally binding acts, the Member States being able to do so themselves only if so empowered by the European Union or for the implementation of Union acts (Article (Ar ticle 2(1) 2(1) FEU); FEU);
shared competence between the EU and the Member States (Article 4 FEU) in areas where action at European level will add value over acThis website stores data such as tion bysiteMember States. Tere is shared competence for internal internal market ma rket cookies to enable essential ■
functionality, as well as marketing, economic, social and territorial cohesion, agriculture and sherpersonalization, and rules, analytics. You ies, environment, transport, trans-European networks, energy supply may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
and the area of freedom, security and a nd justice, and also for common safety concerns in public health matters, research and technological develPrivacy Policy opment, space, development cooperation and humanitarian aid. In all Marketing these areas the EU can exercise competence rst, but only with regard Personalization to matters laid down in the relevant Union instrument, and not to the Analytics Save
entire area. Member Statesorexercise their to c ompetence competen ce to the extent policy that the EUTe has not exercised, has decided cease exercising, Accept All its competence competence (Article (A rticle 2(2) FEU). Te latter situation situation arises arise s when the relevant EU institutions decide to repeal a legislative act, in particular
to respect the t he principles principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. proportionality. Te CounC ouncil may, on the initiative of one or more of its members, request that the Commission submit proposals for repealing a legislative act; ■
competence to carry carr y out supportin supportingg action (Article (Ar ticle 6 FEU). Te EU’s EU’s competence to carry out supporting action is limited to coordinating or providing complementary action for the action of the Member States; the EU cannot harmonise national law in the areas concerned (Article 2(5)) FEU). Responsibility for drafting 2(5 draf ting legislation legislat ion therefore continues continues to lie with the Member States, which thus have considerable freedom to act. Te areas covered by this category of competence are protection and improvement of human health, industry, culture, tourism, education, youth, sport and vocational training, civil protection and
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administrative cooperation. In the areas of employment and economic policy, the Member States explicitly acknowledge the need to coordinate national measures within the EU.
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It should be noted that the EU’s competences in the area a rea of coordination coordinat ion of economic and employment employment policy and in the area a rea of common foreign and seAcceptpolicy All y do not fall under any of these three categories, and therefore do curity polic not belong to this set of competences. However, However, a declaration is made m ade stating
that the EU s common foreign and security policy will not affect the Member States’ competence for their own foreign policy and national standing standi ng in the world. In addition to these special speci al powers to act, the Union reaties reaties also a lso confer on the institutions inst itutions a power to act when it is essential essentia l for the operation of the single market or for ensuring undistorted competition (see Article 352 35 2 FEU — dispositive di spositive powers or exibility exibilit y clause). Tese articles artic les do not, however,, confer on the institutions any general power enabling them to carry however carr y out tasks which lie outside the objectives laid down in the reaties, and the Union institutions cannot extend their powers to the detriment of those of the Member States. In practice, the possibilities afforded by this power were used very often in the past, since the EU was over time faced repeatedly with new tasks that were not not foreseen at at the time the founding reaties reaties were concluded, and for which accordingly accordi ngly no appropriate powers were conferred in the reaties. Examples Exa mples are the protection of the environment and of consumers or the establishment of the European Regional Development Fund as a means of closing the gap between the developed and underdeveloped regions of the EU. Now, Now, however, however, specic jurisdiction juri sdiction has ha s been given in the t he abovementioned elds. Tese specic provisions have meant that the practical importance of the dispositive powers has very much declined. Te exercise of these powers requires the approval of the European Parliament. Finally, there are further powers to take such measures as are indisThis website stores data such as pensable for the effective and meaningful implementation of powers that cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well ashave marketing, already been expressly conferred (implied powers). Tese powers have personalization, and analytics. You acquired a special signicance in the conduct of external relations. Tey enmay change your settings at any time or accept the default settings. able the EU to assume obligations towards non-member countries or other international organisations in elds covered by the list of tasks entrusted to Privacy Policy the EU. An outstanding example is provided by the Kramer case ruled on by the Court of Justice. Tis case concerned the EU’s capacity to cooperate Marketing organisations sations in xi xing ng shing quotas and, where conPersonalization with international organi sidered appropriate, appropriate, to assume obligations oblig ations on the matter under international Analytics Save
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law. Since there was no specic provision laid down in the reaty, law. reaty, the Court Cour t inferred the necessary external competence of the EU from its internal competence for sheries policy under the common agricultural policy. However, in the exercise of these However, t hese powers, the EU is governed by the subsidiarity principle, taken over from Roman Catholic social doctrine, which has acquired virtually constitutional status through being embodied in the EU reaty (Article (A rticle 5(3)) 5(3)).. Tere are a re two facets to it: the affirmative affi rmative statement that the EU must act where the objectives objectives to be pursued can ca n be better attained at the Union level, which enhances its powers; and the t he negative statement that it must not act where objectives can be satisfactorily attained by the Member States acting individually, which constrains them. What this means in This website stores data such as practice is that all Union institutions, but especially the Commission, must cookies to enable essential site always that there is a real need for common rules and common functionality, as well asdemonstrate marketing, personalization, and analytics. You action. o paraphrase Montesquieu, when it is not necessary for the EU to may change your settings at any time or accept the take defaultaction, settings.it is necessary that it should take none. If the need for Union rules is demonstrated, the next question that arises concerns the intensity Privacy Policyand the form that they should take. Te answer ows from the principle of proportionality that has entered Union law through the decisions of the Marketing Court of Justice of the European Eu ropean Union, Union, and is established e stablished in the EU reaty Personalization in conjunction with the competence provisions (Article 5(4)). It means that Analytics the need for the specic legal instrument must be thoroughly assessed to see Save
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whether there is a less les s constr c onstraini aining ng mean meanss of achie achieving ving the same resu result. lt. Te main conclusion to be reached in general terms is that framework legislation,
minimum standards and mutual recognition of the Member States existing standards should always be preferred to excessively detailed legal provisions. National parliaments can also now check compliance with the principles of subsidiarity subsi diarity and a nd proportionality proportionality.. For this purpose, an early warning system has been introduced, allowing national parliaments to issue a reasoned position within eight weeks following tra transmission nsmission of the legislative proposal, sett setting ing out why the legislative proposal in question does not meet the subsidiarity and proportionality requirements. If this reasoned position is supported by at least a third of the t he votes allocated to the national nat ional parliaments (where (where each national parliament has two votes, or, in the case of chamber systems, one vote per chamber), the legislative proposal must be reviewed again by the institution that issued it (usually the Commission). Following this review, the proposal can be retained, amended or withdrawn. If the European Commission decides decides to retain the draft, it must issue a reasoned opinion, stating why it considers
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the draft to follow the subsidiarity principle. Tis reasoned opinion is sent to the EU legislator together with the reasoned opinions of the national parliaPersonalization ments so that they t hey can be taken ta ken into account in the legislative procedure. If, If, by Analytics Marketing
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a 55 % majority of the Members of the Council of the EU or by a majority of Accept Allcast in the European Parliament, the EU legislator is of the opinion the votes that the proposal does not comply with the subsidiarity principle, the legisla-
tive proposal is not examined any further.
THE INSTITUTIONS OF TH E E EU U Article 13 13 of the TEU (institu (institutional tional framework) 1. The Union shall have an institutional framework which shall aim to promote promot e its values, advance its objectives, serve its interests, those of its citizens and those of the Member States, and ensure the consistency, effectiveness and continuity continuity of its policies and actions. The Union’s institutions ins titutions shall be: — the European Parliament, — the European Council, — the Council, — the European Commission (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Commission’), — the Court of Justice of the European Union, — the European Central Bank, — the Court of Auditors. This website stores data such as institution shall act within the limits of the powers conferred 2. Each conferred on cookies to enable essential site it in the Treaties, and in conformity with the procedures, conditions and functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You objectives set out in them. The institutions shall practise mutual sincere sincere may change your settings at any time cooperation. or accept the default settings.
3. The provisions relating to the European Central Bank and the Court of Privacy Policy Marketing Personalization Analytics Save
Auditors and detailed provisions on the other institutions are set out in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. 4. The European Parliament, the Council and the Commission shall be assisted by an Economic and Social Committee and a Committee of the Regions Accept All acting in an advisory capacity.
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OVERVIEW OF THE EU INSTITUTIONS, ACCORDING TO THE TFEU
EUROPEAN COUNCIL 27 Heads of State or Government, President of the European Council and President of the Commission
COUNCIL 27 Ministers (one per Member State) This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 751 75 1 Members Member s ( 2)
EUROPEAN COMMISSION 27 Members Membe rs (until 2014)
COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 350 Members (maximum)
EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE 350 Members (maximum)
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COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK
COURT OF AUDITORS 27 Members (one per Member State)
EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK
( 2) When the Lisbon Treaty came into force on 1 December 2009, the number of Members was increased temporarily te mporarily to 754. However, the maximum of 751 must be restored by the next elections of 2014.
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MEMBER STATE
VOTES IN THE COUNCIL
SEATS IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
G E R MA NY Accept All
29
99
F R A NCE
29
78
ITALY
29
78
U N I T E D KI N G D OM
29
78
SPAIN
27
54
PO LA ND
27
54
R OMA N I A
14
35
N E T H E R L AN DS
13
27
BELGIUM
12
24
CZ E CH R E P UBL I C
12
24
GR E E CE
12
24
HUNGARY
12
24
P OR T U G AL
12
24
SWED EN
10
19
BULGARIA
10
18
AUSTRIA
10
18
D E NMA R K
7
14
SLOVAKIA
7
14
F INLA ND
7
14
IR ELA ND
7
13
LITHUANIA
7
13
LAT VIA
4
9
4
7
4
6
4
6
4
6
3
5
OVEas NIA This website stores dataSL such cookies to enable essential ESTsite ON I A functionality, as well as marketing, CYPRUYou S personalization, and analytics. may change your settings at any time LUXEMBOURG or accept the default settings. MALTA Privacy Policy Marketing
Another question arising a rising in connection with the constitution of the t he EuroEu ropean Union is that of its organisation. What are the institutions of the Since the EU exercises functions funct ions normally reserved reser ved for States, does it have a government, a parliament, administrative authorities and courts like those with which we are familiar in the Member States? Action on the tasks Accept All assigned to the EU and the direction of the integration process was intentionally not left to Member States or to international cooperation. Te EU
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has an institutional system that equips it to give new stimuli and objectives to the unication of Europe and to create a body of law that is uniformly devised and binding in all the Member States in the matters falling within its responsibility responsibil ity.. Te main players in the EU institutional system are the EU institutions — the European Parliament, Parlia ment,of theJustice European Council, the Council, the European European Commission, the Court of the European Union, the Central This website stores dataBank such asand Court of Auditors. Te ancillary bodies in the institucookies to enable essential siteof the EU are the European Investment Bank, the European tional system functionality, as well as marketing, Economic andYou Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. personalization, and analytics. may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
HE INSIUIONS
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Te European Parliament (Article 14 EU)
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Te European Personalization
Parliament represents the peoples of the EU Member States. It is an amalgamation of the ECSC Joint Assembly, the EEC Assembly and Analytics the Euratom Assembly, which were combined to form an ‘assembly’ under Save Accept All the 1957 Convention on Certain Institutions Common to the European Communities (‘rst merger reaty’). Te name was not officially changed
to until the amended bywas the already reaty on ‘European European Parliament’ Union, although this EC stepreaty merelywas reected what common usage dating back to the Assembly’s own change of its name to ‘European Parliament’ Parli ament’ in 1958.
Composition Composi tion and election Since the entry into force of the Lisbon reaty on 1 December 2009, the European Parliament 754(Article seats. Tis excebut exceeds eds the mabeximum of 751 75 Members laid down inhas thehad EU 14(2)), mustmaximum accepted for1 the 2009–14 legislative period, as the MEPs elected in June cannot lose their seats. However, However, the maximum ma ximum number of Members must be adhered to at the next elections in 2014. 2014. Tese are a re allocated to the t he Member States so that although each Member from a highly populated Member State represents more more citizens than tha n every Member from a State with a low population, no State with a lower population has more seats than a State with a higher population. As a general rule, the minimum number of seats per Member State is six, and the maximum 96, but, owing to the late entry
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into force of the Lisbon reaty, reaty, an exception has been made for Germany Germa ny Accept All in the 2009–14 legislative period, permitting it to continue to have 99
Members June reaty) 2009 lose their seats because of the entry into i(MEPs nto forceelected of theinLisbon reaty)cannot . Te exact composition has yet to be determined by the Council. Tis should have been done in time for the direct elections to the European Parliament in June 2009. However, since the Lisbon reaty did not enter into force before the elections in June 2009, the new rules on the t he composition of the European Parliament could not be applied to the 2009–14 legislative period. Instead, the distribution of seats resulting from the accession of Bulgaria and Romania applied for these elections to the European Parliament. Parlia ment. Upon the entry into force of the t he Lisbon reaty reaty on 1 December 2009, the number of Members rose by 18 to 754, with the new Members coming from f rom 12 different Member States. Te composition of the European Parliament is shown in graphic form below; this is the situation in the current 2009–14 legislative period. Te changes brought about about by the Lisbon L isbon reaty reaty are a re indicated. PRESIDENT 14 Vice-Presidents 5 Quaestors (advisory) This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site Te President, Vice-Presidents Vice-Presidents and Quaestors make up the t he Bureau, which is functionality, as well as marketing, electedYou by Parliament for terms of two and a half years. Another body, the personalization, and analytics. may change your settings at any timeof Presidents, Conference Presidents, also includes i ncludes the chairs of the political politica l groups. It is or accept the default settings.
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responsible for the organisation organis ation of Parliament’s Parliament’s work, and relations with the t he other EU institutions and with non-Union institutions.
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T H E A B C O F E U R O P E A N U N I O N L A W
PARLIAMENT PLENARY SESSION WITH 754 MEMBERS MEMBER STATE
G E R M A NY
99
F R A NCE
72 + 2
ITALY
72 + 1
U N I TE D K I N G DO M
72 + 1 50 + 4
This website stores data such as SPAessential IN cookies to enable site functionality, asPwell marketing, OLAas ND personalization, and analytics. You R O MA N I A may change your settings at any time or accept the default NE THsettings. ER LA NDS
BELGIUM Privacy Policy C ZEC H REPUB LIC
GR EEC E Marketing
50 + 1 33 25 + 1 22 22 22
H U N G ARY
22
PO R TUGA L
22
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SEATS IN THE E UROPE AN PARLI AME NT
S W E DE N
18 + 2
BULGAAccept RIA All
17 + 1
AUSTRIA
17 + 2
D E N MA RK
13
SLOVAKIA
13
F INLA ND IR ELA ND
13 12
LITHUANIA
12
L AT VIA
8+1
SLOVENIA
7+1
ESTONIA
6
C YP R U S
6
LUXEMBOURG
6
MALTA
5+1
Up to 1979, representatives in the European Parliament were selected from the membership of national parliaments and delegated by them to the European Parliament. Te direct general election of MEPs by the peoples of the Member States was provided for in the reaties themselves, but the rst direct elections were not not held held until June June 1979 1979,, a number of earlier initiatives initiatives having been been fruitless. Elections are now held every ve years, which corresponds to the length of a ‘legislative period’. Following decades of efforts, a uniform electoral procedure was nally introd introduced uced by the act concerning the election of representatives representatives of This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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the European Parliament Parlia ment by direc directt universal universa l suffrage suffra ge of 20 September September 1976, 1976, as
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last amended by Council decision of 25 June and 23 September 2002 (known as the Direct Elections Act). Under this act, each Member State lays down its own election procedure, but must apply the same basic democratic rules: direct general election, proportional representation, free and secret ballots, minimum age (for the right to vote, this is 18 in all Member States except Austria, Austri a, where the voting age was reduced to 16) 16),, renewable ve-year term of office, incompatibilities (MEPs may not hold two offices at the same time, e.g. the office of judge, public prosecutor, prosecutor, Minister; they t hey are also subject to the laws of their country, which may further limit their ability to hold more than one post or office), election date and equality between men and women. In some countries (Belgium, Greece and Luxembourg), voting is compulsory. In addition, a statute for Members of the European Parliament came into force on 14 July 2009. Tis new statute makes the terms and conditions of MEPs’ work more transpa t ransparent rent and contains clear rule rules. s. It also a lso introduces i ntroduces a uniform un iform salaryy for all MEPs, which is paid from the EU budget. salar Now that it is directly elected, Parliament enjoys democratic legitimacy and can truly claim to represent the citizens of the EU Member States. But the mere existence of a directly elected Parlia Parliament ment cannot satisfy the fundamental fu ndamental requirement of a democratic constitution, which is that all public authority authority must emanate from the people. Tat does not only mean that the decisionThis website stores data such as making cookies to enable essential site process must be transparent and the decision-making institutions functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You representative; parliamentary control involved is required, anddecision-making Parliament mustproclend legitimacy to the Union institutions in the may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
ess. A great deal of progress has been made in this thi s area over recent years. Not only have the rights of Parliament been continually extended, e xtended, but the reaty reaty Privacy Policy of Lisbon has explicitly established the obligation for EU action to adhere Marketing to the principle of representative democracy. As a result, all citizens of Personalizationthe Union are directly represented in Parliament and entitled to participate Analytics actively in the EU’s democratic life. Te underlying objective of this is that decisions p ossible and as closely as possible Save Accept All at EU level are taken as openly as possible to the citizen. Te political parties at EU level are to contribute to the shaping of a European identity and to articulate the will of the Union’s citizens.
ing of a European identity and to articulate the will of the Union s citizens. If there is any decit to the current democratic model of the EU, it is that the European Parliament, unlike the true parliaments in a parliamentary democracy, does not elect a government that answers ans wers to it.
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Article 10 10 of the TEU (represent (representative ative democracy) democracy) 1. The functioning of the Union shall be founded on representative democracy. 2. Citizens are directly represented at Union level in the European Parliament. This website stores data such as Member States are represented in the European Council by their Heads of State or cookies to enable essential site Government and in the Council by their governments, themselves democratically functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You accountable either to their national Parliaments, or to their citizens. may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
3. Every citizen shall have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union.
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Decisions shall be taken as openly and as closely as possible to the citizen.
Marketing 4. Political parties at European level contribute to forming European political
awareness and to expressing the will of citizens of the Union. Personalization Analytics Save
However, the reason for this decit is that, quite simply, no government in the normal Accept sense exists at EU level. Instead, the functions analogous to governAll ment provided for in the Union reaties are performed by the Council and the
European Commission according to a form of division of labour. Nevertheless, the reaty of Lisbon gave Parliament extensive powers in respect of appointments to the Commission, ranging from election by Parliament of the President of the Commission on the recommendation of the European Council, to Parliament’s vote of approval of the full college of Commissioners (‘right of investiture’). However, Parliament has no such inuence over the membership of the Council, which is subject to parliamentary control only insofar as each e ach of its members, as a national Minister, is answerable to the national parliament.
Te role of the European Parliament in the EU’s legislative process has increased considerably. Te raising of the co-decision procedure to the level of ordinar y legislative procedure has, in effect, turned the European Parliament ordinary into a ‘co-legislator’ alongside the Council. In the ordinary legislative procedure, Parliament can not only put forward amendments to legislation legislation at various readings but also, within certain certai n limits, get them accepted by the Council. Union legislation cannot be passed without agreement between the Council and the European Parliament. raditionally, Parliament has also played a major role in the budgetary procedure. Te reaty of Lisbon further extended the budgetary powers of the European Parliament, stipulating that Parliament must approve the multiThis website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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annual nancial plan and giving it co-decision powers on all expenditure (compulsory and non-compulsory expenditure are no longer distinguished). Parliament has a right of assent to all major international agreements concerning an area covered by co-decision, and to the Accession reaties concluded with new Member States laying down the conditions of admission. Te supervisory powers of the European Parliament have also grown signicantly over time. Tey are exercised mainly through the fact that the Commission must answer to Parliament, defend its proposals before it and present it with an annua annuall report rep ort on the t he activities a ctivities of the t he EU for debate. Parliament can, by a two-thirds majority of its members, pass a motion of censure and thereby compel the Commission to resign as a body (Article 234 FEU). Several such motions have been put before the Parliament, but none has yet been even near achieving the required majority. Te resignation of the Santer Commission in 1999 was triggered by Parliament’s refusal to discharge it with regard to nancial management; mana gement; the motion motion of censure that had also been brought was unsuccessful, although only by small margin. Since in practice the Council also answers an swers parliamentary questions questions,, Parliament has the opportunity for dirdirect political debate with two major institutions. Tese supervisory powers of Parliament have since been boosted. It is now also empowered to set up special This website stores data such as Committees of Inquiry to look specically at alleged cases of infringement of cookies to enable essential site Community law or maladministration. A committee of this kind was used, functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You for example, to look into the Commission’s responsibility for the delay in remay change your settings at any time or accept the default settings. sponding to ‘mad
cow disease’ in the United Kingdom, which also represented a threat to human life and health. Also written into the reaties is the right of any natural or legal person to address petitions to Parliament, which are Privacy Policy then dealt with by a standing Committee on Petitions. Finally, Parliament has Marketing also made use of its power to appoint an Ombudsman to whom complaints Personalization about maladministration in the activities of Union institutions or bodies, with Analytics the exception of the Court of Justice, can be referred. Te Ombudsman may conduct enquiries and must inform the institution or body concerned of such Save Accept All action, and must submit to Parliament a report on the outcome of his or her
inquiries.
Worki W orking ng procedure proce duress Te basic rules governing the workings of Parliament are set out in its rules of procedure.
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T H E A B C O F E U R O P E A N U N I O N L A W
Te MEPs form political groups. Given Parliament’s status as a Union institution, these are Union-wide party political groupings that cut across national lines. This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site Parliament holds its week-long week-long plenary sessions s essions in Strasbourg once a month, functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You except inwith August. Additional sessions may(lasting also be one held,orparticularly in conmay change your settings at any nection thetime budget. Shorter sessions two days) are held or accept the default settings.
in Brussels. Brussel s. Lastly, emergency sessions may be convened convened to deal with current major issues, enabling Parliament to set out its position without delay on Privacy Policy matters of importance (such as Union Union affairs, affair s, international affairs, affai rs, violations Marketing of human rights). All plenary sessions are open to the public. Personalization Analytics 3
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POLITICAL GROUPS IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Accept All
Non-attached Members 31 Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group 32
Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) 264 (+ (+ 4)
Confederal Group of the European United Left — Nordic Green Left 32 European Conservative Conservativess and Reformists Group 54 Group of the Greens/ European Free Alliance 55 (+ 1) Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe 84 (+ (+ 1) 1)
Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament 162 (+ (+ 5)
( 3) Where known, the additional 18 MEPS were allocated to political groups following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty; nominations for seven MEPs from France, Italy, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom had not yet been made. This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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Decision-making procedures An absolut absolutee majority of the t he votes cast is usua usually lly sufficient for a decision to be taken. As Parliament increases in importance, however, ever stricter requirements are imposed with regard to MEPs’ attendance. A whole range of decisions may be adopted only if supported by an absolute majority majority of all a ll Members of Parliament. Finally, any motion of censure against the European Commission must not only be backed by a majority of MEPs but also requires two thirds of the votes cast to be in favour. PERMANENT COMMITTEES OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
Foreign Affairs Committee (with ‘Human Rights’ and ‘Security and Defence’ subcommittees) Development Committee International Trade Committee Budgets Committee Budgetary Control Committee Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee Employment and Social Affairs Committee
This website stores data such as Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as Industry, marketing, Research and Energy Committee personalization, and analytics. You Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
Transport and Tourism Committee
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Regional Development Committee Agriculture and Rural Development Committee Fisheries Committee Culture and Education Committee Legal Affairs Committee Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee Accept All Constitutional Affairs Committee
Womenss Rights and Gender Equality Committee Women Petitions Committee
Seat Te European Council decided that Parliament’s seat was to be in Strasbourg and thus ended the provisional status of an arrangement that had been in place for 30 years. It had become established practice for plenary
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sessions to be held in Strasbourg and Brussels, meetings of the political groups and to be held in Brussels during weeks when ParliaThis website stores data suchcommittees as cookies to enable essential site ment was not sitting, and for Parliament’s Secretariat-General to be based functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, analytics. You Te Council’s decision on the location of the seats of the in and Luxembourg. may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
institutions conrmed the validity of these arrangements, subject to the proviso that the 12 periods of monthly plenary sessions should be held in resu lt of this decision is that t hat MEPs and some Privacy PolicyStrasbourg. Te unsatisfactory result Parliament officials and employees must commute between Strasbourg, Marketing Brussels and Luxembourg — a very costly business. Personalization Analytics Save
Te European Council (Article (Art icle 15 EU) Accept All
Te European Council grew out of the summit conferences of EU Heads of
State or Government. At the Paris Summit in December Dec ember 197 1974 4 it was decided that meetings should be held three times a year and described as the European Council. Since then, the European Council has become an independent body of the European Union (Article 13 EU). Te Heads of State or Government and the President of the European ComC ommission meet at least twice every half a year in this context. When the questions under discussion so demand, the Members of the European Council can decide to seek the support of a Minister Mini ster and, in the case ca se of the President of the Commission, of one Member of the European Commission to assist them in their work (Article (A rticle 15(3 15(3)) EU). EU ). Te reaty of Lisbon created the office of President of the European Coun4
cil ( ).has Tea President the European Council, one, unlike the Presidency up to now, Europeanofmandate, not a national running for two and a half years on a full-time basis. Te person appointed President should be an outstanding personality, selected by qualied-majority voting of the Members of the European Council. Re-election is possible once. Te President’s taskss comprise the preparation and follow-up task follow-up of European Council meetings and representing the EU at international summits in the area of foreign and security This website stores datapolicy. such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You , at that time the Prime Minister of Belgium, was nominated as the first President of (4) Herman van Rompuy, Rompuy thesettings European and took up office on 1 December 2009. may change your at Council any time or accept the default settings. Privacy Policy
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T H E A B C O F E U R O P E A N U N I O N L A W
Te actual function of the European Council itself is to establish the general policy guidelines for EU action. It does so by taking basic policy decisions and issuing instructions and guidelines to the Council or the European Commission. Te European Council has in this way directed work on economic and monetary union, the European Monetary System, direct elections to Parliament and a number of accession issues.
Te Council (Article (Articl e 16 EU) COMPOSITION
One representative of each Member State Government at ministerial level, with composition varying according to the subject discussed, i.e. either the ‘General Affairs and External Relations Council’ or the other eight ‘sectoral ‘sectoral Councils’
This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. YouPermanent Representatives may change your settings at any time Committee ‘Coreper ‘Coreper I and II’ or accept the default settings.
Special Committee for Agriculture
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Working parties
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General Secretariat (approximately 2 200 officials) Save
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Tasks
Drawing up legislation
Coordination of Coordination macroeconomic policy
Appointments
External relations
Budget
Application of the EU Treaty
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Composition Composi tion and Presidency
Te Council is made up of representatives of the governments of the Member States. All Al l 27 Member States send one one representative — as a rule, though thoug h not necessarily, necessa rily, the departmental or junior minister responsible re sponsible for for the matPrivacy Policyters under consideration. It is important that these representatives are empowered to act with binding effect on their governments. Te very fact that Marketing governments may be represented in various ways obviously means that there Personalization are no permanent members of the Council; instead, the representatives sitAnalytics ting in the Council meet in nine different congurations depending depending on the Save subjectsAccept underAlldiscussion. Tese are: (1) ‘General Affairs and External Relations Council’: as the ‘General Affairs Council’, this Council coordinates
the work of the Council in its various congurations and, together with the President of the European Council and the European Commission, prepares the European Council meetings; as the ‘Foreign Affairs Council’, it handles the EU’s action abroad in accordance with the strategic guidelines of the European Council and ensures that the EU’s action is consistent and coherent. Te ‘General Affairs and External Relations Council’ is made up of the Foreign Ministers; Ministers; its general affairs affa irs meetings are chaired ch aired by the rulru ling Presidency, thoseforonForeign foreignAffairs affairs and are chaired the High resentative of theand Union SecuritybyPolicy. TereRepare eight further Council formations attended by the Ministers from the Member States responsible for the areas concerned: (2) ‘Economic and Financial Affairs’ Aff airs’ (commonly known k nown as the Econ Ec on Council), C ouncil), (3) (3) ‘Cooperation in the elds of Justice and Home Affairs’, (4) ‘Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs’, (5) ‘Competitiveness’, (6) ‘ransport, elecommunications and a nd Energy’, Energ y’, (7) ‘Agr ‘Agriculture iculture and Fisheries’, Fisheries’, (8) ‘Environment’ and (9) ‘Education, Youth Youth and Culture’ Cu lture’.. Te Presidency of the Council — with the exception of the Council of Foreign Ministers, which is chaired by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy— is held by each Member State in turn for six months. Te order in which the office of President is held is decided unanimously by the Council. Te Presidency changes hands This website stores data such as on 1 January and 1 July each year (2008: Slovenia and France; 2009: the cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well asRepublic marketing,and Sweden; 2010: Czech 2010: Spain and Belgium; Belg ium; 2011: 2011: Hunga Hungary ry and a nd personalization, and analytics. You Poland; 2012: Denmark and Cyprus; 2013: Ireland and Lithuania, etc.). may change your settings at any time or accept the Given default settings. this fairly rapid ‘turnover’, each Presidency bases its action on a work programme agreed with the next two Presidencies and therefore valid for a Privacy Policy Marketing
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20 July 1979, Strasbourg. Simone Veil becomes the President of the first European Parliament, elected by universal suffrage.
T H E A B C O F E U R O P E A N U N I O N L A W This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
period of 18 months (‘team Presidency’). Te Presidency is mainly responsible for for overall coordination coord ination of the work of the Council and the committees providing it with input. It is also important in political terms in that the Privacy PolicyMember State holding the EU Presidency enjoys an enhanced role on the world stage, and small Member States in particular are thus given an opMarketing portunity to rub shoulders with the ‘major players’ and make their mark in Personalization European politics. Analytics Save
Te seatAccept of theAllCouncil is in Brussels.
Tasks Te top priority of the Council is legislation, which it carries out together with Parliament in the co-decision process. Te Council is also responsible for ensuring coordination of the economic policies of the Member States. It also establishes the budget on the basis of a preliminary draft from the Commission, although this must still be approved by Parliament. In addition, it issues a recommendation to Parliament on giving discharge to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the budget, and responsible for appointing the Comm members thethe Court of Auditors, theisEurope European an Econom Economic ic and a nd Social So cial Committee itteeofand Committee of the Regions. Te Council is also is responsible for concluding agreements between the EU and non-member countries or international organisations.
Working W orking procedures procedu res Te Council’s working procedures are set out in detail in its rules of procedure. In practice, the Council’s activities are basically made up of three stages, as follows.
Preparation for Council meetings This website stores data such as Preparatory work for Council meetings is cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well aswithin marketing, bodies its organisational structure: personalization, and analytics. You Committee the General Secretariat. may change your settings at and any time or accept the default settings.
carried out by two permanent the Permanent Representatives
Te Permanent Representatives Representatives Committee, which w hich is referred to as a s Coreper, a contraction of its French title Comité des représentants permanents , prepares Privacy Policy the ground for the Council’s work and performs the tasks assigned to it by Marketing
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T H E A B C O F E U R O P E A N U N I O N L A W
the Council. o enable it to carry out all these tasks, it is divided up into Coreper I (comprising (comprising the t he Deputy Permanent Permanent Representatives and primarily primar ily responsible for preparatory preparatory work on more technical matters mat ters dealt with by the various Councils) and Coreper II (comprising the Permanent Representatives themselves and basically responsible for all policy matters). Agriculture is the one area not subject to this division of tasks; a Special Committee on Agriculture Agric ulture (SCA, also known by its Fren French ch abbreviation CSA — Comité
spécial de l’Agriculture ) was set up in 1960 and assumed Coreper’s tasks on agricultural matters.
Preparations for Council meetings by Coreper and the SCA are of two kinds. Firstly, efforts efforts are a re made to reach agreement at committee level, in connection with which the committees can draw on the assist assistance ance of around a round 100 permanent sector-specic working parties within the Council. Tey may also This website stores data such as call on the services of ‘ad hoc groups’, which are assigned to deal with a parcookies to enable essential site functionality, as well asticular marketing, problem within a specied period. Secondly, preparatory work must personalization, and analytics. You ensure that the issues to be discussed and decided on at Council meetings may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings. have been worked out in advance, and that the Council members are prop-
erly briefed. Tese dual approaches are reected in the agenda of meetings: Privacy Policy issues on which whic h it was possible to reach agreement ag reement are referred to as ‘A ‘A items’ and those questions which are undecided and need to be discussed further Marketing k nown as ‘B items’. items’. Personalizationare known Analytics Save
Te General Secretariat provides administrative assistance to the Council (and also Accept All to Coreper and the SCA). In particular, it handles the technical side of preparations for meetings of the Council, is in charge of providing
interpretation facilities (the representatives of the Member States speak in their own language), ensures that any required translations are provided, provides legal advice to the Council and the committees, and administers the Council’s budget.
Meetings of the Council Meetings of the Council are a re convened by its President (the (the representative of the Member State holding the Presidency of the Council or the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) on his or her own initiative, at the request of one of its members or at the request of the European Commission. Comm ission. Te President draws up a provisional agenda for each meeting, consisting of a Part A and a Part B.
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T H E A B C O F E U R O P E A N U N I O N L A W
Te Council only discusses and a nd reaches decisions decisions on documents and drafts draft s which are available in the 23 official languages (Bulgarian, Czech, DanPrivacy Policy ish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, HunMarketing
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garian, Irish,Slovak, Italian,Slovenian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish andMaltese, Swedish).Polish, If a matter is urAnalytics gent, this rule may be dispensed with by unanimous agreement. Tis also to proposals for amendments tabled and discussed in the course Save applies Accept All of a meeting.
Meetings at which the Council discusses or votes on legislative proposals are open to the public. In practice, this means that the meetings are transmitted to rooms with a live audiovisual feed in the Council building.
It is in the Council that the individual interests of the Member States and the Union interest are balanced. Even though the Member States primarily defend their own interests in the Council, its members are at the same time obliged to take into account the objectives and needs of the Union as a whole. Te Council is a Union institution and not an Intergovernmental Conference. Consequently it is not the lowest common denominator between the Member States that is sought in the Council’s deliberations, but rather the right balance between the Union’s and the Member States’ interests. Decision-making Decision-ma king procedures Under the EU reaties, majority voting is applied in the Council — as a general rule, a qualied majority is sufficient (Article 16(3) EU). A simple majority, where each Council member has one vote, is applied only in individual cases and in less sensitive areas. (A simple majority is therefore currently achieved ac hieved with w ith 14 votes). votes). This website stores data such as Te methods for calculating cookies to enable essential site stages. functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your any time Up settings until 1atNovember 2014, or accept the default settings.
the qualied majority will change in various the weighted voting system introduced by the
reaty of Nice and giving large Member States more inuence will be used. Under this system, a qualied majority is achieved when there is a majority Privacy Policy of Member States with at least 255 votes out of 345, although one Member Marketing State can also demand that these Member States represent at least 62 % of Personalization the EU population. Analytics Save
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Since 1 January 2007 the number of votes each Member State can cast has been as follows. WEIGHTING OF VOTES
G E R M A NY
29
AUSTRIA
10
F R AN C E
29
SWED EN
10
ITALY
29
DE N M AR K
7
UNI TED KI NGD O M SPAIN
29 27
I R E L AN D LITHUANIA
7 7
P OL A N D
27
SLOVAKIA
7
R OMA N I A
14
F I N L AN D
7
N E T H E RL A N D S
13
ESTONIA
4
12
C Y PR U S
4
12
LAT VIA
4
12
LUXEMBOURG
4
12
SLOVENIA
4
P OR T U G AL
12
MALTA
3
BULGARIA
10
ELGIas UM This website stores dataBsuch cookies to enable essential site CZ E CH R E P UB L I C functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. GREECYou E may change your settings at any time HUNGARY or accept the default settings. Privacy Policy Marketing
On 1 November 2014 2014 the new ne w double majority system comes into force, unPersonalizationder which a qualied qua lied majority is achieved when at least 55 % of the Member Analytics States representing 65 % of the EU population vote for a legislative proposal. Save
Accept All less populous Member States from blocking the adoption of a o prevent decision, a blocking minority must consist of at least four Member States, and, if this number is not achieved, a qualied majority is deemed achieved
even if the t he population criterion is not met. Te system s ystem is compl c omplemented emented by a mechanism very similar to the ‘Ioannina compromise’: if a blocking minority is not achieved, the decision-making process can be suspended. In this case, the t he Council does not proceed with the vote, but but continues negotiations for a reasonable period of time, if requested by Members of the Council Cou ncil representing at least 75 % of the population or at least 75 % of the number of Member States required for a blocking blocki ng minority. From 1 April 2017 the same mechanism will apply, but the percentages for the establishment of a blocking minority will change to at least 55 % of the population or at least 55 % of the number of Member States. Te Council can amend this system de jure by a simple majority. However, one of the protocols protocols that negotiations must rst be held the European Council, and stipulates that any decision made in that regard must beinunanimous.
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Te importance of majority voting lies not so much in the fact that it preMarketing vents small States from blocking important importa nt decisions, as that it makes it posPersonalization sible to outvote individual large la rge Member States. However, However, the ‘Luxembourg Analytics
Agreement’ remains remain s a major political factor, at least as far as a s voting practice is concerned. It grants the right to veto a Community measure in cases ca ses where Save Accept All a Member State considers that its vital national interests are at stake, and was used to solve a crisis which arose in 196 965 5 when France, afra afraid id that its
national interests in the nancing of the common agricultural policy were threatened, blocked decision-making in the Council for over six months by a ‘policy of the empty chai chair’ r’.. In the case of decisions to be taken in especially sensitive political areas, the reaties require unanimity. Te adoption of a decision cannot be blocked by means of abstentions, however. Unanimity is still required for decisions on such matters as taxes, the rights and obligations of employees, amendments to citizenship provisions and determining whether a Member State has infringed constitutional principles, and for laying down principles and guidelines in the areas of common foreign and security policy or police and judicial cooperation in criminal crim inal matters. mat ters.
Te High Representative of the Union for Foreign Foreign Affair Aff airss and Security Policy (Article 18 EU) Te High Representative of the Union for for Foreign Affairs Affa irs and Security Secu rity Policy has not become the EU foreign minister, as planned in the constitutional project; however, however, their position within with in the institutional in stitutional set-up has been considerably strengthened and expanded. Initially, the office of High Representative will be merged with that of Commissioner for Foreign Foreign Affairs. Affa irs. Tis gives the High Representative a base in both the Council, where they hold This website stores data such as cookies to enable site of the Foreign Affairs Council, and the Commission, where the essential presidency functionality, as well as marketing, they are Vice-President in charge of foreign affairs. affai rs. Te High Representative personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any is appointed by time the European Council, acting by a qualied majority, with or accept the default settings. the agreement of the President of the Commission. He or she is assisted Privacy Policyby
a newly created foreign service, made up of officials from the European Commission (5) and the General Secretariat of the Council and seconded Marketing representatives of the diplomatic services of the Member States. Personalization
Analytics (5) Baroness Catherine Ashton, previously the Commissioner for Trade, Trade, was appointed to this post. Save Accept All
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Te European Commission (Article 17 EU) COMPOSITION
27 Members including President First Vice-President: Vice-President: High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security S ecurity Policy 6 Vice-Presidents
It such was as originally agreed that from 2014 the European Commission would This website stores data cookies to enable essential site no longer have a representative from each Member State, but would have a functionality, as well as marketing, numberYou of Members corresponding to two thirds th irds of the number of Member personalization, and analytics. may change your settings at any time States, i.e. for the current total of 27 Member States, the number of Memor accept the default settings. bers of the t he Commission Commis sion in 2014 2014 would be 18. o o this th is end, a rotation system would be introduced to ensure that there would be a Commissioner from Privacy Policy each Member State in two out of any three consecutive Commission periods Marketing of office. However, the European Council was given the power to change Personalization this composition c omposition by by unanimous unan imous vote, and it notied its intention intention to do so in Analytics the conclusions of its meeting of 18 and 19 June 2009 in Brussels. At that meeting, Europea n Council agreed to take a decision following following the entry Save Accept Allthe European into force of the Lisbon reaty and in accordance with the necessary legal
procedures, under which the Commission will continue to have a national from every Member State. Tis met one of the basic requirements set by Ireland when it organised organ ised its second se cond referendum on the Lisbon reaty. reaty.
Composition Te Commission is headed by a President who is assisted by seven VicePresidents, including the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairss and Security fair Securit y Policy as the rst Vice-President. Over time, the President’ President’s position within the Commission has been considerably strengthened. He or she is no longer ‘rst among equals’ but enjoys a prominent position in that the Commission must work ‘under the political guidance’ of its President (Article (Ar ticle 17 EU). Te President President thus has a ‘power to provide guidance’. Te President decides decides as to the internal i nternal organisation organi sation of the Commission in order to ensure that it acts consistently and efficiently. He or she also allocates responsibilities among the Commissioners, and may reshuffle the allocation allocat ion of
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during the Commission’s term of office. Te President appoints the Vice-Presidents, Vice-Presidents, and can c an force a Member of the Commission Commi ssion to Analytics resign. Te prominent position of the President President is also al so reected by his or her Save Accept All membership of the European Council.
Te President and Members of the Commission are appointed for a term of ve years using the investiture procedure: the European Council, acting by a qualied majority, nominates the person it intends to propose for election by the European Parliament as President of the Commission, taking into account the majority vote of the European Parliament. Te European Parliament then elects the President by a majority majority of its members. If the t he candidate does not obtain the required majority in Parliament, the European Council proposes a new candidate ca ndidate to Parliament within a month. Te Member States then draw up a list of people to be nominated as Members of the Commission. Tis list is adopted by the Council, acting by a qualied majority and by common accord with w ith the President. Once the Commission Commis sion President President has been elected by the European Parliament, the other Members of the Commission are subject to a vote of approval by Parliament. After approval by Parliament, the Members of the Commission other than the President are formally appointed by the Council of the EU, acting by a qualied majori majority. ty. Te Members of the Commission must be chosen ‘on the grounds of their general competence’ and be ‘completely independent in the performance of their duties’ (Article 17(3) EU). Tey may neither seek nor take instructions from any a ny government. Te seat of the European Commission is in Brussels.
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Initiating Union legislation
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Monitoring observance and proper application of Union law
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Administering and implementing Union Accept All legislation
Representing the EU in international organisations
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Te Commission is rst of all the ‘driving force’ behind Union policy. It is the starting point for every Union action, as it is the Commission that has to present proposals and drafts dra fts for Union legislation to the Council (this (this is termed the Commission’s right of initiative). Te Commission is not free to choose its own activities. It is obliged to act if the Union interest so requires. Te Council (Article 241 FEU), the European Parliament (Article 225 FEU) and a group of EU citizens acting on behalf of a citizens’ initiative (Article 11(4) EU) may also ask the Commission to draw up a proposal. Since the reaty of Lisbon, in the specic cases provided for by the reaties, legislative acts may This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site be adopted on the initiative of a group of Member States or of the European functionality, as well as marketing, Parliament, on a recommendation from the European Central Bank or at the personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at anyoftime request the Court of Justice or the European Investment Bank. or accept the default settings.
Te Commission has primary powers to initiate legislation legislation in certain areas a reas (such Privacy Policy as the Union budget, the Structural Funds, measures to tackle tax discrimination, the provision of funding and safeguard clauses). Much more extensive, Marketing Personalizationhowever, are the powers for the implementation of Union rules conferred on the Commission by the Council and Parliament (Article 290 FEU). Analytics Save
Te Commission is also the ‘guardian of Union law’. It monitors the MemAccept All ber States’ application and implementation implementation of primar primaryy and secondary secondar y Union
legislation, institutes proceedings in therefers eventthe of matter any violation of Union law (Articleinfringement 258 FEU) and, if necessary, to the Court of Justice. Te Commission also intervenes if Union law is infringed by any natural or legal person, and imposes heavy penalties. Over the last few years, efforts to prevent abuse of Union rules have become a major part of the Commission’ Commission’ss work. Closely connected with the role of guardian is the task of representing the Union’s interests. As a matter of principle, the Commission may serve no interests other than those of the Union. It must constantly endeavour, in what often prove to be difficu difficult lt negotiations within the Council, to make the Union interest prevail and seek compromise solutions that take account of that interest. In so doing, it also plays the role of mediator between the Member States, a role for which, by virtue of its neutrality, it is particularly suited and qualied. Last ly,, the Commission Lastly Commi ssion is — albeit a lbeit to a limited extent — an executive body. body. Tis is especial e specially ly true in the eld of competition law, law, where the Commission
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acts as a normal administrative authority, checking facts, granting approval or issuing ban sAll bans and, if necessary, necessa ry, imposing penalties. Te Commission’s Commission’s powAccept ers in relation to the Structural Funds and the EU budget are similarly wide-
ranging. As a rule, however, it is the Member States themselves that have to ensure that Union rules are applied in individual cases. Tis solution chosen by the Union reaties has the advantage that citizens are brought closer to what is still to them the ‘foreign’ realit realityy of the European system through the workings and a nd in the familiar famili ar form of their own national system. sy stem. Te Commission represents the Union in international organisations and is in charge of the day-to-day running of Union diplomatic missions outside and within the EU. On the basis of powers conferred on it by the Council, the Commission is responsible re sponsible for for negotiating agreements ag reements with international organisations and non-member countries, including Accession reaties with new Member States. Te Commission represents the Union in the courts of the Member States and — where necessary together with the Council — before the Court of Justice. ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Commission (27 Members) (Cabinets) Secretariat General Legal Service Directorate-General for Communicatio Communication n Bureau of European Policy Advisers
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Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry Privacy Policy Directorate-General for Competition
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Oppor tunities
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Directorate-General for Climate Action
Directorate-General for Research Joint Research Centre
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Directorate-General for the Information Society and Media Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Directorate-General for the Internal Market and Services Directorate-General for Regional Policy Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union Directorate-General for Education and Culture Directorate-General for Health and Consumers This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site Directorate-General for Justice, Freedom and Security functionality, as well as marketing, Directorate-General for External Relations personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time Directorate-General for Trade or accept the default settings.
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Directorate-General for Enlargement EuropeAid Co-operation Office Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) Eurostat Directorate-General for Human Resources and Security Accept All Directorate-General for Informatics
Directorate-General for the Budget
Internal Audit Office European Anti-Fraud Office Directorate-General for Interpretation Directorate-General for Translation Translation Publications Office Office for Infrastructure and Logistics in Brussels Office for Infrastructure and Logistics in Luxembourg Office for the Administration and Payment of Individual Entitlements En titlements European Personnel Selection Office
Te Court of Justice of the European E uropean Union (Article 19 EU) Any system will endure only if its rules are supervi supervised sed by an independent authority. What is more, in a union of states the common rules — if they are subject to control by the national courts — are interpreted and applied differently from one state to another. Te uniform application of Union law in all Member States would thus be jeopardised. Tese considerations led to the establishment of a Community Court of Justice in 1952, as soon as the
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1 November 199 1992. 2. This photo of a suitcase on a map of Europe illustrates the free movement of people, introduced by the Maastricht Treaty.
T H E A B C O F E U R O P E A N U N I O N L A W
rst Community (the ECSC) was created. In 1957 it also then became the judicial body for the t he other two Communities (E(E)C (E( E)C and Euratom). Euratom). oday oday it is the judicial judicia l body of the EU. Te judicial work is now carried out on three levels by: This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential■site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
the Court of Justice as the highest instance in the Community legal order (Article 253 FEU);
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the General Court (Article 254 FEU); FEU); the specialised courts, which may be appointed to the General Court to decide on cases in particular par ticular areas area s (Article (Ar ticle 257 257 FEU). FEU).
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Court of Justice Accept All COMPOSITION OF THE COURT OF JUSTICE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
27 judges and 8 Advocates General appointed by the Governments of the Member States by common accord for a term of six years
Types of proceeding
Actions for failure to fulfil obligations under the Treaties: Commission v Member Member State (Article 258 TFEU); Member State v Member Member State (Article 259 TFEU)
Cases referred from national courts for preliminary rulings to clarify the interpretation and validity of Union law (Article 267 TFEU)
Actions for annulment and actions on grounds of failure to act brought by a Union institution or a Member State in connection with an illegal act or failure to act (Articles 263 and 265 TFEU)
Appeals against decisions the General Court (Article 2 56 of 256 TFEU)
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Te Court of Justice currently consists of 27 judges and eight Advocates General, who are appointed ‘by common accord of the Governments of the Member States’ for a term of six years. Each Member State sends one judge. In order to ensure a degree of continuity, partial replacement of half the judges and Advocates General takes place every three th ree years at the beginning beginni ng of the judicial year on 6 October. Tey may be reappointed. Te Court is assisted by eight Advocates General, whose term of office corresponds to that of the judges; they enjoy judicial independence. Four of the eight ,Advocates General alwaysKingdom) theand ‘large’ Member (Germany, (Germany France, Italy and theareUnited Kifrom ngdom) the other four States c ome come from the remaining 23 Member States on an alternating basis. Te office of Advocate General is based on that of the Commissaire du gouvernement in the Council of State (Consei Conseill d’État d ’État ) and administrative courts in France. It must not be confused with the position of public prosecutor or similar post found in many countries. Advocates General were introduced in the Court to counterbalance the original ‘single-tier’ nature of court proceedings, i.e. the absence of any appeal procedures. procedure s. Teir task is i s to submit ‘opinions’ ‘opinions’ to the Court in the form of (non-binding) proposals for a Court decision based on a fully independent and non-parti non-partisan san survey sur vey of the questions of law raised in in the case concerned. Te opinions are an integral part of the oral procedure and are published together with the judgment in the Court Reports. AdvoThis website stores data such as catesessential General cookies to enable sitecan only inuence the judgment through the strength of the functionality, as well as marketing, arguments in their opinions; they are not involved in any deliberations or personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time on the judgment. or accept the voting default settings.
Selection of judges and Advocates General
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Te judges and Advocates General are a re chosen from persons whose independence is beyond doubt and who possess the qualications required for apPersonalization pointment to the highest judicial offices in i n their respective countries, or who Analytics are legal experts of recognised competence (Article 253 FEU). Tis means Marketing
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that judges, public officials, politicians, lawyers or university lecturers from Member States may be appointed. Te variety of professional backgrounds
and experience are benecial to the Court in that they help to provide as comprehensive an assessment as possible of both the theoretical and practical aspects of the facts and points of law that have to be considered. In all Member States, the choice of who should be proposed by the government for appointment as a judge or Advocate General, and the procedure by which
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this is done, is a matter for the executive. Te procedures differ greatly and range from the not very transparent to the totally impenetrable.
Assi stance is provided by the newly created consultative panel for the Assistance This website stores data such as nomination of judges, which has the task of giving an opinion on candicookies to enable essential site suitability to perform the duties of judge and Advocate General of functionality, as well asdates’ marketing, personalization, and analytics. You of Justice and the General Court before the governments of the the Court may change your settings at any time Member States make the appointments (Article 255 FEU). Te panel or accept the default settings. comprises seven persons chosen from among former members of the Court of Justice and the General Court, members of national supreme courts and Privacy Policy lawyers of recognised competence, one of whom is proposed by the EuroMarketing pean Parliamen Parliament. t. Personalization Analytics Save
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Te Court sits in the following possible formations:
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the full Court with 27 judges; a full Court decision is still required only in impeachme i mpeachment nt proceedings and disciplinary proceedings against ag ainst members of the Union bodies. Cases may also be referred to the full Court by the Court of Justice itself, but only where extremely important proceedings and matters of precedent are involved;
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the Grand Chamber with 13 judges;
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Chambers of ve and three judges.
Tasks Te Court of Justice is the highest and at the same time the sole judicial authority in matters of Union law. law. In general terms, its task t ask is to ‘ensure that in the t he interpretation of [the] reaty reaty the t he law is observed’. Tis general description of responsibilities encompasses three main areas: monitoring the application of Union law, both by the EU institutions when implementing implementing the t he reaties, reaties, and a nd by the Member States and individuals in relation to their obligations under Union law;
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interpretation of Union law;
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shaping of Union law.
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In carrying out these tasks, the Court’s work involves both legal advice and adjudication. Legalthe advice is provided in the form binding opinions on agreements which EU wishes to conclude with of non-member countries or international organisations. Its function as a body for the administration of justice is much more important, however. In exercising that function, it operates in matters that th at in the Member States would be assigned to different types ty pes of court, depending on their national nationa l systems. It acts as a constitutional court cou rt when disputes between bet ween Union institutions are before it or legislative instruments are up for review for legality; as an administrative court when reviewing the administrative acts of the Commission or of national authorities applying Union legislation; legislation; as a labour court or industrial industria l tribunal when dealing with freedom of movement, social security and equal opportunities; as a scal court cou rt when dealing with matters concerning concerni ng the validity and interpretation of directives in the elds of tax taxation ation and customs law; as a criminal court when reviewing Commission decisions imposing nes; and as a civil court when hearing hear ing claims for damages da mages or interpreting the provisions on the enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters and in disputes over European intellectual intellectua l property rights for which grounds for jurisdiction by the Court of Justice have been given (Article 262 FEU). This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
Te General Court Like all a ll courts, the Court Cour t of Justice is overburden overburdened. ed. Te number of cases referred to it has increased steadily and will continue to grow, given the
potential for disputes that has been created by the huge number of direcPrivacy Policytives which have been adopted in the context of the single market and transposed into national law in the Member States. Te signs are already Marketing there that the reaty on European Union has raised further questions Personalization which will ultimately have to be settled by the Court. Tis is why, in Analytics 1988, a General Court was established to take the pressure off the Court Save of Justice. Accept All
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COMPOSITION OF THE GENERAL COURT
This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site 27 judges functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You appointed by the Governments of the Member States may change your settings at any time by common accord for a term of six years or accept the default settings.
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Actions for annulment and complaints of failure to act Accept Allfiled by natural and legal persons on the grounds of
Actions for damages on the grounds of contractual or noncontractual liability
Appeals against decisions given by the judicial panels
illegality or absence of Union legal acts (Articles 263 and 265 TFEU)
(Articles 268 and 340(1) and (2) TFEU)
(Article 256(2) TFEU)
Te General Court is not a new Union institution but rather a constituent component of the Court of Justice. Nevertheless, it is an autonomous body separate from the Court of Justice in organisational terms. It has its own registry and rules of procedure. Cases handled by the General Court are identied by means of a ‘’ (= ribunal) (e.g. -1/99), whilst those referred to the Court C ourt of Justice are coded with wit h a ‘C’ (= Court) (e.g. C-1/9 C-1/99) 9).. Te General Court consists of 27 ‘members’ whose qualications, appointment and legal status are subject to the same requirements and conditions as judges at the Court of Justice. Although their main function is to sit as ‘judges’, they may also be appointed as ‘Advocates General’ on an ad hoc basis in cases ca ses before the full Court, or in cases cas es before one of the Chambers if the facts of the case or its legal complexity require this. Tis facility has been used very sparingly up to now. Te General Court sits in Chambers of ve or three judges or, in certain cases, a single judge. It can also sit as a Grand Chamber (13 judges) or as a or signicance of by a Chamber of
fullsuch Court This website stores data as (27 judges) if required by the legal complexity cookies to enable essential site a case. Over 80 % of the cases before the Court are heard functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You three judges. may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings. 0Policy 72 Privacy Marketing Personalization
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Although the General Court was origina originally lly responsible for only a limited range of cases, it now has the following tasks. At rst insta instance, nce, i.e. subject to the legal supervi supervision sion of the Court of Justice, the General Court has competence to rule on actions ac tions for ana nnulment and actions for failure to act brought by natural and legal persons against a Union body, on an arbitration clause contained in a contract concluded by the EU or on its behalf, and on actions for damda m-
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ages brought against the EU. ■ Te General Court acts as an appeal court for cases of appeal against decisions given by the judicial panels. ■
It is also planned to confer jurisdiction on the General Court for preliminary ruling proceedings concerning certain areas; however, this option has not yet been used.
Specialised courts In 2004, to relieve the burden on the Court of Justice and improve legal This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential in sitethe EU, the Council of the EU attached a specialised court for protection functionality, as well as marketing, civil cases personalization, andservice analytics. You to the General Court. may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
Tis specialised specia lised court has ha s taken over jurisdic jurisdiction tion from the General General Court for ruling at rst instance in European civil service disputes. disputes.
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of seven judges, who enjoy a similar status to members of the General Court and a nd are appointed for a term term of six years. year s. Tey must have the Personalization ability required for appointment to judicial office. Te specialised speciali sed court usuAnalytics ally sits as a panel of three judges, but can give a decision as a full panel or Save Accept All a panel of ve judges, or as a single judge. Decisions of the specialised court are subject to a right of appeal to the General Court on points of law only.
In turn, the First Advocate A dvocate General (not the parties involved!) can propose a review of the decision of the General Court if i f the legal entity or the uniformuni formity of jurisprudence are jeopardised.
Te European Central Bank (Articles 129 and 130 FEU) Te European Central Bank (ECB), based in Frankfurt-am-Main, is at the heart of economic and monetary union. Its task is to maintain the stability
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of such the as European currency, the euro, This website stores data cookies to enable essential site circulation (Article 128 FEU). functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You In order to carry out this task, the may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
and control the amount of currency in
ECB’s independence is guaranteed by numerous legal provisions. When exercising their powers or carrying out their tasks task s and duties, neither the ECB nor a national central bank may take ta ke Privacy Policy instructions from Union institutions, governments of Member States or any Marketing other body. Te EU institutions and the Member States’ governments will Personalizationnot seek to inuence the ECB (Article 130 FEU). Analytics Save
Te ECB has a Governing Council and an Executive Board. Te GovAccept All erning Council comprises the governors of the central banks of the 16
Member States euro Board, area andwhich the members of the Executive Board of the ECB. TeinExecutive Ethe xecutive is made m ade up of the President, the Vice-President Vice-Pr esident and four other members, is effectively in charge cha rge of running the ECB. Its President and members are appointed from among persons of recognised standing and experience in monetary or banking bank ing matters by common accord of the governments of the Member States, on a recommendation from the Council after it has consulted the European Parliament. Teir term of office is eight years, which, in the interests of ensuring the independence of the Executive Board members, is not renewable (Article (Art icle 283 FEU). FEU). Te European System of Central Banks (ESCB) is composed of the ECB and the central banks of the Member States (Article 129 FEU). It has the task of defining and implementing the monetary policy of the Union, and has the exclusive right to authorise the issue of banknotes and coins within States the Union. It alsothe manages official of currency reserves of the Member and ensures smooththe operation payments systems (Article 127(2) FEU).
Te Court of Auditors (Articles 285 and 286 FEU) Te Court of Auditors was set up on 22 July 1975 and began work in Luxembourg in October 1977. 1977. It has since risen to the t he rank of Union institution This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site 13 EU). It consists of 27 members, corresponding to the present (Article functionality, as well as marketing, number of Member States. Tey are appointed for six years by the Council, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time es, by qualied which approves, approv qua lied majority and following consultation with the or accept the default settings.
European Parliament, a list of members drawn up in accordance with pro-
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posals from the (Articlefrom 286(2) FEU). members the President of Member the CourtStates of Auditors a mong among theirTe number for a elect term of three years; the President may be re-elected. Te Court of Auditors’ task is to examine whether all revenue has been received and all expenditure incurred in a lawful and regular manner and whether nancial nancial management has been sound. Unlike the courts of auditors or similar bodies in some Member States, it has no jurisdiction to enforce its control measures or to investigate suspicions of irregularity arising from its investigations. However, it is wholly autonomous in its decisions regarding what it examines and how. It can, for instance, examine whether the use made of Union nancial support by private individuals is in compliance with Community law. Te chief weapon in its armoury is the fact that it can publicise its ndings. Te results of its investigations are summarised in an annual report at the
This website stores data suchnancial as end of each year, which is published in the Official Journal of the cookies to enable essential site European Union and thus brought to public attention. It may also make spefunctionality, as well as marketing, personalization, analytics. cialand reports at You any time on specic areas of nancial management, and these may change your settings at any time also published in the Official Journal. or accept the are default settings.
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Europe an Economi European Ec onomicc and Social S ocial Commi Committe tteee (Article 301 FEU) Analytics Personalization
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AcceptofAll Te purpose the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is to give the various economic and social groups (especially employers and em-
ployees, farmers, carriers, business people, craft workers, the professions and managers of small and medium-sized businesses) representation in an EU institution. It also provides a forum for consumers, environmental groups and associations. Te EESC is made up of a maximum max imum of 350 members members (advisers), (advisers), drawn from f rom the most representative organisations in the individual indi vidual Member States. Tey are appointed for ve years by the Council, which, acting in unanimity, adopts a list of members drawn up in accordance with the proposals made by each Member State. 0 75
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of seats is as follows (6). 24
F R AN C E
24
ITALY UNI TED KI NGD O M
24 24
Personalization SPAIN
21
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P OL AN D
21
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R OMA N I A
15
BELGIUM
12
BULGARIA
12
CZ E CH R E P UBL I C GR E E CE
12 12
HUNGARY
12
N E T H E RL AN D S
12
AUSTRIA
12
P OR T U G AL
12
SWED EN
12
D E N MAR K I R E L AN D
9 9
LITHUANIA
9
SLOVAKIA
9
F I N L AN D
9
ESTONIA
7
LAT VIA
7
SLOVENIA C YP R U S
7 6
LUXEMBOURG
6
MALTA
5
Te members are divided up into i nto three groups (employers, (employers, workers and other This website stores data such parties part iesasrepresentative of civil society). Opinions Opinions to be adopted at plenary plenary sess escookies to enable essential site are drawn up by ‘study groups’ consisting of EESC EE SC members (in which functionality, as well assions marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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(6) Source: Website of the European Economic and Social Committee; 344 members in March 2010.
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their alternates may also participate pa rticipate as experts) exper ts).. Te EESC also works closely with the committees of the European Europea n Parliament. Te EESC, which was established under the reaties of Rome, must in certain circumstances be consulted by the Council acting on a proposal from the Commission. Commis sion. It also issues is sues opinions on its own initiative. Tese opinions represent a synthesis of sometimes very divergent viewpoints and are extremely useful for the Commission and the Council because they show what changes the groups directly affected by a proposal would like to see. Te EESC’s own-initiative opinions have on a number of occasions had h ad considerable political implications, one example being that of 22 February 1989 on basic social rights in the EU, which provided the basis for the ‘Social Charter’ proposed by the Commission (and adopted by 11 Member States).
Committee of the Regions (Article 305 FEU)
This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site A new advisory body was set up alongside the EESC by the reaty reaty on Eurofunctionality, as well as marketing, pean of Maastricht): the Committee of the Regions (CoR). personalization, and Union analytics.(reaty You may change your settings at any time Like the EESC, it is not strictly an EU institution, as its function is purely or accept the default settings.
advisory and it has no power to produce legally binding decisions in the same way as the fully edged institutions (European Parliament, Council, Privacy Policy European Commission, Comm ission, Court of Justice, Court of Auditors, European CenMarketing tral Bank). Personalization
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the EESC, the Committee of the Regions consists of a maximum of 350 members (7). Te members are representatives of regional and local auAccept All thorities in the Member States who must have a mandate based on elections from the authorities they represent, or must be politically accountable
to them. Te 350 seats are allocated to the Member States using the same weighting as for the EESC. EE SC. Te members are appointed appointed for ve years by the Council, which, acting in unanimity, adopts a list of members drawn up in accordance with the proposals made by each Member State. Te members of the Committee elect a chairman from among their number for a term of two years. Tere are a number of areas in which consultation by the Council of the EU or the European Commission is required (‘mandatory consultation’):
(7) Source: Website of the Committee of the Regions; 344 members in March 2010.
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T H E O F E U R O P E A N U N I O N L A W This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings. education; culture; public
health; trans-European networks; transport, telecommunications and energy infrastructure; economic and social cohesion; Privacy Policy employment policy and social legislation. Te Council also consults the Committee regularly regu larly,, and without any legal obligation, in connection connec tion with a Marketing draf t legislation (‘non-mandatory (‘non-mandatory consultation’). consultation’). Personalization wide range of draft Analytics Save
HE EUROPEAN EUROPEAN INVESMEN INV ESMEN BANK BA NK ARICLE 308 FEU Accept All
As nancing n ancing agency agenc y for a ‘balanced ‘bala nced and steady development’ development’ of the EU, the
Union has at its disposal the European Investment Bank (EIB), located in Luxembourg. Te EIB provides loans and guarantees in all economic sectors, especially to promote the development of less-developed regions, to modernise or convert undertakings or create new jobs and to assist projects of common interest to several severa l Member States. Te EIB has a tripartite structure: it is headed by the Board of Governors, made up of the Finance Ministers of the Member States, which sets the guidelines for credit policy polic y and authorises EIB activities ac tivities outside the EU. Te Board of Governors is followed by the Board of Directors, which has 28 full f ull members (one representative from each of the Member States and one from the European Commission) Comm ission) and 18 18 alternate members. Members Members are usually usua lly senior officials from the national nance or economic affairs ministries. Te Board of Directors takes decisions in respect of granting loans and guarantees and raising loans. It makes sure that the bank is run in accordance with the guidelines of the Board of Governors. Te day-to-day activities of the EIB are run by the Management Committee, an executive of nine persons appointed for a period of six years.
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The leg legaal orde orderr of the the EU EU Te constitution of the EU described above, and particularly the fundamental values it embodies, can be brought to life and given substance only through Union law. law. Tis makes ma kes the EU a legal reality in i n two different senses: it is created by law and is a community based on law.
THE E EU U AS A CREATION OF L AW AN AND D A COMMUNITY BASED ON L AW This website stores data such as cookies to enable Tisessential is whatsiteis entirely new about the EU, and what distinguishes it from functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You earlier attempts to unite Europe. It works not by means of force or subjugamay change your settings at any time tion but simply by means of law. Law is intended to achieve what ‘blood or accept the default settings.
and iron’ have for centuries failed to bring about. For only unity based on a freely made decision can be expected to last: unity founded on the fundaPrivacy Policy mental values such as freedom and equality, and protected and translated Marketing into reality by law. Tat is the insight underlying the reaties that created Personalization the European Union. Analytics
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However, the EU is not merely a creation of law but also pursues its objecAccept All tives purely by means of law. It is a community based on law. Te common economic and social life li fe of the peoples of the Member States is governed not not
by the threat of force but by the law of the Union. Tis is the basis of the institutional system. It lays down the procedure for decision-making by the Union Unio n institutio inst itutions ns and regulates their t heir relationship to each other. It provides the institutions with the means — in the shape of regulations, directives and decisions — of enacting legal instruments binding on the Member States and their citizens. Tus the individuals themselves become a main focus of the Union. Its Its legal order directly direct ly affects their daily life li fe to an ever-increasing extent. It accords them rights and imposes obligations on them, so that as citizens both of their State and of the Union they are governed by a hierarchy of legal orders — a phenomenon phenomenon familiar fami liar from federal constitutions. Like any legal order, that of the EU provides a self-contained system of legal protection for the purpose of recourse to and the enforcement of Union law. Union law also denes the relationship between the EU and the Member States.
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Te Member States must take all al l appropriate appropriate measures to ensure ful f ullment lment of the obligations arising from the reaties or resulting from action taken by the t he institutions of the Union. Tey must facilitate the achievement of the EU’s
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tasks and abstain from any measure that could jeopardise the attainment of the objectives of the reaties. Te Member States are answerable to the citizens of All the EU for any a ny harm caused c aused through throug h violations of Union Union law. Accept
THE LEGAL SOURCES OF U NION L AW Te term ‘legal source’ has two t wo meanings: in its original meaning, it refers to the reason for the emergence of a legal provision, i.e. the motivation behind the creation of a legal construct. construc t. According to this denition, den ition, the ‘legal source’ sourc e’ of Union law is the will to preserve peace and create a better Europe through closer economic ties, two cornerstones of the EC. In legal parlance, on the other hand, ‘legal source’ refers to the origin and embodiment of the law. SOURCES OF UNION LAW
1. PRIMARY LEGISLATION
Union Treaties Treaties — General principles of law
2. THE EU’S INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
3. SECONDARY LEGISLATION Legislative acts Regulations — Directives — Decisions Non-legislative acts Delegated acts — Implementing acts This website stores data such as Other acts cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, Recommendations and opinions — Interinstitutional agreements — personalization, and analytics. You Resolutions, declarations and action programmes may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
4. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF LAW
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5. CONVENTIONS BETWEEN THE MEMBER STATES
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THE EU FOUNDING TREATIES AS THE PRIMARY SOURCE OF UNION LA L AW
Te rst source of Union law in this sense sen se is the EU founding reaties, with the various annexes, annexe s, appendices and protocols attached to them, and later additions and amendments. Tese founding reaties and the instruments amending and supplementing them (chiey the reaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon) and the various Accession reaties contain the basic provisions on the EU’s objectives, organisation and modus operandi, and parts of its economic law.. Tey thus law t hus set the t he constitutional framework fra mework for the life of the EU, which is then eshed out in the Union’s interest by legislative and administrative action by thedata Union Te reaties, reaties, being legal lega l instruments instru ments created directly This website stores such institutions. as cookies to enable essential site States, are known in legal circles as primary Union law. by the Member functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
THE EU LEGAL OF UNION LAW INSTRUMENTS AS THE SECONDARY SOURCE
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made by the Union institutions through exercising the powers conferred on them is referred to as a s secondary legislatio legislation, n, the second important source of Marketing EU law. Personalization Analytics
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It consists of legislative acts, delegated acts, implementing acts and other legal acts.Accept ‘Legislative acts’ are legal acts adopted by ordinary or special legislaAll tive procedure (Article 289 FEU). ‘Delegated acts’ are non-legislative acts of
general and binding application to supplement or amend certain non-essential elements elem ents of a legislative act. Tey are adopted by the Commission; a legislative act must be drawn up explicitly delegating power to the Commission for this purpose. Te objectives, content, scope and duration of the delegation of power are explicitly dened in the legislative act concerned. Tis delegation of power can be revoked by the Council or the European Parliament at any time. A delegated act may enter into force only if no objection has been raised by the European Parliament or the Council within a period set by the legislative act (Article 290 FEU). ‘Implementing acts’ are an exception to the principle whereby all the measure measuress required to implement implement binding EU EU lega legall acts are taken by the Member States in accordance with their t heir own national provisions. Where uniform conditions are needed for implementing legally binding EU acts, this is done by means of appropriate implementing acts, which are a re generally adopted by the Commission, and, in certain exceptional cases, by the Council. However, the European Parliament and the Council Cou ncil lay down in advance the rules rule s and
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general principles concerning the mechanisms for control by Member States Personalizationof the Commission’ C ommission’ss exercise of implementing powers (Article (A rticle 291 FEU). FiAnalytics nally, there is a whole set of ‘other legal acts’ which the Union institutions can Save
use to issue Accept All non-binding measures and statements or which regulate the internal workings of the EU or its institutions, such as agreements or arrangements between the institutions, or internal rules of procedure.
Tese legal acts can ca n take very different d ifferent forms. forms. Te most important important of these are listed and dened in Article 288 FEU. As binding legal acts, they include both general and abstract legal provisions on the one hand and specic, individual measures on the other. Tey also provide for the Union institutions to issue non-binding statements. Tis list of acts act s is not exhaustive, exhaust ive, however. Many other legal acts do not t into specic categories. Tese include resolutions, declarations, declarat ions, action programmes programme s or White and Green Papers. Papers. Tere are considerable differences between the various acts in terms of the procedure involved, their legal effect and those to whom they are addressed; these differences will be dealt with in more detail in the section on the ‘means of action’. Te Union legislation is a gradual emergence lendscreation vitality of to secondary the primary legislation deriving from theprocess. UnionIts reaties, and progressively progressi vely generates and enhances the European legal order. INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS OF THE EU
A third source source of Union law is connected with the EU’s EU’s role role at the international level. As one of the focal points of the world, Europe cannot conne itself to managing its own internal affairs; it has to concern itself with economic, social and political relations with the world outside. Te EU therefore concludes This website stores data such as agreements in international law with non-member countries (‘third countries’) cookies to enable essential site with other international organisations; these range from treaties providfunctionality, as well asand marketing, personalization, and analytics. You ing for extensive cooperation cooperation in trade or in the industrial, technical and social may change your settings at any time elds, to agreements on trade in particular part icular products. or accept the default settings. Privacy Policy Marketing
Tree kinds of agreement between the EU and non-member countries are particularly worth mentio mentioning. ning.
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Association Assoc iation agreeme ag reements nts
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Associat ion goes Association g oes far beyond the mere regu regulation lation of trade policy and involves Accept All close economic economic cooperation and wide-ranging nancial assistance from the EU
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for the country concerned (Article 217 FEU). A distinction may be drawn between three different d ifferent types of association agreement.
Ag reements that maintai Agreements ma intain n special specia l links link s between certai cer tain n Member States and a nd non-member non-member countries One particular reason rea son for the creation creation of the associatio a ssociation n agreement was the exe xistence of countries and territories outside Europe with which Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom maintained mainta ined particularly close economic ties as a legacy of their colonial past. Te introduction This website stores data such as of aessential common cookies to enable site external tariff in the EU would have seriously disrupted trade functionality, as well as marketing, with these territories, which meant that special arrangements arra ngements were needed. Te personalization, and analytics. You purpose of atassociation asso may change your settings anyciation time is therefore to promote the economic and social developor accept the default settings. ment of the countries and territories and to establish close economic relations between them and the Union as a whole (Article 198 FEU). As a result, there are a whole range of preferential agreements enabling goods to be imported Marketing from these countries and territories at reduced or zero customs rates. Financial Personalization and technical assistance from the EU was channelled through the European Analytics Development Fund. Far and away the most important agreement in practice is the EU–ACP Partnership Agreement between the EU and 70 States in Africa, A frica, Save Accept All the Caribbean and the Pacic (‘the ACP’). Tis agreement was recently con-
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verted intofree a setaccess of economic partnership agreements, t he ACP countries to the European internal market.gradually giving the
Ag reements as preparation Agreements prepara tion for accession acces sion to the Union Union or for the establishment of a customs union Asso ciation arrangements Association arra ngements are also a lso used in the preparation prepar ation of countries for possiblee membership of the Union. sibl Union. Te arrangement arra ngement serves as a preliminary stage sta ge towards accession during which the applicant country can work on converging its economy with that of the EU.
Agreement Ag reement on the European Economic Ec onomic Area (EEA) (E EA) Te EEA Agreement brings the (remaining) countries in the European Free rade Association (EFA) (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) into the internal market and, by requiring them to incorporate nearly two thirds of the EU’s legislation, lays a rm basis for subsequent accession. In the EEA, on the basis of the acquis communautaire (the (the body of primary and secondary Union
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legislat ion),, there is to be free movement of goods, persons, services legislation) ser vices and a nd capital, uniform rules ru les on competition and state aid, and closer cooperation on horizonhorizontal and anking policies (environment, research and development, education).
Cooperation agreements Cooperation agreements are not as far-reaching as association agreements, being aimed solely at intensive economic cooperation. Te EU has such agreeThis website stores data such as ments with the Maghreb States (Algeria, Morocco and unisia), the Mashreq cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, States (Egy (Egypt, pt, Jordan, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) and Israel, for instance. personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
Trade agreements Te Union also has a considerable number of trade agreements with indi-
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non-member countries, with groupings of such countries or within international inter national trade organisations relating to tariffs ta riffs and a nd trade policy. policy. Te most Personalization important international trade agreements are: the Agreement establishing Analytics the World rade Organisation (WO Agreement) and the multilateral trade deriving from it, including including in particular the General Agreement A greement on Save agreements Accept All ariffs and rade (GA 1994); the Antidumping and Subsidies Code, the
General Agreement on rade in Services (GAS); the Agreement on radeRelated Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (RIPS); ( RIPS); and the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes. SOURCES SOUR CES OF UNW RITTEN L AW
Te sources of Union law described so far share a common feature in that they all produce written law. Like all systems of law, however, the EU legal order cannot consist entirely of written rules: there will always be gaps which have to be lled by unwritten law.
General principles of law Te unwritten sources of Union law are the general principles of law. Tese are rules reecting the elementary concepts of law and justice that must be respected by any legal system. Written Union law for the most part deals only with economic and social matter matters, s, and is only to a limited extent capable of laying down rules of this t his kind, which means that the t he general principles principles of law form one of the most important sources of law in the Union. Tey allow gaps
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Accept All and questions of the interpretation of existing law to be settled in to be lled the fairest way.
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Tese principles are given effect when the law is applied, particularly in the judgments of the Court of Justice, which is responsible for ensuring that ‘in the interpretation and application of this thi s reaty reaty the t he law is observed’ observed ’. Te main points of reference for determining the t he general principles of law are the principles common to the legal lega l orders of the Member States. Tey provide the background backg round against which the EU rules needed for solving a problem can be developed. Alongside the principles of autonomy autonomy,, direct d irect applicability and the primac primacyy of Union law, law, other legal principles include the guarantee gua rantee of basic rights, right s, the principle of proportionality, the protection of legitimate expectations, the right to a proper hearing and the principle that the Member States are liable for infringements of Union law.
Legal custom Unwritten Union law also encompasses legal custom. Tis is understood to mean a practice which has ha s been followed and accepted and thus become legally established, and which adds to or modies primary or secondary legislation. Te possible establishment of legal custom in Union law is acknowledged in principle. Tere are considerable limitations on its becoming established in the context of Union law, however. Te rst hurdle is the existence of a special procedure This website stores data such as for the amendment of the reaties (Article 54 EU). Tis does not cookies to enable essential site out the possible emergence of legal custom, but it does make the criteria functionality, as well asrule marketing, according personalization, and analytics. You to which a practice is deemed to have been followed and accepted may change your settings any time for at a substantial period much harder to meet. Another hurdle to the establishor accept the default settings.
ment of legal custom in the Union institutions is the fact that any action by an institution may derive its validity only from the reaties, and not from that Privacy Policy institution’ institut ion’ss actual actua l conduct or any intention on on its part to create legal leg al relations. Marketing Tis means that, at the t he level of the reaties, reaties, legal custom can under no circumPersonalization stances be established by the Union institutions; at most, only the Member Analytics States can do this — and then only subject to the stringent conditions mentioned Procedures and practices practice s followed and accepted as part par t of the law Save Accept above. All by Union institutions may, however, be drawn on when interpreting the legal rules laid down by them, which might alter the legal implications and scope of
the legal act concerned. However, the conditions and limitations arising from primary Union legislation must also be borne in mind here.
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Agreements Agree ments between bet ween the Member States Te nal source of EU law comprises comprises agreemen ag reements ts between bet ween the Member States. Agreements Agre ements of this t his kind may be concluded for the sett settlement lement of issues closely linked to the EU’s activities, but no powers have been transferred to the Union institutions; there are also full-scale international agreements (treaties This website stores data such as between the Member States aimed especially at overcoming and conventions) cookies to enable essential site the drawbacks of territorially limited arrangements and creating law that apfunctionality, as well as marketing, personalization, anduniformly analytics. You plies throughout the EU. EU. Tis is important primarily in the eld of may change your settings at any time international law. Tese agreements include: the Convention on Jurisor accept the private default settings.
diction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters Privacy Policy(1968), which has, however, been replaced by a Council regulation of 2001, except in the case of Denmark, and is therefore now part of secondary Union Marketing
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the Convention on the Mutual Recognition of Companies and Legal Persons (1968); the Convention on the Elimination of Double axation Analytics in connection with the Adjustment of ransfers of Prots between Associated Save Enterprises Accept All and the Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual (1990) Obligations (1980).
THE EU’S MEANS OF ACTION Te system of legislative acts had to be devised afresh when the EU was wa s set up. It had to be decided rst and foremost what forms Union legislation should take and what effects these should have. Te institutions had to be able to align the disparate economic, social and not least environmental conditions in the various Member States, and do so effectively, i.e. without depending on the goodwill of the Member States, so that the best possible living conditions could createdin forthe all domestic the citizens citiz ens of the of Union. Onmore the other hanecessary. nd, they were not tobe interfere systems law any thanhand, Te entire EU legislative system is therefore based on the principle that where the same arrangement, even on points of detail, must apply in all Member States, national arrangements must be replaced by Union legislation, but where this is not necessary due account must be taken of the existing legal orders in the Member States. Aga inst this backg Against background round a range of instr instruments uments was developed that allowed the Union institutions to impact on the national legal systems to varying degrees. Te most drastic action is the replacement of national rules by Union This website stores data such as cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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ones. Tere are also Union rules by which the Union institutions act on the
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Member States’ States’ legal systems sy stems only indirectly. indirectly. Measures may also a lso be taken ta ken that affect only a dened or identiable identiable addressee, in order to deal with a particular par ticular case. Lastly, provision is also made for legal acts that have no binding force, either on the Member States or on the citizens of the Union. If we look at the range of EU legal instrument ins trumentss in terms of the persons to whom they are addressed and their t heir practical effects in the Member States, they can be broken down as follows. ADDRE SSEES
E F F E C TS
REGULATION
All Member States, natural and legal persons
Directly applicable and binding in their entirety
D I R E C T I VE
All or specific Member States
Binding with respect to the intended result. Directly applicable only under particular circumstances
D E C I S I ON
Not specified All or specific Member States; specific natural or legal persons
Directly applicable and binding in their entirety
RECOMMENDATION
All or specific Member States, other EU bodies, individuals
Not binding
All or specific Member States, other EU bodies
Not binding
Not specified
Not binding
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REGULAIONS AS UNION ‘LAWS’
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Te legal acts that enable the Union institutions to impinge furthest on the domestic legal systems are the regulations. wo features highly unusual in
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Te rst is their Community nature, which means that they lay down
the same law throughout the Union, regardless of international borders, and apply in full in all Member States. A Member State has no power to apply a regulation incompletely or to select only those provisions of which it approves as a means of ensuring that an instrument
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which it opposed at the time of its adoption or which runs counter to its perceived national interest is not given effect. Nor can it invoke provisions or practices of domestic law to preclude the mandatory application of a regulation. This website stores data such as cookies to enable ■ essential site Te second is direct applicability, which means that the legal acts do functionality, as well as marketing, not have to to be transposed transpos ed into national law but confer rights or impose personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time obligations on the Union citizen in the same way as national law. Te or accept the default settings.
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Member States and their governing institutions and courts are bound directly by Union law and have to comply with it in the same way as with national law.
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between these legal acts and statute law passed in individual
States are unmistakable. If they are enacted with the involvement of the European Parliament (under the co-decision-making procedure — All see nextAccept section), they are described as ‘legislative acts’. Parliament has no responsibility for regulations, which are only enacted by the Council or the
European Commission and thus, from a procedural point of view at least, they lack the essential characteristics of legislation of this kind.
DIRECIVES
Te directive is the most important legislative instrument alongside the regulation. regu lation. Its purpose is to reconcile the dual objectives of both securing the necessary uniformity of Union law and respecting the diversity of national traditions and structures. What the directive primarily aims for, then, is not the unication un ication of the t he law, law, which is the t he regulation’ regu lation’ss purpose, but its harmonisation. Te idea is to remove contradictions and conicts between national laws and regulations or gradually iron out inconsistencies so that, as far as possible, the same material conditions exist in all the Member States. Te directive is one of the primary means deployed in building the single market.
A directive di rective is binding bindin g on the Member States as regard re gardss the objective to be achievedd but leaves it to the national authorities achieve aut horities to decide on how the agreed Community objective is to be incorporated into their domestic legal systems. Te reasoning behind this form of legislation is that it allows intervention in domestic economic and legal structures to take a milder form. In particular, Membe ca n take ta ke account of special domestic circumstances This website stores dataMember such as r States can cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time or accept the default settings.
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when implemen implementing ting Community rules. What W hat happens is that the directive does supersede the lawstoofadapt the their Member Stateslaw butinplaces the CommuMember Statesnot under an obligation national line with nity provisions. provisions. Te result is generally a two-stage t wo-stage law-making process. First, at the initial stage, the directive lays down the objective that is to be achieved at EU level by any or all Member State(s) to which it is addressed within a specied time-frame. ti me-frame. Te Union institutions can ca n actually actua lly spell out the objective in such detailed terms as to leave the Member States with no room for manoeuvre, and this has in fact been done in directives on technical standards and environmental protection. Second, at the national stage, the objective set at EU level is translated into actual legal or administrative provisions in the Member States. Even if the Member States are in principle free to determine the form and methods used us ed to transpose their EU obligation into domestic law, EU criteria are used to assess whether havesituation done somust in accordance with law.theTe general principle is thatthey a legal be generated in EU which rights and obligations arising from the directive can be recognised with sufficient clarity and certainty to enable the Union citizen to invoke or, if appropriate, This website stores data such as them in the national courts. Tis normally challenge chal lenge norma lly involves involves enacting mancookies to enable essential site provisions of national law or repealing or amending existing rules. functionality, as well asdatory marketing, personalization, and analytics. You Administrative Admin istrative custom on its own is not enough since it can, by its very may change your settings at any time nature, be changed at will by the authorities concerned; nor does it have a or accept the default settings. sufficiently high prole. Privacy Policy
Directives do not as a rule directly confer rights or impose obligations on the Union citizen. Tey are expressly addressed to the Member States Personalization alone. Rights and obligations for the citizen ow only from the measures Analytics enacted by the authorities of the Member States to implement the directive. Tis a s long as the Member States Save Accept All point is of no importance to citizens as Marketing
actually comply with their Union obligation. But there are disadvantages
for Union citizens where a Member State does not take the requisite implementing measures to achieve an objective set in a directive that would benet them, or where the measures taken are inadequate. Te Court of Justice has refus refused ed to t o tolerate such disadva d isadvantages, ntages, and a long line of cases c ases has determined that in such circumstances Union citizens can plead that the directive or recommendation recommendation has direct effect in actions in the national
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courts to secure the rights conferred on them by it. Direct effect is dened by the Court as follows. This website stores data such as ■ Te provisions of the directive must lay down the rights cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well citizen/undertaking as marketing, with sufficient clarity and precision. personalization, and analytics. You may change your settings at any time ■ Te exercise of the rights is not conditional. or accept the default settings. ■
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of the EU
Te national legislative authorities may not be given any room for manoeuvre regarding the content of the rules to be enacted. manoeuvre
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Te time allowed for implementation of the directive has expired.
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decisions of the Court of Justice concerning direct effect are based on the
All the Member State is acting equivocally and unlawfully if it general Accept view that applies its old law without without adapting it to the t he requirements of the directive. direct ive. Tis is an abuse of rights by the Member State and the recognition of direct effect
