Background EU Law

• History

  • 1957: EEC established under Treaty of Rome (inc. four freedoms)

  • 1973: UK, Ireland Denmark Join.

  • 1980s: Southern and Iberian Additions

  • 1987: Single European Act (SEA), first major treaty amendment. Internal market priority

  • 1992: Maastricht Treaty expanded competence in monetary, foreign, and security policy. Became EC not EEC.

  • 1999: Treaty of Amsterdam.

  • 2003: Treaty of Nice

  • 2004: Big bang with 10 additions.

  • 2007: Lisbon Treaty repackaged Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe (2001), set out TEU and TEFU

• Institutions:

  • European Council: Heads of State or of Governments of Member States meets to discuss direction of EC.

  • Council of Europe/Council of Ministers: Council consists of ministers of member states. Qualified majority voting.

  • European Commission: represents interests of the union. 28 independent members nominated my MSs. Proposes and implements legislation.

  • European Parliament: 751 seats (not population proportional)

  • The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy: conducts EU common foreign and security policy

  • The Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC): Advisory body intended to represent various sectional interests

  • The Committee of the Regions: Advisory body representing regional and local interests.

• Policies

  • Core Policies:

    • Creating the Common/Internal Market; removing barriers to free movement

    • Regulating the internal market

    • Competition (anti-trust) law (Articles 101-109 TFEU)

  • Peripheral Policies:

    • Social, Environmental… Policies (see e.g. Articles 151-161 TFEU and 191-193 EC)

  • Common European Policies

    • Agriculture (Articles 38-44 TFEU), Fisheries, Transport

  • Other policies besides.

• Principles of EU Action:

  • The Principle of Conferral/Limited Competence (Art 5(2) TEU)

    • Under the principle of conferral, the Union shall act only within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States in the Treaties

  • The Principle of Subsidiarity: Given the EU has the power to act is it a good idea for the Union to act (Article 5(3) TEU)

    • the Union shall act only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States

  • The Principle of Proportionality: how far should the EU go with a particular power (Article 5(4) TEU)

    • Under the principle of proportionality, the content and form of Union action shall not exceed what is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Treaties.

• Applying these principles:

  • Lisbon introduced yellow and orange card protocol. Commission must send new legislation to domestic parliaments who can provide and opinion.

    • Yellow Card Protocol Article 7(2) of the Protocol: if one third of domestic parliaments object to the legislation then the commission must revisit the legislation but it does not have to withdraw.

    • Orange Card Protocol Article 7(3(b)) if a...

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