Transcript Slajd 1 - lodz.pl

Part 1
Evolution of European integration
and legal character of the
European Union
Integration:
a process by which a certain whole is created from
parts, or certain elements are linked together into
single whole
Concepts of integration:
• confederative
• federative – creation of supernational
organization of states – new level of governance
▫ constitutional – assuming that the process gives
rise to state organism of a federal character
(United States of Europe);
▫ functionalist – assuming that the cooperation
between states will be first economic in character
with a view to any arising problems being
resolvable in practice
Evolution of the EC/EU
• 9th of May 1950 – Schuman Plan
• 18th of April 1951 Treaty establishing the
European Coal and Steel Community (Paris
Treaty)
• 1954 – European Defense Community ;
European Political Community
Schuman Declaration
9 May 1950
• "World peace cannot be safeguarded without the
making of creative efforts proportionate to the
dangers which threaten it."
• "Europe will not be made all at once, or according to
a single plan. It will be built through concrete
achievements which first create a de facto
solidarity."
• "The pooling of coal and steel production... will
change the destinies of those regions which have
long been devoted to the manufacture of munitions
of war, of which they have been the most constant
victims."
Institutional Structure of the ESCC
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High Authority
Council of Ministers
Parliamentary Assembly
Court of Justice
• 25th of March 1957 – Treaty establishing
European Economic Community (EEC); Treaty
establishing European Atomic Energy
Community (Euratom)
European Economic Community
Art. 2 EEC Treaty
"The Community shall have as its task, by
establishing a common market and progressively
approximating the economic policies of member
states, to promote throughout the community a
harmonious development of economic activities, a
continuous and balanced expansion, an increase in
stability, an accelerated raising of the standard of
living and closer relations between the states
belonging to it".
European Economic Community
Common market
1. customs union
Custom Union since 1 July 1968 =
tariffs and quantitive restrictions between MS
abolished + common external customs tariff
2. „four freedoms” + approximation of laws
Free movement of goods, persons, services and
capital
3. rules on competition
4. state aid
5. tax provisions
European Economic Community
Common policies
• common commercial policy
• common policy in the sphere of agriculture and
fisheries
• common policy in the sphere of transport
• social policy
• association of the overseas countries and
territories
Institutional Structure of the
Communities
• ESCC
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High Authority
Council of Ministers
Parliamentary Assembly
Court of Justice
• EEC/Euratom
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Commission
Council of Ministers
Parliamentary Assembly
Court of Justice
Institutional Structure of the
Communities
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1957 Convention on certain institutions common to
the European Communities
1965 Merger Treaty  Treaty Establishing a Single
Council and Single Commission
repealed by the EU Treaty
Parliamentary Assembly /European Parliament
Council
Commission
Court of Justice /ECJ
Community acts
• regulations
• directives
• decisions
Single European Act of 1986
1/ internal market
art. 8a: an area without internal frontiers in
which the free movement of goods, persons,
services, and capital is ensured (till 31.12.1992)
With a population of 457 million, the European Union is the
largest internal market in the world today.
Single European Act of 1986
objectives :
• "to improve the economic and social situation
by extending common policies and pursuing new
objectives"
• "to ensure a smoother functioning of the
Communities".
Single European Act of 1986
institutional reform:
• extension of QMV – internal market
• cooperation procedure (interinstitutional dialog)
• extension of executive powers of the
Commission (in creation of internal market)
new Community fields of action
• Economic and Social Cohesion (European
Regional Development Found),
• Research and Technological Development
• Environment
reference to a Treaty on Economic and Monetary Union
and cooperation in the sphere of Foreign Policy (European
Political Cooperation, European Council)
Treaty on the European Union of 1992
Objectives:
• strengthen the democratic legitimacy of the
institutions;
• improve the effectiveness of the institutions;
• establish economic and monetary union;
• develop the Community social dimension;
• establish a common foreign and security policy.
European Union as a ‘pillar structure’
Pediment
single institutional framework, common objectives and values
II
Common
Foreign and
Security
Policy
I Community
Pillar
EC
ECSC (till 2002)
Euratom
Fundament
amendment [art. 48 TEU] membership [art. 49 TEU]
III
Cooperation
in the field
of justice
and home
affairs
Objectives of the EU i.a.
• establishment of an economic and monetary
union including a single currency
• a common foreign and security policy including
the eventual framing of a common defense policy
• the introduction of a citizenship of the Union
• cooperation on justice and home affairs
• the maintenance of the acquis communautaire
• the respect of the principle of subsidiarity
Community method
• legislative initiative of the Commission
• QMV
• co-decision - EP involved in decisionmaking process
• direct effect
• ECJ review
II & III pillar - intergovernmental method
• legislative initiative - MSs &Commission
• unanimity, exceptionally QMV
• EP - consultation
• no direct effect for framework decisions
and decisions
• ECJ review only in III pillar – Art. 35 EU
Changes to EC Treaty:
new Community fields of action
visas, education, culture, public health, consumer
protection, Trans-European Networks in transport,
energy, telecommunication, industrial policy,
cooperation for development ;
institutional changes:
• co-decision procedure
• expansion of QMV
• Economic and Monetary Union
• principle of subsidiarity
European citizenship
„Every national of a Member State shall be a
citizen of the Union”
4/ ECONOMIC AND MONETARY UNION - the
Member States must
• ensure coordination of their economic policies,
• provide for multilateral surveillance of this
coordination
• are subject to financial and budgetary discipline.
The objective of monetary policy is to create a single
currency and to ensure this currency's stability
thanks to price stability and respect for the market
economy.
establishment of a single currency - stages:
• Liberalization of the movement of capital (since
1 January 1990);
• convergence of the Member States' economic
policies (since 1 January 1994);
• the creation of a single currency and the
establishment of a European Central Bank
(ECB) (since 1 January 1999)
Treaty of Amsterdam of 1997
Objectives:
to create the political and institutional conditions
to enable the European Union to meet the
challenges of the future such as the rapid
evolution of the international situation, the
globalization of the economy and its impact on
jobs, the fight against terrorism, international
crime and drug trafficking, ecological problems
and threats to public health.
Treaty of Amsterdam of 1997
Institutional changes
• extension of QMV;
• Changes in the structure and operation of the
European Commission;
• extension of power of the ECJ;
• involvement of national Parliaments in the
activities of the European Union;
• the subsidiarity principle - containing legally
binding guidelines;
• closer cooperation.
Treaty of Amsterdam of 1997
Institutional changes
• extension of QMV;
• Changes in the structure and operation of the
European Commission;
• extension of power of the ECJ;
• involvement of national Parliaments in the
activities of the European Union;
• the subsidiarity principle - containing legally
binding guidelines;
• closer cooperation.
Treaty of Amsterdam of 1997
• new fields of EC activity
▫ employment policy
▫ acquis Schengen
Treaty of Nice of 2000
OBJECTIVES OF THE TREATY OF NICE
- preparing the European Union for enlargement
by revising the Treaties in four key areas:
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size and composition of the Commission;
weighting of votes in the Council;
extension of QMV;
enhanced cooperation.
Treaty of Nice of 1992
Institutional changes:
• Council -new weighting of votes in the Council: adjustment in the
weighting of votes in favour of the more populated Member States
and redistribution of votes among the 25 then 27 Member States.
• Commission - future change in the composition, increase in the
powers of the President , change in the way he or she is nominated.
• Reform of judicial system- new division of tasks between the Court
of Justice and the Court of First Instance and the possible creation
of specialist judicial Chambers.
• Other Institutions:
Parliament: extension of the codecision procedure and adjustment
of the number of seats allocated to each current and future Member
State. The Court of Auditors, the European Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the Regions: composition and
nomination of members.
Constitutional Treaty
Declaration on the future of the EU
• a more precise demarcation of responsibilities
between the European Union and the Member
States;
• the status of the Charter of Fundamental Rights
of the European Union;
• a simplification of the Treaties;
• the role of national parliaments in the European
architecture.
Treaty establishing the Constitution for
Europe
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abolition of Pillar’s structure
no EC – only EU
state-like symbols
EU – legal personality
ordinary legislative procedure  Co-decision and
QMV
Institutional changes
principle of primacy of EU law in the main text
Charter of Fundamental Rights included into Treaty
European Laws/European Framework Laws
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Treaty of Lisbon of 2007
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abolition of Pillar’s structure
No state-like symbols
EU – legal personality
Ordinary legislative procedure  Co-decision and QMV
Institutional changes
No principle of primacy of EU law in the main text
Charter of Fundamental Rights is not a part, however
binding
• No European Laws/European Framework Laws
• No Minister for Foreign Affairs/ High Representative of
the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
• European External Action Service
Founder Countries of EEC
1958
enlargement of 1972 (in force in 1973)
• Great Britain
• 1960 – EFTA – GB, Austria, Denmark, Norway,
Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal
• Denmark
• Ireland
• acquis communautaire
• French veto of 1963
• new application of 1967 – + Norway – De Gaulle
veto
1st enlargement: 1973
1973
1958
1981: The first Mediterranean enlargement
• Greece – 1979/1981/ after dictatorship 
(negative opinion of the Commission) - to help
democracy
2nd Enlargement: 1981
1973
1958
1981
Portugal and Spain – 1985/1986
secession of Greenland of 1985
3rd Enlargement: 1986
1973
1958
1986
1981
1995 : The EU expands to 15 members
Accession of Sweden, Finland, Austria
4th Enlargement: 1995
1995
1973
1958
1986
1981
2004 - the biggest round of enlargement : Cyprus,
Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia
5th Enlargement: 2004
1995
1973
2004
1958
1986
1981
2007 – Bulgaria and Romania
6th Enlargement: 2007
1995
1973
2004
1958
2007
1986
1981
Legal character of the EU
Article 1 TEU
By this Treaty, the HIGH CONTRACTING
PARTIES establish among themselves a
EUROPEAN UNION, hereinafter called "the
Union", on which the Member States confer
competences to attain objectives they have in
common.
Article I-1 (TCE)
1. Reflecting the will of the citizens and States of Europe to build a
common future, this Constitution establishes the European Union, on which
the Member States confer competences to attain objectives they have in
common. The Union shall coordinate the policies by which the Member
States aim to achieve these objectives, and shall exercise in the Community
way the competences they confer on it.
EU is the (single) international organization
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created under the Treaty by Members States;
legal personality;
principle of conferred powers
Member States are still ‘Masters of the Treaties”
 Article 48 - an amendment of the Treaties ‘may, inter
alia, serve either to increase or to reduce the
competences conferred on the Union in the Treaties’;
 subject to ratification by all Member States
 Simplified revision procedure (may not increase the
competences conferred on the Union in the Treaties ):
subject to approval by the Member States in accordance with
their respective constitutional requirements
 Article 50 withdrawal from the EU;
Constitutional character of the UE
Article 1 TEU
This Treaty marks a new stage in the process of
creating an ever closer union among the peoples of
Europe, in which decisions are taken as openly as
possible and as closely as possible to the citizen.
The Union shall be founded on the present Treaty and
on the Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union (hereinafter referred to as "the Treaties").
Those two Treaties shall have the same legal value.
(…)
Constitutional character of the EU
The EU is something more than „classic”
international organization:
• aim of the Treaties – integration,
• not only cooperation between Member States
but also integration of peoples,
• „transfer” of powers from Member States to the
EU,
• Treaties as „constitutional charter”,
• ECJ as constitutional Court
Constitutional character of the UE
6/64 Flamino Costa v ENEL
‘By contrast with ordinary international treaties, the EEC
Treaty 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 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.’
• institutions are not free to choose their
objectives in the same way as a sovereign state;
• the EU has not the comprehensive jurisdiction
enjoyed by sovereign states;
• the EU has not powers to establish new areas of
responsibility (‘jurisdiction over jurisdiction’).
Article 1 TEU
The Union shall be founded on the present Treaty
and on the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union (hereinafter referred to as "the
Treaties"). Those two Treaties shall have
the same legal value. (…)
Treaty on European Union
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Common provisions (I)
Provisions on democratic principles (II),
Provisions on institutions (III),
Provisions on enhanced cooperation (IV),
General provisions on the Union’s external
action and specific provisions on the common
foreign and security policy (V)
• Final provisions (VI).
Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union (‘TFEU’) - developed from the Treaty
establishing the European Community.
The Treaty establishing the European Atomic
Energy Community (EAEC Treaty — ‘Euratom
Treaty’)
The TEU and the TFEU have the same legal
standing.