The document contains a summary of all lecture and reading notes for weeks 1-6 of EU law. At the end of the document are some steps for the analysis that is required in the midterm exam.
The topics included are:
Week 1 - Foundation, Week 2 - The Legislative Function in the EU, Week 3 - The effe...
1. EU Institutional Law
2. EU fundamental freedoms (with a particular focus on the free movement of persons and
goods)
3. Competition Law
4. Judicial Protection in the EU
European Integration: Drivers and Phases
What is the European Union? / What is the legal nature of the EU? How does the EU work?
The EU is an International Organization (IO), like the UN, World Trade Organization,...
→ creatures of international law - states have created them through treaties
● Created by a Treaty (International Law) …
● To achieve specific goals / to perform specific tasks and which power is has is defined
by states
● International treaties are equipped with the necessary design (powers, institutions) to
achieve those goals/tasks
● The EU has a regional nature: states join in a particular region of the world, e.g. the
Council of Europe
- But it is not the only IO in the European Region...Which is the other? → Council of
Europe
➔ In Europe are at least 2 regional international organizations: EU and CoE
What is the relation between the EU and the CoE (Council of Europe)?
The Council of Europe:
● is another IO with a regional nature, also linked to international treaty
● European Convention on Human Rights
● all EU Member States (MS) are member of the CoE
● European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR, 1950)
○ → International Treaty, catalog of civil political rights, states have
committed to guarantee
- European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)
- → compulsory Supranational Court interpreting the ECHR, sitting in
Strasbourg
,What are the current legal foundations of the EU?
EU Primary Legal Sources
The EU is based on The Lisbon Treaty (2 Treaties – same legal value )
- Signed: 13 December 2007
- Entered into force: 1 December 2009
The Lisbon Treaty:
● Treaty on European Union (TEU)
● Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)
● + Protocols to the Treaty of Lisbon (1-37)
● Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFR)
Primary Law
➞TEU: General provisions
(Democratic principles, EU principles, Institutions, Enhanced cooperation, External action)
➞TFEU: Specific provisions
(Rules on EU competences, Functioning of: Institutions, EU citizenship, Policies, Decision
making)
+ Protocols to the Treaty of Lisbon (1-37) Legal Value? As “footnotes” to the
treaties, interpretative tools → specify notions of ‘proportionality’ or
‘subsidiarity’
➞CFR: written Bill of Rights for the EU
Currently the same value as the Treaty → art 6 (1) TEU
- Created in 2000 → it became HARD LAW with the Lisbon Treaty Outcome of a
process of “Codification”
BEFORE the CFR?
, ● already individual rights in CJEU’s Case Law
BEFORE the LISBON TREATY?
● CFR used as soft law (interpretative tool) → for courts to interpret
SCOPE OF APPLICATION
● The CFR applies only when* EU law is applicable (for instance, when MS implement EU
LAW) see art 51 CFR
Is there a relation between EU law and the ECHR?
● EU and the Council of Europe have both a link to an international treaty that consists of
civil and political rights.
○ EU: CFR - Charter of fundamental rights
○ CoE: ECHR - European Convention on Human Rights
What is the link between both?
● The European Convention on Human Rights is international treaty and linked to CoE
○ NOT EU LAW !
○ Not legal act of EU
○ ⇒ But EU law refers to the Convention
○ Future Accession (?), see art 6 (2) TEU
○ Fundamental Rights as guaranteed in the ECHR and in MS constitutional system
are general principles of EU Law
● Interpretation Charter Fundamental Rights must not lowering the standards of protection
provided by the ECHR, see art 53 CFR
Origin and drivers of EU integration
What were the drivers that pushed states to create an international agreement?
The “EU” project ¼
The two faces of Nationalism → EU was an answer to the problem of nationalism =
to promote peace
19th century
Unification Nation States (Germany - Italy)
NATIONALISM
(push towards unification; prior boundaries ... too small!)
20th Century
National Conflicts on a world scale: WWI and WWII
Goal: Long-Lasting Peace
, Strategy: Supranational institutions to prevent war again
1945 UN → International level
1950 ECHR → Supranational Regional Level
The “EU” project 2/4
1951 → (was a peace initiative)
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
6 MS (DE-FR-IT-BE-NL-LU)
supranational management of strategic resources
1950-4
European Defense Community (EDC)
European Political Community (EPC)
Common foreign policy / European legislative body (Federation)
FAILED !!!
1957
European Economic Community (EEC) – Treaty of Rome
European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom)
6 MS (DE-FR-IT-BE-NL-LU)
The “EU” project 3/4
European Economic Community (EEC) → introduces the goal of a common market
1957 EEC Treaty signed / 1958 ECC Treaty in force
Goal?: Gradual creation of common market
How?:
- Common Custom Tariff
- Gradual Removal of internal Barriers to Trade (No tariffs, No quotas)
- Circulation of Economic factors: 4 freedoms
(Goods, Workers, Capital, Services)
Why?
Neofunctionalism: Common Market > Interconnectedness > Spill-over effect > Gradual
Integration > Political integration
⇒ If states agree to create a common market, economies become interdependent which leads
to strong incentive to cooperate in other sectors
Spill-over effect : to have common rules in economic sectors required MS to harmonize rules,
regulating one sector causes more and more integration in other sectors, which leads to strong
form of cooperation
The ‘EU’ project 4/4
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