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This is a complete summary of everything that needs to be studied for the course 'The legal dimension of Europe'
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Lecture 1. Introduction and Treaty development.European parliament makes the laws together with the Council of Ministers on a proposal
from the Commission.
Historical overview of European treaties:
Treaty on European Economic Community (1957), Rome.
Foundation treaty of the EU that we have nowadays.
The real foundation treaty that states all of the goals of the European cooperation and the
internal market, establishment of one custom duty on the outside borders and the
institutions like the Council and the European Commission were already in this treaty.
How does the Council of Ministers decide?
Unanimity was often required. Qualified majority voting exists but was almost never
used. This basically means that every minister had a veto right.
Unanimity was not that hard because the EEC had only six members.
- The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, West-Germany, France and Italy.
Qualified majority voting is now the standard voting mechanism in the Council. It means that
there needs to be a majority that is qualified in some way so not the simple majority voting.
Nowadays, 55% of the states need to be in favour (15 out of the current 27 member states)
and these 15 states need to represent at least 65% of the population of the EU.
Qualified majority voting effectively means that states can be outvoted in the Council,
especially small states. Decisions can be taken that go against the will of those states. This
way of voting shows that the supranational character of the system is there.
Policies:
Common custom’s tariff. The outside borders of the EEC had one common tariff, no
distinctions between the countries.
Common agriculture, transport and competition policy (having rules for fair competition
between companies)
Single European act (1986), Luxembourg
Very important, truly pushed the European cooperation forward.
Qualified majority voting in the council became much more important at the expense of the
unanimity. Shift from unanimity to qualified majority voting. Important because effectively
means a shift to more supranationality.
New policy areas, example environment.
Introduction of the Court of First Instance. To deal with the increasing number of cases
Is now called the General Court. Both the CJEU and the General Court are based in
Luxembourg. The General Court deals with cases that are brought by private persons,
such as private companies or member states against the European Commission. CJEU
deals with cases against member states, against EU institutions or against EU
institutions.
31 December 1992: deadline creation single market. (free movement of persons, services
capital and goods).
,Treaty on the European Union (1992), Maastricht.
Formally established the European Union.
No longer EC, now the EU.
Depicts a far more reaching form of cooperation. Expresses a certain kind of unity. A political
organisation which was not only economic in nature, but also has social and political
elements.
Contained a 3 pillared structure.
1. European Community pillar.
2. Common foreign policy and security.
3. Justice and home affairs.
In each of these pillars different rules for decision making existed. In the first pillar, EC,
qualified majority voting was the norm.
The European Parliament became much more powerful as a co-decider. It gained powers to
co-create laws with the Council. Historically, the EP was actually called an assembly. It was
not that powerful; it was basically consulted. It didn’t decide anything, this changed in 1992.
It became a co-decider. The procedure that was used for that was the co-decision
procedure, now called the ordinary legislative procedure.
The treaty of Maastricht introduced new policy areas again: culture, public health, consumer
protection and trans-European networks.
Some new institution: European Central Bank and the Committee of the Regions (institution
where the interests of the regional and local authorities of Europe are represented)
Treaty of Amsterdam (1997)
Not that ground breaking as the Treaty of Maastricht but still contained some interesting
changes.
Recognition that the EU is based on respect for fundamental human rights, democracy and
the rule of law. The core principles.
Another change was that the Asylum law (part of Justice and Home Affairs) became part of
the supranational first pillar (EC pillar). This means that all the important rules about the
state and the procedure for asylum seekers and refugees became an EU issue. So all the
rules that we have nowadays are coming from the European level.
Another important change was that the European Parliament’s decision-making powers
expanded even more into new areas of decision making.
Treaty of Lisbon (2007).
The first treaty created is the TEU; Treaty on the European Union -> contains the main goals
and principles of the EU
The other treaty is the TFEU; Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union -> contains far
more detailed rules.
Treaty of Lisbon was created 2 years after the European constitutional project failed. Kept
some of the changes proposed in the constitution but stepped away from the constitutional
tone.
Introduced 2 important new posts:
- High representative for foreign and security policy
- President of the European Council.
Another important change was the introduction of the so-called citizens’ initiative. Was
introduced to strengthen the involvement of the EU citizens. Partly because there was
, criticis, saying that the EU was suffering democratic deficit. 1 million citizens from at least 7
different member states have to support it.
Another big change was that the 3 pillars were abolished again -> only have 1 EU now.
Legislative framework of the European Union:
Primary legislation: primary because the highest source of law, was created directly by the
member states
- Treaty on the European Union
- Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
- Fundamental Rights Charter
Secondary legislation: are always based on primary legislation (legal basis)
- Regulations
- Directives
- Decisions
How is the TFEU classified? From big to small.
Part
Title
Chapter
Article
Paragraph
Referring to a specific article:
Example.
Art.33 TFEU
Art. 38(2) TFEU
Art. 39 (1)(a) TFEU
Art. 289 para. 1 jo Art. 294 TFEU. Jo = juncto, together
Art. 251-281 TFEU
Lecture 2. Fundamental principles of the EU’s legal order.
Direct effect. (Van Gend & Loos case)
EC law (now EU law) creates rights and obligations for individuals. These rights and
obligations can be enforced in the national courts.
Three criterions: The legal provision must be
1. Clear and precise. It has to be clear for both parties what kind of rights and
obligations are created.
2. Unconditional. The rule should not depend on any intervention of another body to
implement it first.
3. Not subject to any further implementing measures. Doesn’t need to be concretized in
secondary legislation.
Preliminary reference procedure: to ask clarification at the CJEU
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