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EU Law Module Summary
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This summary details all of the relevant information needed on the EU law module. All notes are grade 2:1 and above.
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European lawLecture 1 – History and Development of the EU2
European Law
Current situation for the UK
The current situation is that unless Boris Johnson, or another Prime Minister goes to the EU
for an extension, then the UK will leave the EU on the 31st October 2019. There is some
chance that Boris Johnson may take this Withdrawal Agreement, potentially change it and
amend it some way and come back to Parliament with a new deal. If a new agreement were in
place, this would mean that EU law would be in place for at least another 2 years. Within this
time period, the EU and UK will work out its relationship for the future. Chances are that, if
the UK and the EU negotiate their future agreement, this could be similar to the form of
agreement of Norway. This means that a lot of EU laws will still apply in the UK and the UK
will still remain in the single market. If this is the case, the UK will then sit down with the
EU and come up with a trade agreement. If not, and the UK decides to cut all ties with the
EU, with no trade agreement, then 50% of all British trade will still be with the EU. All
British companies will need lawyers that deal with how law within the EU works. Whatever
happens with Brexit is still unpredictable.
Origins of the EU
Where does the EU come from?
- What to do with Germany? (no second Versailles?)
- How to enhance Franco-German relations?
- How to stop extreme nationalism in general?
- How to we rebuild Europe?
- How to resist / challenge the upcoming Eastern block?
The starting point of the EEC was the Second World War. This event shaped the entire
country and devasted everything in Europe. The Nazi’s have killed millions of people and
destroyed many parts of Europe. A major question after the war was how are we going to
continue after this and how will we be able to trust the Germans again? After the First World
War, the answer was to punish Germany. This created hatred, which was easily exploitable
by the Nazi’s and other nationals. Relationship between France and Germany has been
difficult over the years. Extreme nationalism was a threat, not just in Germany, but
everywhere. Impact of the Cold War – fear that the Soviet Union was going to take over the
rest of Europe. Having a union that has committed values, and a cohesion that would stand up
if the Russians came was important. Americans have always been very supportive of the
European Union.
Other organisations
- GATT
- OEEC – now known as the OECD
- NATO 1949
- WEU – Western European Union
- BENELUX 1944
- Council of Europe 1949. This is a traditional organisation, 51 states are members,
and all wish to protect the rule of law, democracy and human rights. The ECHR do
not have an impact on Brexit. When the UK leaves the EU, we will still be part of the
, Council of Europe as this is separate to the European Union, therefore we will still be
bound by its rights.
- General agreement of trade and tariffs.
European Coal and Steel Community
Churchill in 1946 – proposed that in order to prevent wars, we have to come together and find
a way so that it doesn’t really matter if you are in one country or another.
This was followed by the Schuman Declaration on the 9th May 1950. He said that what we
should have is a collaboration when it comes to coal and steel production, putting those under
a high authority. In the 1950s the coal and steel industries were necessary, especially for
fighting a war. In order to build a mass army, you needed to have large control around coal
and steel resources. Efforts to pool Franc-German coal and steel resources under one
authority by Schuman and Monet. This introduced the European Coal and Steel Community
1951. The committee chaired by Paul Henry Spaak came up with ideas for Euratom and EEC
in 1956. On the 1 July 1958, Euratom and EEC Treaty came into force. Euratom is
importance in practice, for hospitals regarding radioactive treatment.
The EEC Treaty
Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957 and came into force in 1958. The European Economic
Community slowly merged into what now is known as the European Union.
Aims of the EEC Treaty were to:
- Establish a common / single market. This means that it shouldn’t really make a
different where you order a product from. The EU is not very good when it comes to
digital goods, e.g. Netflix, or steaming media in other countries.
- Approximation of economic policies and harmonisation of economic activities.
- Raising the standard of living. Until recently, this has been increasing house prices,
etc, especially in the beginning from the 1970s and 80s.
- Promotion of closer relationship between states. The focus of the Treaty was almost
economical; however, this was supposed to help create long lasting relationships
between countries. If you let states trade with each other over a long time, this
would create interdependencies and hopefully allow the states to form a closer
relationship with each other. German car industry for example. Germany is not a big
enough market for its own industry.
- Mostly economically focused, however the most underlying motivation was to create
long lasting peace.
Development
Original members of the EEC
- Belgium
- France
- Italy
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
- West Germany
In 1965 the Merger Treaty was introduced.
In 1976 we started to have first direct elections to the European Parliament, alongside further
enlargements.
In 1973 the EEC enlarged, and 3 countries joined:
- Denmark
, - Ireland
- United Kingdom. After being rejected twice by the French President, we UK finally
joined when he resigned.
In 1981 Greece joined.
In 1986 Spain and Portugal joined.
The Single European Act 1987
SEA has the main aim of completing the single market. They wanted fast movement steps to
achieve a market than can trade and move freely throughout Europe. Amendments were made
to the founding treaties and the four freedoms were introduced. These included the free
movement of goods, persons, services and capital, which wanted completion by 1993. This
was supposed to change the Treaty of Rome, allowing us to achieve what the Treaty of Rome
couldn’t. This Treaty was changed to ensure that a majority of member states would need to
be on board with decisions, instead of all member states. Agreeing on economic policies with
member states was difficult at times, therefore having a majority decision made this process
easier.
The Treaty on the European Union (Maastricht Treaty 1993)
Introduction of the European Union. Wanted to create one union. This was drafted in 1991
and the Treaty of the European Union (TEU) was signed by member states in Maastricht in
1992. This entered into force in 1993. The name of the EEC (European Economic
Community) changed to the EU (European Union)
This created a three-pillar structure.
- European Communities
- Common Foreign and Security Policy
- Cooperation in Justice and Home Affairs
This also introduced EU citizenship and the Euro as the currency for members of the EU.
The first
pillar, the European Communities pillar is all of the economic things that we did before the
TEU. This is super national; member states can be forced to do something.
, The second pillar, the Common Foreign and Security Policy pillar and the third pillar, the
Cooperation in Justice in Home Affairs pillar are both intergovernmental, therefore the
method of cooperation is used.
Further Development
In 1990 – Former East Germany joined the EEC.
In 1995, Sweden, Finland and Austria also joined.
The Treaty of Amsterdam 1999
This treaty modified all of the other treaties. Main focus on human rights. All the numbers in
the TEU and TEC changed.
Treaty of Nice 2003
This was the biggest enlargement yet as 10 states joined the EEC. The weights of votes
would depend on the seats in the European Parliament. This was a difficult compromise,
including late night discussions and coalitions amongst EU member states, compromises that
no one was happy with. This modernised the EU.
- Poland
- Estonia
- Czech Republic
- Slovenia
- Malta
- Cyprus
- Lithuania
- Slovakia
- Latvia
- Hungry
In 2007 Romania and Bulgaria joined the EEC.
The Constitutional Treaty
This did not become law, but the Lisbon Treaty, which was ratified in 2009, drew very
heavily on this Treaty.
Treaty of Lisbon 2009
This was signed by all member states in 2007 and came into effect on ratification in 2009.
This was enacted due to failure of the Constitutional Treaty. The three pillars merged so were
no longer separate. This did go to ratification, which means that the Treaty goes to each home
Parliament to see if the country agrees with this. This Treaty sought to regulate the 25
member states and amends the TEU (Treaty of European Union) and EC (European
Communities) Treaty. The TEC became the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
(TFEU). The Charter of Fundamental rights became binding and institutions changed. We
now have a President of the European Council, Donald Tusk.
In 2013, Croatia joined the EU.
Possible Candidate Countries.
- Iceland
- Montenegro
- Serbia
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