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EU law essay Unit 1
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European Union law is a system of rules operating within the member states of theEuropean Union, made in 1973. The EU has had the mission to advance peace, its ideals, and
the well-being of its people ever since the European Coal and Steel Community was
established in the years following World War II. The EU contains political institutions and
social, economic and development-oriented policies that cut beyond national boundaries.
The EU constitutes a new legal system of international law. The treaty on European Union
and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which were now unanimously
approved by the governments of the 27-member states, serve as the legal underpinnings of
the EU. Existing states may withdraw in accordance with their own constitutional criteria
and new members may join as long as they agree to abide by the union’s regulations. The
United Kingdom was a member state of the EU from 1st January 1973 until 31st January
2020.
In the Council of the EU, government ministers from each EU country meet to discuss,
amend and adopt laws, and coordinate policies. The ministers have the authority to commit
their governments to the actions agreed on in the meetings. The Minister responsible for
the discussion topic will attend the meetings in the Council. For example, the Minister of
Agriculture will attend to when the issue to be discussed involves agriculture. Twice a year,
the heads of government, such as the Prime Minister, meet in the European Council or
‘Summit’ to discuss broad matters of policy. The Member States take it in turn to act as the
President of the Council for a six-month period. The Council is the main decision-making
body of the EU. Voting in the Council is on a weighted basis, which means that each country
has a number of votes roughly in proportion to the size of its population. When the heads of
Member States meet, their decisions are made on the basis of unanimity.
The European Commission is the EU’s politically independent executive arm. It is alone
responsible for drawing up proposals for new European legislation, and it implements the
decisions of the European Parliament and the Council. This body consists of 28
Commissioners, one from each member state. Each Commissioner leads a department with
special responsibility for one are of European Union policy, such as economic affairs,
agriculture or the environment. Functions of the European Commission include acting
impartially, proposing policies and present drafts of laws to the Council, being responsible
for the administration of the EU, and to act as a guardian of the treaties. It ensures that
treaty provisions and other measures adopted by the Union are properly implemented. If a
Member State does not introduce European Union law within its own country, the
Commission has a duty to intervene and, if necessary, refer the matter to the Court of
Justice of the European Union.
The European Parliament is part of the legislative, or law making, process in the EU.
Although the European Parliament has no direct law-making power, most proposed laws
must be approved by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU to become law.
The Parliament has 705 seats and elections to fill these seats which are held in all member
states every 5 years. It has standing committees which discuss proposals made by the
European Commission, which then report to the full Parliament for debate. Decisions made
by the European Parliament are not binding.
, The Court sits in Luxembourg and has 28 judges, one from each member state. 15 judges
will sit in a full court, but it will also sit in chambers of just 3 or 5 judges. The Court of Justice
of the European Union interprets EU law to make sure it is applied in the same way in all EU
countries and settles legal disputes between national governments and EU institutions. The
Court does this by hearing cases to decide whether Member States have fulfilled their
obligations, and hears references under Art 267 TFEU national courts for preliminary rulings
on a point of EU law. This means the Supreme Court must refer questions of EU law to the
European Court of Justice. However, the Court of Appeal and lower courts do not have to
refer questions of this type. They have a choice to either refer the case or decide the case
without any referral.
The impact on joining the EU on parliamentary sovereignty was that the UK Parliament gave
away some of its supremacy. The pre-eminent challenge to parliamentary sovereignty
occurred because of the UK’s accession to the EU. This is because where national law is
incompatible with EU law, EU law is deemed to have supremacy over national law. In
conclusion, the membership of the EU, parliamentary supremacy is diminished so much as
to leave it almost destroyed. This is because when the UK joined the EU, it had to adopt all
of EU past and present laws, causing some conflict with UK laws. In the end, the UK lost a
big chunk of its sovereignty to EU.
There are two main types of EU law: primary and secondary. Primary law is mainly the
Treaties of the EU (a formally concluded and ratified agreement between states). The
European Communities Act 1972 said in regard to Treaties: “All such rights, powers,
liabilities, obligations and restrictions from the time created or arising by or under the
treaties, as in accordance with the treaties are without further enactment to be given legal
effect or used in the United Kingdom, shall be recognised and available in law and be
enforced, allowed and followed accordingly.” This means that treaties signed by the UK
government became part of English law automatically.
Treaties have direct effect. This means it gives a person the ability to rely on an EU law in a
National Court of a member state. If a person wishes to argue a point of EU law in their
National Court they have the freedom to do so.
In the Van Duyn v Home Office 1974 case, European Court of Justice held that Van Duyn
could be denied entry if it was for reasons related to her personal conduct. Van Duyn
claimed that the Home Secretary infringed her right under Article 45 TFEU and Free
Movement of Workers Directive 64/221/EC by denying her right to work at the Church of
Scientology. Article 45 provided for the freedom of movement for workers but under Article
45(3) limitations justified on the grounds of public policy, public security or public health are
allowed. Directive 64/221/EC Article 3(1) also set out that a public policy provision had to be
‘based exclusively on the personal conduct of the individual concerned’. The UK government
argued that their directive has no vertical direct effect.
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