1 THE EUROPEAN UNION
1.1 THE EUROPEAN UNION
What is a treaty?
A treaty is a contract between two countries who want to work together, in which they explain to
what extend this cooperation will take place. The contract will be negotiated by the government of
the countries, when they reach an agreement on a text, it needs to be approved by the parliaments
of the countries in order to have an official treaty, this is called the ratification.
The cooperation between countries can be organized on two levels:
- Intergovernmental cooperation: the organisation can only act when all members agree
(council of Europe)
- Supranational cooperation: when the member states agree on transferring competences to
the supranational level, the international organisation can act without the consent of the
member states, within the limits of its competences.
To avoid a third world war there is also an economic cooperation, this can be organized on three
levels:
- Free trade zone: this means that countries agree on allowing goods to be imported and
exported freely between the member states.
o The member states determine themselves the conditions under which third
countries can import goods. When a third country exports a good into a member
state, it can’t be transferred to another member state.
- A custom union: this goes further than the free trade zone, here the member states also
agree on common external tariff.
o The member states have to agree on the conditions for a third country to export
goods to a member state of the custom union. Once it is imported in a member state
it can be freely transferred through the member states.
- A common market: this goes further than a custom union, here can not only goods, but also
people, services and capital be transferred freely.
- A further step is the creation of a monetary union (EURO)
What is the procedure for the accession of new Member States?
(1) A new country fills in an application for accession, (2) the European Commission formulates an
opinion on this application on whether or not the country can be recognized as a candidate. (3)
Negotiations between the candidate country and the old Member States follow on the adoption of
the Acquis Communautaire. (4) When the negotiations close, (5) the opinion of the European
Commission will follow, (6) as well as the consent of the European Parliament.
,1.2 THE COMPETENCES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
What kind of competences are there in the EU? Give some examples.
There are three sorts of competences:
- Exclusive competences: here only the EU can make legislation, the MS can’t make any law on
these subjects.
- Shared competences: here both the EU and the MS can make legislation. There are 2 rules
that need to be respected when dealing with these competences to determine what problem
should be handled by the EU or the MS.
o The principle of subsidiarity: in principle, the MS are competent to execute these
competences. The EU is only competent when she is able to explain why the matter
has to be dealt with on a European level.
o The principle of proportionality: in principle, the action of the EU must be limited to
what is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Treaties.
- Additional competences: the EU can only intervene to support, but not adopt the legislation.
What is an internal market?
An internal market is a single market in which the free movement of goods, services, persons and
capital is assured. Four freedoms are realized: freedom of goods, free traffic of persons, freedom of
services and freedom of capital.
1.2.1 What does it mean freedom of goods?
Freedom of goods means that any producer who makes a product in one of the MS of the EU can
export this product to all the other MS without any limitations. This brings a few advantages:
- It’s forbidden to impose taxes on the import of goods (fi Belgian beer in Spain)
- For goods coming from outside the EU in the EU, there is a common external tariff, here the
EU determines what taxes should be applied for which goods. Every MS has to apply these
tariffs whenever a good is imported from a non-EU country.
- It’s also forbidden for a MS to impose tax on goods even if it’s applied on their own national
goods (French cigarettes, cognac & whiskey).
- It’s also forbidden to have limits on the traffic of goods or measures with the same effect.
, What does it mean the … case?
THE FRENCH SIGARETTE CASE (tax discrimination)
The French government decided to put a high tax on light tabaco and low tax on dark tabaco on both
domestic production and importation. At first sight there’s no discrimination, but in reality the
French production of tabaco is protected because the domestic production of France is only dark
tabaco and the importation only light tabaco.
THE WHISKEY AND COGNAC CASE (tax discrimination)
In France there was a taxation system for alcohol with a high alcohol percentage where they made a
difference between fruit and grain based alcohol. Fruit based would have low taxes and grain based
high taxes. The government explained that a whiskey drinker wouldn’t drink cognac and vica versa.
The Court of Justice decided that they have enough in common, meaning that they could switch
between drinks. In reality the French alcohol production is fruit based and the imported goods
mainly grain based, so although it concerns different production, they match to an extent.
THE ROSENGREEN CASE (quantitative limitations)
A Swedish couple ordered some bottles of wine from a Spanish website, but they were never
delivered. The Swedish government decided that no wine could be imported in the country and that
all wine had to be bought with a Swedish governmental company. This way they had control so that
no alcohol was sold to youngsters under 20. This made importation impossible and so unacceptable
for The Court of Justice.
DASSONVILLE (product standards)
In Belgium there was a law that where a product with a PDO (Protected Designation Origin) label was
imported in the country, it had to have a certificate from the country of origin. The Belgium
authorities denied importation of whiskey from the Dassonville brothers because they had no British
original certificate of origin. The Court of Justice didn’t agree because asking for a certificate of origin
for a foreign product and not for a domestic product is discrimination.
CASSIS DE DIJON (no discrimination on foreign/domestic products)
A company wanted to import a cargo of bottles Cassi de Dijon of 18% into the country, but the
German government denied importation. There was a law that stated that only liqueur with an
alcohol percentage of +25% could be imported. There was no discrimination between foreign and
domestic products, German alcohol drinks couldn’t be sold either under the name liqueur when it
was under 25%. The Court of Justice confirmed that this was a violation on the freedom of goods.
BRITISH PORNOGRAPHY CASE
THE CASE OF THE INDUSTRIAL SAWING MACHINE
