DRAFT PAGE
! Pillar structure
= divide the ways in which the EU collaborated in three different pillars
! Spitzenkandidaten
= an initiative of the Parliament to make sure that when the elections are held at the
European Parliament, the voters kind of have an idea for whom they are voting to
become president of the European Commission.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MOTION OF CENSURE EU COMPARED TO MEMBER STATES
"EU: difficult to pass the motion of censure
#Member States: easy to pass the motion of censure
"EU: doesn’t lead to new European Parliament elections.
#Member states: new European Parliament elections
! Rule of law
= a political ideal according to which the exercise of power for people in positions of
authority ought to be constrained by well defined laws.
! Yellow card
= 1/3 of the votes, so 18 out of 54 votes of these national parliaments, states that the
principle of subsidiarity has not been complied with.
¤ The initiator of the legislative action (commission) will have to review its draft
proposal.
• It can still maintain the proposal, but they will have to review and stated reasons if
they decide to maintain the proposal.
- Politically it is a huge thing when a third of the national parliaments one third of the
votes issue a warning to the to the commission.
SORTS OF DISPUTES
! Vertical disputes
= disputes between a private party and the state, which is usually represented by some
public body.
¤ This refers to the state being above people and above other private parties.
• EU law provisions that can be invoked by the private party in this kind of dispute are
said to have vertical direct effect
o Example: van Gend en Loos was a case about vertical direct effect of EU law.
! Horizontal disputes
= disputes between two private parties.
¤ EU-law is invokable by either of the parties in such a dispute.
• The respective treaty provisions, therefore, needs to have horizontal direct effect.
Samarah Beukman 1
, EUROPEAN COAL AND STEEL COMMUNITY
The European coal and steel community is an organization that was established in 1952 and it
was very innovative for its time.
¤ A pressing challenge back in the middle of the 20th century was how to foster
European collaboration and cooperation rather than economic rivalry and nationalism
between the different states of Europe.
• There were many, many ideas about how to foster European cooperation, like the
Council of Europe.
» intergovernmental organization
The European Coal and Steel Community was an organization that was very limited in scope,
but still compared to the Council of Europe, had a setup that supranational in nature.
! Supranational
= an organization by which the founding member states had transferred powers to
supranational institutions.
REASONS COLLABORATION OF COAL AND STEEL
Its origins are in the international authority for the Ruhr.
¤ After Germany had lost the Second World War, Germany was occupied by the allied
forces.
• The allied forces have set up this international authority for the war, which meant
that German sovereignty over strategic goods that you need to wage war, coal and
steel became in the hands of this international authority for the rural area.
- It affected Germany, because it had no say over the regulation of these goods in this
particular sector.
At the same time, France in particular really wanted to have access to German coal for the
obvious reason that this would be a strategic good for waging war on coal and steel.
¤ Robert Schuman, French foreign minister, realized that Germany that the current
situation where Germany had no control whatsoever over coal and steel was not
viable.
• They had to learn from France and the other countries in Europe had to learn from
the First World War, where the objective really was to punish Germany and to
exclude Germany from international collaboration and European collaboration.
- Jean Monnet was also behind the establishment of the European Coal and Steel
Community,
The solution here was to establish an international organization that would have control over
coal and steel, by which Germany would still fully participate.
¤ It would be a system whereby these the participating member states would transfer a
part of their sovereignty so that Germany wouldn't have full control over coal and
steel, but neither would it also be seen as losing control either.
• Hereby the European Coal and Steel Community received sovereignty over the trade
and development of coal and steel within these six founding member states.
Samarah Beukman 2
,The European Coal and Steel Community is perceived as the blueprint for the current EU.
¤ It's established for the first time an international organization that had several
supranational institutions.
• This institutions were not fully controlled or to a large extent controlled by the
member state governments.
MAIN FEATURES OF THE EUROPEAN COAL AND STEEL COMMUNITY
! Supranational organization
¤ The higher authority, now known as the European Commission, was a body that
had distinct Decision-Making powers over the regulation of coal and steel within
these different member states.
• The Court of Justice here had this common assembly.
There were different organizations, different institutions that had Real Decision-Making
powers within this organization.
¤ This was as opposed to the more traditional way in which countries would collaborate
before this time, which was more intergovernmental in nature by which the
governments of the different states.
! Limited in scope
¤ There were several other initiatives around this time that were being floated
between the different governments in order to foster European collaboration.
• Collaboration only took place within a very limited area, namely how to regulate
the market of coal and steel.
- The idea of Robert Schuman was to work in one particular area, and if it would
turn out to be successful, push further collaboration between the different
member states in other areas as well.
The means by which the organization sought to achieve its objectives.
¤ This collaboration between the different member states was trade liberalization
• The regulation of competition between the different companies involved in that
sense.
- This indicates the removal of tariffs and quotas for coal and steel as well as regulate
competition in this area
This was very important for France, because the main reason that France also wanted to join
the European Coal and Steel Community was that it wanted access to German coal.
¤ One of the ways to do that was to remove trade barriers to make sure that there were
no trade barriers, to make sure that German coal could be freely exported in no
limited way to France that it was important for French industry.
• Germany in the early 20th century was a very cartilages country whereby all the
industry were together regulating prices, making all kinds of agreements with each
other.
- The French industry really feared that they would be disadvantaged by German
industry.
Samarah Beukman 3
, ! Applicable for individuals as well as its member states
¤ Normally, international agreements over the time were agreements between states.
• The European Coal and Steel Community, by introducing provisions on
competition, could prevent abuse of dominance or price fixing
! Center right political initiative
¤ The governments that agreed to the European Coal and Steel Community were all
center right governments.
The United Kingdom did not join the European Coal and Steel Community, because the UK
was governed by the Labour Party, which is a left wing political party in the United Kingdom.
¤ That political party had a nationalized coal and were not interested in joining an
organization that sought to liberalize trade and actually make it easier for companies
to do business in coal and steel.
Germany at the time was divided.
¤ In western Germany, also had a center right coalition at the time that was in power
that really sought to align itself with the West.
• The Social Democratic Party in Germany wasn't in power at the time and was more
keen on staying neutral and so as to enhance the prospects of German unification
between western Germany and eastern Germany.
Eastern Germany being under the influence of the Soviet Union at the time and in Italy, for
instance, the government supported being backed by a more center right political parties.
¤ The reason of this is because the biggest political party that was in opposition at the
time in Italy was the Communist Party in Italy.
• This was really a means of making sure for the Italian government to align Italy with
the West in that sense.
The European Coal and Steel Community has been absorbed by the European Union and the
treaties that form EU law today.
DEVELOPMENT AND EVOLUTION OF THE EU TREATIES
MAIN SOURCES OF PRIMARY LAW
! The treaty on European Union
! The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
! The Charter of Fundamental Rights
The Treaty on the functioning of the European Union is the founding treaty of the European
Economic Community that now is called the European Union.
¤ The sources of the European Union have their origins in different parts of the
development of EU law.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights has been binding since 2009 since the Treaty of Lisbon.
Samarah Beukman 4
