EUROPEAN UNION LAW COMPLETE REVISION GUIDE
TOPIC 1: EVOLUTION OF THE EU AND ITS LEGAL FRAMEWORK
TIMELINE OF EVENTS:
1945-1959 – a ‘peaceful’ Europe
➢ European Union is set up with aim of ending frequent and bloody wars between neighbours
which culminated in WW2
➢ 1950s dominated by cold war between East and West Europe
➢ Schulman Declaration (9th May 1950)
o World peace cannot be assured except by creative effort commensurate within the
dangers that threaten it
o A united Europe will not arise overnight nor by means of an all embracing
constitution: will only arise through specific projects providing a solid foundation of
fact
➢ 1952: European Coal and Steel Community begins to unite European countries economically
and politically in order to secure lasting peace
o UK opted to stay out
o Belgium, France, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, West Germany
➢ 1958: European Atomic Energy Community
➢ 1958: European Economic Community (Rome 1957)
1960-1969 – a period of economic growth
➢ EU countries stop charging custom duties when they trade with each other
➢ Agreed joint control over food production – surplus agricultural produce
1970-1979 – a growing community: the first enlargement
➢ Denmark, Ireland and UK join the EU on 1st January 1973 = 9 Member States
➢ Short, yet brutal, Arab-Israeli war on October 1973 results in energy crisis and economic
problems in Europe
➢ EU regional policy starts to transfer huge sums of money to create jobs and infrastructure in
poorer areas
➢ European Parliament increases its influence in EU affairs and in 1979 ALL citizens can elect
their members directly
➢ Fight against pollution intensifies in 1970s
1980-1989 – changing face of Europe
➢ 1981: Greece becomes 10th member of EU – Spain and Portugal follow 5 years later
➢ 1986: Single European Act is signed
o treaty which provides the basis for a vast 6-year programme aimed at sorting out
the problems with the free flow of trade across EU borders and thus creates ‘single
market’
o completion of the internal market by 31st December 1992
➢ major political upheaval when Berlin Wall fell – reunification of Germany
1990-1999 – a Europe without frontiers
➢ collapse of communism across central and eastern Europe = Europeans become closer
neigbours
➢ 1993: single market is completed with the FOUR FREEDOMS:
o freedom of movement of goods
o freedom of movement of services
o freedom of movement of people
o freedom of movement of money
➢ Maastricht Treaty 1993
➢ Treaty of Amsterdam 1999
,2000-2009 – further expansion
➢ Euro is now the new currency for many Europeans
➢ EU countries begin to work together more closely to fight crime
➢ Nice Treaty 2003
➢ Political divisions between East and West Europe are finally declared healed when 10 new
countries join EU in 2004, followed by 2 more in 2007
➢ Financial crisis hits global economy in September 2008
➢ Treaty of Lisbon is ratified by all EU countries before entering into force in 2009
o Provides EU with modern institutions and more efficient working methods
2010-present
➢ Global economic crisis strikes hard in Europe
➢ EU helps several countries confront difficulties and establishes ‘Banking Union’ to ensure
safer and more reliable banks
➢ Climate change still high on the agenda and leaders agree to reduce emissions
➢ EU faced with dilemmas from Middle East, refugee crisis, terror attacks etc.
Supranational legal order
➢ ‘The Community constitutes a new legal order of international law for the benefit of which
the States have limited their sovereign rights… and the subjects of which comprise not only
Member States but also their nationals’ (→ Case 26/62 Van Gend en Loos [1963] ECR 1)
➢ Key doctrines:
o Supremacy: EU law prevails over national law in the event of a conflict
o Direct effect: EU law can create rights for individuals which national courts must protect
RELEVANT TREATIES:
The Maastricht Treaty 1992
• Treaty on European Union – came into force in 1993 (signed in Maastricht)
• Amended the ECSC, EAEC and EEC Treaties (EEC became EC)
• Created two intergovernmental pillars:
o ‘Common Foreign and Security Policy’
o ‘Cooperation in the Fields of Justice and Home Affairs’ outside the supranational
Community structure
• Supranational: transfer of sovereign rights
• Intergovernmental: no transfer (looser form of co-operation)
The Amsterdam Treaty 1999
• Amended and renumbered the Treaties
• The Schengen acquis and most of the Third Pillar became subject to community rules
o ‘Schengen acquis’ – body of law which governs the lifting of internal border controls
between countries that form the Schengen area – 22 Member States plus Norway,
Iceland, Switzerland
, Nice Treaty 2003
• ‘a new stage in preparations for enlargement of the European Union to include countries of
central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and the Baltic’
Lisbon Treaty 2007
• Negotiated to replace the failed Constitutional Treaty
• Came into force 1st December 2009
• Amended the EU and EC Treaties to ensure a more efficient decision-making process
o More democracy through a greater role for the European Parliament and national
parliaments
o New policy areas/legal bases
▪ Civil protection, climate change, energy, humanitarian aid, space, sport, tourism
o Increased coherence externally
Lisbon: main structural implications
• The Lisbon Treaty amended the EU and EC Treaties
o EU treaty kept its name (TEU)
o EU Treaty became the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)
• The EU replaced and succeeded the EC; it has legal personality and covers all policy areas
• But the EAEC Treaty (as amended by Protocol 2) continues to have full legal effect
• Pillar structure disappeared a new institutional framework
TEU & TFEU: the new Foundation Treaties
Art 1 TEU: ‘The Union shall be founded on the present Treaty and on the Treaty on the Functioning
of the European Union…Those two Treaties shall have the same legal value’
Art 1(2) TFEU: ‘This Treaty and TEU constitute on which the Union is founded. These two Treaties,
which have the same legal value, shall be referred to as “the Treaties”’
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU
• Not to be confused with ECHR
• Charter is NOT included in the Treaties but there is a cross-reference to it in Art 6(1) TEU:
o ‘The Union recognises the rights, freedoms and principles set out in the Charter of
Fundamental Rights of the European Union…, which shall have the same legal value
as the Treaties’
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (Title V TFEU): special arrangements for the UK
• Under the Amsterdam Treaty, the Schengen acquis and most of the Third Pillar (JHA) became
subject to Community rules (→ Title IV TEC)
• Protocols to the Treaties allowed the UK and Ireland to maintain border controls and decide
whether to participate in and be bound by acts adopted under Title IV TEC
• These arrangements continue post-Lisbon under Protocols attached to the TEU & TFEU
The Euro
• Maastricht Treaty 1992 enshrined the goal of EMU and a single currency
• The euro was launched on 1 January 1999, with notes and coins appearing 3 years later
• Managed by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the central banks of the (19) Member States
which have adopted the euro
• Protocol 15: the UK is not obliged to adopt the euro and retains its monetary policy powers
The Fiscal Compact
TOPIC 1: EVOLUTION OF THE EU AND ITS LEGAL FRAMEWORK
TIMELINE OF EVENTS:
1945-1959 – a ‘peaceful’ Europe
➢ European Union is set up with aim of ending frequent and bloody wars between neighbours
which culminated in WW2
➢ 1950s dominated by cold war between East and West Europe
➢ Schulman Declaration (9th May 1950)
o World peace cannot be assured except by creative effort commensurate within the
dangers that threaten it
o A united Europe will not arise overnight nor by means of an all embracing
constitution: will only arise through specific projects providing a solid foundation of
fact
➢ 1952: European Coal and Steel Community begins to unite European countries economically
and politically in order to secure lasting peace
o UK opted to stay out
o Belgium, France, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, West Germany
➢ 1958: European Atomic Energy Community
➢ 1958: European Economic Community (Rome 1957)
1960-1969 – a period of economic growth
➢ EU countries stop charging custom duties when they trade with each other
➢ Agreed joint control over food production – surplus agricultural produce
1970-1979 – a growing community: the first enlargement
➢ Denmark, Ireland and UK join the EU on 1st January 1973 = 9 Member States
➢ Short, yet brutal, Arab-Israeli war on October 1973 results in energy crisis and economic
problems in Europe
➢ EU regional policy starts to transfer huge sums of money to create jobs and infrastructure in
poorer areas
➢ European Parliament increases its influence in EU affairs and in 1979 ALL citizens can elect
their members directly
➢ Fight against pollution intensifies in 1970s
1980-1989 – changing face of Europe
➢ 1981: Greece becomes 10th member of EU – Spain and Portugal follow 5 years later
➢ 1986: Single European Act is signed
o treaty which provides the basis for a vast 6-year programme aimed at sorting out
the problems with the free flow of trade across EU borders and thus creates ‘single
market’
o completion of the internal market by 31st December 1992
➢ major political upheaval when Berlin Wall fell – reunification of Germany
1990-1999 – a Europe without frontiers
➢ collapse of communism across central and eastern Europe = Europeans become closer
neigbours
➢ 1993: single market is completed with the FOUR FREEDOMS:
o freedom of movement of goods
o freedom of movement of services
o freedom of movement of people
o freedom of movement of money
➢ Maastricht Treaty 1993
➢ Treaty of Amsterdam 1999
,2000-2009 – further expansion
➢ Euro is now the new currency for many Europeans
➢ EU countries begin to work together more closely to fight crime
➢ Nice Treaty 2003
➢ Political divisions between East and West Europe are finally declared healed when 10 new
countries join EU in 2004, followed by 2 more in 2007
➢ Financial crisis hits global economy in September 2008
➢ Treaty of Lisbon is ratified by all EU countries before entering into force in 2009
o Provides EU with modern institutions and more efficient working methods
2010-present
➢ Global economic crisis strikes hard in Europe
➢ EU helps several countries confront difficulties and establishes ‘Banking Union’ to ensure
safer and more reliable banks
➢ Climate change still high on the agenda and leaders agree to reduce emissions
➢ EU faced with dilemmas from Middle East, refugee crisis, terror attacks etc.
Supranational legal order
➢ ‘The Community constitutes a new legal order of international law for the benefit of which
the States have limited their sovereign rights… and the subjects of which comprise not only
Member States but also their nationals’ (→ Case 26/62 Van Gend en Loos [1963] ECR 1)
➢ Key doctrines:
o Supremacy: EU law prevails over national law in the event of a conflict
o Direct effect: EU law can create rights for individuals which national courts must protect
RELEVANT TREATIES:
The Maastricht Treaty 1992
• Treaty on European Union – came into force in 1993 (signed in Maastricht)
• Amended the ECSC, EAEC and EEC Treaties (EEC became EC)
• Created two intergovernmental pillars:
o ‘Common Foreign and Security Policy’
o ‘Cooperation in the Fields of Justice and Home Affairs’ outside the supranational
Community structure
• Supranational: transfer of sovereign rights
• Intergovernmental: no transfer (looser form of co-operation)
The Amsterdam Treaty 1999
• Amended and renumbered the Treaties
• The Schengen acquis and most of the Third Pillar became subject to community rules
o ‘Schengen acquis’ – body of law which governs the lifting of internal border controls
between countries that form the Schengen area – 22 Member States plus Norway,
Iceland, Switzerland
, Nice Treaty 2003
• ‘a new stage in preparations for enlargement of the European Union to include countries of
central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and the Baltic’
Lisbon Treaty 2007
• Negotiated to replace the failed Constitutional Treaty
• Came into force 1st December 2009
• Amended the EU and EC Treaties to ensure a more efficient decision-making process
o More democracy through a greater role for the European Parliament and national
parliaments
o New policy areas/legal bases
▪ Civil protection, climate change, energy, humanitarian aid, space, sport, tourism
o Increased coherence externally
Lisbon: main structural implications
• The Lisbon Treaty amended the EU and EC Treaties
o EU treaty kept its name (TEU)
o EU Treaty became the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)
• The EU replaced and succeeded the EC; it has legal personality and covers all policy areas
• But the EAEC Treaty (as amended by Protocol 2) continues to have full legal effect
• Pillar structure disappeared a new institutional framework
TEU & TFEU: the new Foundation Treaties
Art 1 TEU: ‘The Union shall be founded on the present Treaty and on the Treaty on the Functioning
of the European Union…Those two Treaties shall have the same legal value’
Art 1(2) TFEU: ‘This Treaty and TEU constitute on which the Union is founded. These two Treaties,
which have the same legal value, shall be referred to as “the Treaties”’
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU
• Not to be confused with ECHR
• Charter is NOT included in the Treaties but there is a cross-reference to it in Art 6(1) TEU:
o ‘The Union recognises the rights, freedoms and principles set out in the Charter of
Fundamental Rights of the European Union…, which shall have the same legal value
as the Treaties’
Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (Title V TFEU): special arrangements for the UK
• Under the Amsterdam Treaty, the Schengen acquis and most of the Third Pillar (JHA) became
subject to Community rules (→ Title IV TEC)
• Protocols to the Treaties allowed the UK and Ireland to maintain border controls and decide
whether to participate in and be bound by acts adopted under Title IV TEC
• These arrangements continue post-Lisbon under Protocols attached to the TEU & TFEU
The Euro
• Maastricht Treaty 1992 enshrined the goal of EMU and a single currency
• The euro was launched on 1 January 1999, with notes and coins appearing 3 years later
• Managed by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the central banks of the (19) Member States
which have adopted the euro
• Protocol 15: the UK is not obliged to adopt the euro and retains its monetary policy powers
The Fiscal Compact
