EU Law Summary

EU LAW Notes Exam 2.0

Week 1: EU: development and supremacy
 EU law is dependent on international law (made by treaties)
o Its original purpose of EU was peace and well being
o Art 3 TEU

Based on 2 treaties
a) TEU – general articles
b) TFEU – specific functions (institutions and policies)

There are 2 theories of integrations regarding socio-economic development:
1. Neofunctionalism: (deepening)
- Successful integration from one sector to another
- Once you are successful in one sector, you enlarge to another sector of economy
- (spill over in one area will cause a spill over in another)
- Indicates an increase in of political areas
 This happens at variable speeds
 E.g. euro sclerosis from 11966-1980s  delay of the international market (France was
unhappy that the EU was taking so much power)

- Art 1 & 2-6 TEU
 Schuman effect
 Integration of sectors – social political aspects + fundamental rights + monetary political
union (euro)
 Integration is achieved through development of these sectors

2. Expansion: (widening)
- Increase/decrease in EU territory wise (more/less MS)
- 2 driving forces
 Increase in welfare of the EU
 Sometimes can be understood as the increasing in geo-political stability
- Art 1 TEU
 More and more MS joined esp. after break up of USSR
 2013 = 28 members of the EU
 EU ≠ purely economics – wanted to avoid war – also ensuring peace and protecting
citizens

- Nature of the EU = 3 ways:
 Intergovernmental: power remains within the MS (EC)
 Supranational: Power doesn't just lie with MS  conferred power to MS
 Federal: Central Gov but each state governs itself & allows citizens direct
communication with the EU
(EU is a combination of all 3 at once)
 the element which prevails depends on the sector concerned

,Intergovernmental and Supranational set-up
Intergovernmental (treaties are part of IL):
- Rome treaty (1957): Common foreign security policy established
- Nice treaty (2001): Fundamental rights charter – no binding force
- Rome treaty (2005): EU const  fails: France and NL reject it
- Lisbon treaty (2007): Most valid form of EU treaty to date
o TEU and TFEU
It is not as easy to leave the EU – in contrast to international law – no easy to leave a signed treaty
(Brexit)

Supranational
MS didn't agree with one another
- ESA created in 1987 = no more veto power – majority prevailed
- = from unanimity to Qualified Majority Voting
o Established the functioning of the internal market
- Maastricht Treaty: EEC  EC – social policy; Supranational Government
o Social rights and not just economic rights
o Creation of the EU - intergovernmental: justice + home affairs (CFSP and JHA)
- Amsterdam Treaty: Increasing policy rules + expansion of co-decisions and QMV
- Lisbon Treaty (2007)
o NB creation of a single entity the EU
o TFEU & TEU = basis for the EU
 Almost copy paste of the constitution but had different name
o Charter of Fundamental Rights  binding force equivalent to treaties: gives rights to
protect people
 EU is there for the people
o Aims to protect citizens
o Only one body = EU
 Only the area of foreign security policy is kept intergovernmental (Regulated by
the TEU, old Maastricht Treaty)
 The rest is regulated by the TFEU = supragovernmental

Nature of the EU
- EU seen as new legal order (Loos)

 2 key principles
a) Autonomy
b) Supremacy

A) Autonomy (van gen den Loos)
- EU is an autonomous legal organ
- Flows from the fact that it is a new legal order
- The EU decides the rights and obligations that are created upon EU citizens, companies & MS
o Not the MS themselves
- EU decides on the applicability in the national legal order = monist/dualist
o MS limited their sovereignty
o EU law needs to be incorporated into national legal order/systems

, o Court decided that EU law has autonomy over national law and must be applied
directly
- Sovereignty is limited through the principle of conferral
o EU law ≠ classical international law  it has direct effect

B) Supremacy (Costa v Enel)
- Precedence of EU Law over conflicting national law = Supremacy of the Union
o EU law is supreme in cases of conflict with domestic law = community law consist of a
special nature and cannot be preceded by national law

- Declaration concerning primacy (because supremacy of EU law is not stated in treaties)

EU perspective on supremacy = absolute/ unconditional

EXTRAS:
Monism: automatic incorporation of IL into national legal systems
Dualism: status of EU law depends on whether the MS has transposed the directive or not.
- NOT relevant mechanisms (ONLY relevant for international law) to establish the applicability of
EU law to legal orders of MS because, as in Van Gend en Loos: EU law constitutes a new legal
order – and MS have limited their sovereign rights
o EU law has direct effect on MS and is autonomous – therefore they don't apply.

Methods of Integration:
a) Federalism/Supranationalism/ Intergovernmental – primary actors in the integration process
b) Deepening/ Widening (more intrusive powers vs broader powers)
c) Positive Legislative Measures/ Negative Integration
 Pos = (integration) what states/EU can and should do – require action
(legislative/harmonization measures)
 E.g. Art 114 TFEU (Harmonization clause)/ Privacy regulations
 Neg = states (EU) are prohibited from doing something
 E.g. Treaty prohibition = negative integration (Loos)
 Principle of sincere co-operation prohibits this

**Principle of Conferral: Art 4(2) of the TEU – EU law protects the identity of MS: “Union shall respect
the equality of Member States before the Treaties as well as their national identities, inherent in their
fundamental structures, political and constitutional, inclusive of regional and local self-government.”


Week 2: institutions and competences
General
- Union created to ensure peace and well-being through institutions and procedures
- “upload of national standards” = a norm which works well in national law of a MS  EU decides
to adopt = MS advantage over other states b/c law is already within their domestic system &
linked to IM
o All the EU institutions are somehow mirrored in the structures already existing in some
of the MS