Università degli Studi di Siena
EU Law
Siena, 5 november 2012
EU LAW
(1 Part)
History and development of the European integration
Dott.ssa Mery Ciacci
Università degli Studi di Siena
www.elt.unisi.it
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Structure and methodology
• Part I: the EU legal order
- Introduction to EU law: history and developments of the European
integration
- Institutions of the Union
- The Union’s legal order: principles, legal acts, rulings
•
-
Part II: the common market
Four freedoms of movement: goods, workers, services, capital
Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)
competition law
• Seminars
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What is the European Union?
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Elements of International Law
• EU as an actor of International law:
- International Organization (with legal personality) of regional integration
•
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The Union as a “sui generis” actor of international law:
intergovernmental and supranational features
Similarities with federal State (i.e.: division of competences)
A political internal and external dimension
• EU law as a (self-contained) system of International Law:
- concessions of sovereign powers by Member States through the international
treaties
- Set of independent rules
- Institutions
- Independent system of adjudication
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What is EU law?
• It is the set of principles and rules that
regulate the relationship among the Member
States of the European Union
• It derives from:
- international treaties: founding treaties of the
3 communities + following treaties and
amendements (primary law)
- Legal acts of the EU institutions (secondary
law)
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History and evolution of the EU integration
• In the aftermath of the 2nd WW: a new model of
political cooperation for peace in Europe was desired
• Churchill’s speech at the University of Zurich, 1946
• Marshall Plan, 1947
• Schuman’s declaration, 9th may 1950
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Founding treaties
• Treaty of Paris founding the ECCS (European
Communitiy of Coal and Steel), Paris 18 April
1951,entered into force in 1952, signed by France,
Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands
• Treaty of Rome founding the EEC (European
Economic Community), Rome 25 march 1957,
entered into force in 1958
• Euratom Treaty, founding the European
Community for atomic energy (Euratom), Rome 25
march 1957, entered into force in 1958
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3 communities
on strategic economic sectors
• European Community of Coal and Steel
• European Economic Community
• European Community for atomic energy
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Institutional asset:
3 distinct communities with
Commons institutions
• Court of Justice
• Assembly
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Different institutions
• ECCS: High Authority,
Council of Ministers
• EEC: EEC Commission
• Euratom: Euratom
Commission
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Primary objectives:
focus on eonomic growth
• To establish a common market, based on free trade principles (i.e.:
barriers to trade progressively abolished, a common customs was
set up, rules for fair competition were adopted)
• To approximate the economic policies of the Member States
• To promote harmonious development of economic activities
throughout the Community
• To increase stability and raise the standard of living
• To promote closer relations between the Member States
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Further steps towards integration…
• 1957: fusion of executive bodies (Council of
Ministers tout court, fusion of the High
Authority and the Commission into one
Commission)
• Still 3 different communities: different
attributed competences, different fields of
action, but common institutions
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Enlargements
•
-
First round:
1973: Denmark, United Kingdom, Ireland
1981: Greece
1986: Spain and Portugal
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Further steps in the integration process…
• 1979: first direct election of the European Parliament
• 1986: adoption of the Single European Act - positive
integration: broader areas of competences, i.e.:
environment, transports, telecommunication
• Negative integration: progressively reduction of direct
and indirect obstacles to commercial exchanges
• Court of Justice: integration fostered through rulings
(peculiarity of the European integration)
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Single European Act (SEA)
• 60s and 70s: period of stagnation of the European integration
process
• Need for an institutional reform (to strengthen supranational
aspects and diminish the impacts of intergovernmentalism)
• SEA (1986):
- Little far-reaching institutional reform: enhanced EP’s power in
the legislative process (new legislative ‘cooperation’ procedure)
- Extension of competences for the EC (social policy, environment,
economic and social cohesion, research and technological development)
- Further progress in establishing the internal market: a deadline to
remove a list of barriers by the 31 January 1992; defined the internal market
as ‘an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods,
persons, services and capital in ensured’
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Treaties’evolution
• Treaty of Maastricht founding the European
Union, 7 February 1992
• Treaty of Amsterdam, 2 October 1997 (entered
into force in 1999)
• Nice Treaty, 26 February 2001, (entered into
force in 2003)
• Lisbon Treaty, 13 December 2007, (entered
into force in 2009)
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Treaty of Maastricht (TEU)
• Created the European Union (legal personality Art. 47
TEU)
• Enhancement of the political dimension
• Institutional change: the 3-pillars structure
• European Citizenship
• Extended competences in new areas, i.e.: culture,
research and development, etc…
• Broader power to the EU Parliament (co-decision)
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The 3-pillar structure
3 PiIlars
European
Communities
(EEC was
renamed the EC)
CFSP
(Common Foreign
Security Policy)
CFSP
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JHA/
Police and
Judicial
Cooperation
Justice and Home
Affairs, in 2003 was
renamed Police and
Judicial Cooperation in
Criminal Matters
(PJC )
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1st Pillar: the 3 European Communities
• Areas subject to the supranational powers of the
Communities
• Policies falling under the field of competences of the
Communities, as established in the treaties :






Free movement of goods, workers, services, capital
Agriculture
transports
Customs
Research and development
Environment
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2nd Pillar: the common foreign and security policy
• Title V of the TEU
• Established a mechanism of intergovernmental
cooperation (overcoming the Ad hoc meetings) through
which the Members could cooperate to:
 Strenghten security and maintain peace
 Promote international cooperation
 Promote common values, human rights, the respect of the rule of
law and democracy
• Not an area subject to the supranational methods of
decision-making (like the 1° pillar), but sensitive areas
where the Members still wished to maintain control on
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3rd Pillar: JHA/Police and Judicial
Cooperation
• Title VI of the TEU
• Area of intergovernmentalism
• Policies such as:




Asylum
Immigration
‘third country’ nationals
Cooperation for the fight to international crimes, illicit trafficking,
etc. and various forms of judicial, customs and police cooperation
• Establishment of a European Police Office (Europol) for
exchanging information and stronger cooperation in
judicial matters (Eurojust)
• Major role by the Council
• Limited powers of the European Court of Justice
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Enlargements
• Second round:
- 1995: Austria, Finland, Sweden
(Norway: negotiated the accession acts, but a
national referendum opposed accession)
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Treaty of Amsterdam
•
•
•
•
Amending the TEC and TEU (new numeration)
Fostered integration through widening the areas of competences
Consolidated role of the EP in the decision-making process
Introduced a new Title IV into the TEC, on Visas, asylum,
immigration and other policies related to free movement of
persons (‘communitarization’ of an area falling under the 3rd
pillar, now reduced to police and judiciary cooperation in
criminal matters)
• No real institutional reform
• Stronger accent on the protection of human rights and
fundamental freedoms
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Treaty of Nice:
The Charter of fundamental Rights
• Nice Treaty: some changes to institutional structure of
the EC (i.e. the weighting of votes in the Council, enhanced the
EP’s power by extending the co-decision procedure to new areas)
• News: The adoption of a Charter of Fundamental Rights
 Soft law instrument: a step forward for the legitimacy, identity and
human rights commitment of the EU
 Why the need to strengthen the Human Rights dimension within
the EU?
The underlying debate between the Constitutional Courts and the ECJ
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Enlargements
• Third Round:
- 2004: Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta
Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary
- 2007: Bulgaria, Romania
• Requirements:
- The ‘Copenaghen criteria’ set by the European Council
in 1993
- To adopt the entire ‘acquis communautaire’
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Treaty of Lisbon
• former project: the European Constitution (failure,
political impasse)
• 2009: Treaty of Lisbon
- the 3 pillars structure disappears
- TUE + TFUE (former TEC) + Nice into a single Treaty
- Strengthened role of the EU Parliament
- Broader Union’s competences
• Birth of the European External Action Service (EEAS)
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