The impact of
the EU on the
UK constitution
Government and Politics AS
GP2 Governing Modern Wales
This lesson
 This session will:
 To ensure that you have a solid understanding of how EU
membership has affected the operation of government in the
UK.
 To create a full understanding of the differences between
intergovernmentalism and supranationalism and their
implications for UK sovereignty.
 To be aware the extent to which the European constitutional
issue dominates internal Conservative party politics
The European Union (EU)
 The UK joined the EU in 1973,
 It has been trying since 1963 but it’s membership had
been vetoed by France, which feared it would dominate
the EU
 That the jurisdiction of the EU has gradually grown since
then
 The growing impact of the EU on the UK has been
carried out through a series of treaties and agreements.
How the EU evolved
Exercise 1 The EU has had three distinct names, all with
Europe in them. See if you can work out what they are?
 European Economic Community
 European Community
 European Union
How the EU evolved
Exercise 2 What impact does the European Union have on sovereignty in the UK?
Listen to the clip and note how the EU has evolved and what impact they have on the
UK constitution
The impact of the EU operations as follows:
 The role of the EU operates on a functional basis — i.e. it has taken over
complete jurisdiction of some government responsibilities and partial
jurisdiction of some, and has no jurisdiction of others.
 Agriculture, for instance, is now mainly in the control of the European Union
The key areas of EU jurisdiction are:
 Complete: single market, common agricultural and fisheries policies, trade,
economic rights.
 Partial ones are: environment, foreign policy, defence policy.
 Where they have no jurisdiction: social policy, direct taxation, domestic
law and order.
How the EU evolved
 EU jurisdiction means that member states must
implement policy and EU laws and regulations without
amendment.
 If they fail to do so or amend them they can be subject to
large daily fines.
 In its areas of jurisdiction, EU laws take precedence over
domestic laws.
 The ultimate source of interpretation of EU law lies with
the European Court of Justice, although domestic courts
must enforce EU law.
EU jurisdiction
 Exercise 4 Key Phrase
 Because the UK has transferred its jurisdiction for
some areas it means that EU laws are effectively UK
laws.
EU jurisdiction
 Therefore we should note that there have been
functional transfers of jurisdiction.
 That jurisdiction, however, does not necessarily
constitute a transfer of sovereignty.
 Exercise 5 What is qualified majority voting (QMV)?
Listen to the clip and write what you think it is?
EU jurisdiction
 Therefore we need to note that QMV represents a
transfer of sovereignty.
 A qualified majority (QM) is the number of votes
required in the Council for a decision to be adopted
when issues are being debated
 It is weighted according to the population of the
country and given a number of points.
“Unanimity” voting
 The term "unanimity" means the requirement for all the Member
States meeting within the Council to be in agreement before a
proposal can be adopted.
 Since the Single European Act, the scope of the voting procedure
for unanimity has become more and more restricted.
 The Lisbon Treaty again increases the number of areas where
qualified majority voting in the Council will apply.
 However, a restricted number of policies judged to be sensitive
shall remain subject to unanimity voting, specifically taxation, social
security or social protection, the accession of new States to the
European Union, foreign and common defence policy and
operational police cooperation between the Member States
EU and the
constitutions
 The EU represents supranationalism in terms of its supremacy
over national decision making.
 The EU also represents intergovernmentalism, which preserves a
country’s sovereignty.
 Thus:

Supranational issues: agriculture, trade, single market, competition policy.

Intergovernmental issues: defence, foreign policy, admission of new
members.
Remember that the UK does not ultimately lose sovereignty,
because the country can leave the EU and restore all its national
independence.
The Factortame cases
 Exercise 6 What are the four areas of EU law?
 R (Factortame Ltd) v Secretary of State for
Transport (1991) was a series of cases litigated
between UK and EU courts, in five rounds, that
produced several landmark decisions in European
Union law and UK constitutional law.
 The central point to emerge from the cases was the
confirmation that EU law is higher than UK law
EU exercises
 Exercise 7 Thinking question
 Has the transfer of UK sovereignty to the EU gone too
far? Could we be members of the EU without
surrendering any sovereignty?
 Exercise 8 EU impacts on the UK
 Look through each impact and rate them firstly as good or bad
(g or b) from the perspective of a pro-European Liberal
Democrat and then an anti European Conservative
In the UK there are two main political groups who wish to
regain sovereignty from the EU
These are UKIP, who would like to do it by leaving the EU
altogether
The Eurosceptic Conservatives who would like to revise the
various treaties and bring back powers from the EU to the UK
parliament
Exercise 9 Why are 95 Conservative MPs backing calls for
EU veto?
Questions:
1. Why are 95 Conservative MPs backing calls for EU veto?
2. What is the government’s reaction to this?
Exam question
Exercise 10 Sample Question
In what ways and to what extent has the UK lost
sovereignty to the European Union? (25 marks, 500
words)