Juridical Aspects of the European Construction

Course No. 5

Community Law System

• Primary Community law/native:– Founding Treaties (ECSC, EEC, EURATOM, TEU)– Amendment Treaties – which modify and/or complete

the founding Treaties (SEA, Treaty of Amsterdam, Treaty of Nice, Reform Treaty - Lisbon)

– Accession agreements• Secondary Community law/derived:

– Regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations/opinions

• Jurisprudence of the European Courts

Paris Treaty:European Steal and Coal Community• Signed: 18th of April 1951• Entered in force: 1952• Expired: 23rd of July 2002 (duration of 50 years)• Signing Countries: Germany, France, Italy, Luxemburg,

Belgium, the Netherlands (The Six; the Common High Authority was presided by Jean Monnet)

• This plan of economic integration looked for developing the approach between France and Germany, moving definitively away the haunt of war in Europe =>peace between France and Germany.

Jean Monnet

• "Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity. The coming together of the nations of Europe requires the elimination of the age-old opposition of France and Germany. Any action taken must in the first place concern these two countries.With this aim in view, the French Government proposes that action be taken immediately on one limited but decisive point.It proposes that Franco-German production of coal and steel as a whole be placed under a common High Authority, within the framework of an organisation open to the participation of the other countries of Europe.The pooling of coal and steel production should immediately provide for the setting up of common foundations for economic development as a first step in the federation of Europe (...)"

• Schuman Declaration 9th of May 1950

Robert Schuman (French Foreign Minister)

The Rome Treaties: CEE and EURATOM• Historical background:

– The foreign ministers of the Six, presided over by the Belgian Paul Henri Spaak, met in a Conference in Messina (Italy) in 1955: the agreements they reached there meant a definitive step in the European construction leading to

signing the Treaties of Rome (25th of March 1957) by the Sixin force since 1958

Treaties of Rome

European Economic Community

(CEE)

European Atomic Energy Community

(EURATOM)Objectives:- Integration of the common economy- Creating of a common market- Establishing of the “4 freedoms” (goods, services, capitals and

workers)- Elimination of any national discrimination

Key issues in implementing the Rome Treaties

What was needed?increased importance of

the

- Legal basis European- Legislative harmonization Court of

Justice

Theoretical implications of the CEE Treaty• Alongside the common market, also an European social

society arises: the State is no longer sovereign subject on its’ territory, because the common market operates at a supranational dimension.

• Community law is over the national law• CEE covers more areas than ECSC • International background:

– UK refused to join the CEE, based on their maritime power and did not want to give up the power over to the Communities’ institutions. Result: creation of European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) in 1959 as a rival for CEE.

ECONOMIC OBJECTIVES

1. Harmonious development of economic activities

2. Continuous and equilibrated expansion

3. Increase in stability4. Accelerated growth of the

living standard

MEANS

How?

KEY PRINCIPLES INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

Loyalty to the Community

Non-discrimination related to citizenship

Enlargement of competencies, only related to the functioning of the common market

Common institutions

Supreme judiciary control

The Commission: the guardian of the Treaty

EU Budget

Rules concerning decision making

COMMON MARKET HARMONIZATION OF ECONOMIC POLICIES

Customs union

Free movement of goods

Free movement of persons

Free movement of services

Free movement of capitals

Common commercial policy

Common agricultural policy

Harmonization of economic and fiscal regulations

Common competition policy

Common transportation policy

Other instruments (weak)

Figure 1: The Economic Structure of the Treaty of Rome,

Pelkmans J, 2008

Merger Treaty

• Signed: 8th of April 1965• In force since: 1st of July 1967• in Brussels• Objective:

– establishing of unique structures for the 3 European Communities (ECSC, CEE, EURATOM): Council of Ministers (decisional) and European Commission (executive)

Schengen Agreement• Signed in Schengen (Luxemburg) on 14th of June 1986• Signing countries: Germany, France, Belgium, the

Netherlands and Luxemburg• Gradual elimination of the border control of the common

borders and introducing the free movement for all their citizen.

• Other countries joined: Italy (1990), Spain and Portugal (1991), Greece (1992), Austria (1995), Sweden, Finland, Denmark (1996), Iceland, Norway.

• 21st of December 2007 – 9 CEECs joined• Today: 25 member states

Map of the Schengen AgreementCountries: Austria Belgium Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland

Single European Act• 17th of February 1986• In force since 1st of July 1987• was the first major revision of the Treaty of Rome • Objective for the European Community: establishing a

Single Market by 31st of December 1992 and as a means of achieving this adopted a more collaborative legislative process

• Extended the competencies of the Communities’ Institutions (the European Parliament had a real say in legislating) and introduced cooperation procedure and extended the qualified majority vote in the decision-making process

ECONOMIC OBJECTIVES MEANS

How?

KEY PRINCIPLES INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

The previous ones The previous ones The previous ones

COMMON MARKET HARMONIZATION OF ECONOMIC POLICIES

European Council

Qualified majority vote for measures concerning

the internal market

More important role for the European Parliament

The previous ones

Definition of common market:

space without frontiers, the guarantee of

liberties

The previous ones

Mutual recognition as regular principle

•Research & technical

development

•environment

SME

Economic & social cohesion

Structural funds

Health & safety at the workplace

Figure 2: Addition of the Single European Act to the Treaty of Rome,

Pelkmans J, 2008

Treaty on European Union (TEU)• signed on 7th of February 1992 in Maastricht (the Netherlands)• entered into force on 1st of November 1993• It created the EUROPEAN UNION

– 3 pillars: Economic Community (EC) – with supranational institutions, Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), Justice and Home affairs (JHA) – intergovernmental cooperation

• Established the convergence criteria for the EMU (art. 121):– Inflation rate:

• no more than 1.5 percentage points higher than the average of the three best performing (lowest inflation) member states of the EU.

– Government finance: • government deficit to GDP must not exceed 3%, government debt to GDP must not exceed 60%

– Exchange Rate: • applicant countries should have joined the exchange-rate mechanism (ERM II) under the European

Monetary System for 2 consecutive years– Long-term interest rates:

• the nominal long-term interest rate must not be more than 2 percentage points higher than in the three lowest inflation member states.

• Led to the creation of the single European currency: the Euro

Treaty of Amsterdam• signed on 2 October 1997, and entered into force on 1 May 1999 • Problem: The prospect of adding ten or more members lent new urgency to calls for reform

of EU institutions. The Union was already too large to function with essentially the same set of institutions that had been devised in the 1950s

• The Treaty of Amsterdam amended the Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty of Rome. – The aim of the negotiations was clear: to create the political and institutional conditions

to enable the European Union to meet the challenges of the future such as the rapid evolution of the international situation, the globalization of the economy and its impact on jobs, the fight against terrorism, international crime and drug trafficking, ecological problems and threats to public health

• Accomplishments?

Freedom, security and justice• to protect fundamental rights within the European Union, such as equality between men and

women, non-discrimination and data privacyThe Union and the citizen

Improvements areas directly affecting the rights, interests, and well-being of individual citizens

Effective and coherent external policythe challenges and practicalities of extending the scope of the common commercial policy to

include international agreements on services and intellectual property rights

ECONOMIC OBJECTIVES MEANS

How?

KEY PRINCIPLES INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

1. Harmonious, equilibrated and lasting development of economic activities

2. High level of employment and social protection

3. Equality between men and women4. Lasting and non-inflationary

growth5. High level of competitiveness and

the convergence of economic performances

6. High level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment

7. Increase in the living standards and in the quality of life

8. Economic and social cohesion among member states

The previous ones

COMMON MARKET HARMONIZATION OF ECONOMIC POLICIES

EMU

The previous ones

Special protocol regarding the

subsidiarity and proportionality

Rules concerning the decision making:

-More QMV

-More power for the European Parliament

Tighter cooperation or “flexibility”, under very strict conditions in the EC Pillar; fewer conditions in other

Pillars

The stability and growth pact

The previous ones

Voluntary ERM-2Gradual transition to

(entirely) free movement of persons – complex

relationship to Schengen and conditionings

The previous

ones

The social protocol

inserted in the EC Treaty

The previous

ones

Coordinated strategy for employment

Figure 3: The Economic Structure of the Treaty of Amsterdam,

Pelkmans, J. 2008

Treaty of Nice

• was signed on 26 February 2001 and came into force on 1 February 2003 BUT it was first rejected (June 2001, by Irlenad).

• It amended the TEU• The Treaty of Nice reformed the institutional

structure of the European Union to withstand eastward expansion, a task which was originally intended to have been done by the Amsterdam Treaty, but failed to be addressed at the time.

• Institutions:– European Commission:

• 1 Commissioner/country = 27 Commissioners– Council of Ministers (votes) – European Parliament (members) – to 732

• The Treaty of Nice provides for new rules on closer co-operation, the rules introduced in the Treaty of Amsterdam being viewed as unworkable, and hence these rules have not yet been used.

• The Treaty also contained provisions to deal with the financial consequences of the expiry of the Treaty of Paris (ECSC)

Treaty for an European Union Constitution (TEC)

• Signed on 29th of October 2004• Rejected in France and the Netherlands in 2005• TEC was designed to replace the Treaty of

Rome on EEC and the Treaty of Maastricht (EU), EURATOM remains into force

• The Charter for fundamental rights was to be introduced =>EU could join European Court for Human Rights (ECHR)

• Development of the European defense and introduced a clause of solidarity for all member states against a possible attack

Reform Treaty (Lisbon)• Signed: 13th of December 2007• Into force: 3rd of November 2009• Purpose: amendment of the EU’s functioning Treaties• Main changes:

– Legal personality of the EU– Three pillars MERGED– Charta of the Fundamental Rights:– Clearer separation and definition of competences of the EU and

Member States – “President of the Union”, elected for 2,5 years– “High Representative of the Union on Common Foreign and Security

Policy ” = foreign Minister of the EU– Reducing the number of Commissioners: 2/3 of the member states– Modified the voting procedure of the Council and introducing the “double

majority” (55% of the Member States and 65% of the EU population)

EU OBJECTIVES MEANS

How?

KEY PRINCIPLES INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

The Union's aim is to promote peace, its’ values and the well-being of its peoples.The Union shall offer its citizens an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers, in which the free movement of persons is ensured.The Union shall establish an internal market. It shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe's cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced.The Union shall establish an economic and monetary union whose currency is the euro.In its relations with the wider world, the Union shall uphold and promote its values and interests and contribute to the protection of its citizens

Values: respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail

The previous ones

COMMON MARKET HARMONIZATION OF ECONOMIC

POLICIESEMU

The previous one

Definition and formalization of principle of conferral,

subsidiarity, proportionality, supremacy of EU law

Clearer separation of competences

-More QMV and double majority-More power for the European Parliament-Co-decision extended -New roles for national parliaments+External representation of EU: President of EU, High representative +Citizenship and citizens participation to democratic life and decision making

Provisions for countries whose currency is Euro

The previous ones (Amsterdam)

Specific provisions for countries with derogation

Gradual transition to (entirely) free movement

of persons – complex relationship to Schengen

and conditionings

The previous

ones

The previous

ones

Figure 5: The Economic Structure of the Lisbon Treaty

• each Treaty underlines key moments in the EU evolution

• signing countries: from The Six to 27 member states

• EU evolution meant enlargement and deepening of the integration process (from a FTA6 to an EU27 and EMU17)

• Each Treaty tried to face the two main challenges: enlargement and integration process

Highlights!!

Timeline of the EU TreatiesECSC (founding)EEC, EURATOM (founding)

Merger Treaty

Schengen Agreement SEA (amending)

TEU (founding) Treaty of Amsterdam (amending) Treaty of Nice (amending) Reform Treaty (amending)

19511957

1965

19861992199720012007

Q&A