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EU law chapter 1 - Coggle Diagram
EU law chapter 1
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Themes
What the EU should be doing? --> linked to the concept of "output legitimacy", that is, the EU proving its value to the public by showing that it's effective in contributing to the achievements of objectives which have wide public support (such as economic growth and job creation)
How the EU should accomplish these tasks is linked to the concept of "input legitimacy", that is, how fair and democratic is the process by which the EU takes decicions
The EU has various systems in place to help achieve input legitimacy: the doctrines of separation of powers, the vertical division of competences between the states and the EU and a powerful judicial system which has been active in developing the "general principles of EU law" as tools to review the activities of the EU legislature and executive, as well as those of the member states when acting within the scope of EU law
These principals are linked to the boarder system for the protection of human rights in the EU legal order (European Convention on Human Rights ECHR)
Specific tensions between human rights and security objectives can be seen in the regulations of immigration and asylum law
How much should the EU do, as compared to its member states? And how should EU law reconcile tensions between different objectives - particularly between economic and non-economic objectives?
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Individuals cannot easily object EU's doings in front of a court, it happens mainly by voting in elections --> this has resulted in failure to gain much loyalty and love from the citizens of EU
These two forms of legitimacy might come into direct conflict, where, for instance, an attempt to make the EU more effective by removing member states' vetoes over a policy area could be seen as a reduction in democratic legitimacy, from the point of view of a national parliament
e.g. if the EU wants to deliver in a particular policy area, it needs to have the powers and the ability to exercise them in the way that it chooses; however this might come at the price of national sovereignty
The successive crises in recent years (financial crisis, the refugee crisis, terrorism fears, Brexit, Covid-19, the war in Ukraine) have exacerbated the tensions between these aspects of legitimacy. The EU's initial response to these crises has pushed in opposite directions