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(1) PROCESS OF EU INTEGRATION, (2) UNION'S AREA OF ACTION : - Coggle…
(1) PROCESS OF EU INTEGRATION
Declaration
of French minister
Schuman in 1950
, proposing to place the Franco-German production of coal and steel under a common supranational authority.
ESCSC Treaty
was then signed in 1951
(European Coal and Steel Community)
In 1957, the
Treaties of Rome
created the
European Economic Community
and
Euratom
Followed then by the
Single European Act (1986)
, the
Maastricht Treaty (1992)
the
Treaty of Lisbon (2009)
more on the Single European Act...
Once the
Single European Act (SEA)
entered into force, the title 'European Parliament'(which the Assembly had used since 1962) was made official. The SEA also increased the EP's legislative powers with the introduction of the cooperation and assessment procedures.
After World War II, the
european integration process started breaking down states sovereignity
. Creating a system so complex and evolved that
placed the individual in the center of a legal order that is autonomous from both national and the international systems.
3 founding fathers: Churchill, De Gasperi and Schuman
The 3 structural pillars/ macro components of the Union are, respectively:
The complexity of its institutional system
The system of competences (exclusive, concurrent, complementary) and procedure of EU and its
normative legal order with its principles
(of legality, of primacy of law, rule of law) resemble more the articulation of a national system rather than a international organization.
The foundational values and the aim of integrating people
Values found in the
Charter of Fundamental Rights
and in
common values of the MS
: respect for human dignity, freedom, democratic principles
Articles 9-12 TEU
and the principle of transparency aim to strenghten the democratic foundations of its institutional system.
Article 15 TFEU
.
(Respect for these common values is not limited only to the sphere of behaviour and mere politics, as
Article 7 TEU and 269 TFEU
suggest.
The pursue of integrating people has a solid ally in the present and future use of
the supranational legal order as an instrument for integrating the EU peoples withing a logic of social cohesion.
To enhance cohesion,
gradual changes to the Treaties
are made, in a scheme that is still a
work in progress
.
Loss of sovereignty
The deconstruction of the Concept of national sovereignty by the Court of Justice
The Court of Justice has assumed a driving role in the process of EU integration since the 1960s by:
Recognizing that
elements of formal hierarchy exist among the sources of law of the Union.
Enhancing the
ability of supranational norms to directly affect the legal sphere of individuals
(primary law> domestic law).
Affirming that certain
founding rules and rights cannot be derogated
.
Upholding the view that
Union law is controlled by a predetermined system of common judicial guarantees
ensuring the participation of both he Union and the member states in the judicial decisions.
Claiming that
member states have renounced their sovereign powers
(irrevocability of powers conferred).
Principles and key concepts:
irreversible devolutionary dynamic
ongoing erosion of national sovereignty
vertical relationship with respect to national legal systems
Dinamic dissemination of sovereignty
Loss of monetary sovereignty of MSs
Powers attributed to common institutions
growing interdependence between national and european power
Results of EU Integration process
:
Fading of national sovereignty in normative pluralism
.
creation of a unified system of states norms and Union's rules
, in a unitary vision of respecting primary law and national constitutions.
Legal certainty
(clearance in the mechanism to solve conflicts between normative values of EU and those of member states)
highliting the need for ordering criteria for solving normative conflicts.
How to acquire EU membership?
the applicant
must be a State under International Law
the applicant
must belong to the EU continent
the applicant
must respect and promote the values of the Union
Article 2 TEU
In 1993 the Copenhangen EU Council
enlarged the
prerequisites to join EU:
democratic stability criterion
(must have institutions that guarantee democracy and respect the principles of legality, human rights and minorities rights)
economic criterion
(market economy and competition)
legal criterion
(accept Union
acquis
, the objectives of political, economic and monetary Union)
(2) UNION'S AREA OF ACTION :
The system of competences
What is a competence?
1.1
When a body has the power, but not the enforceable duty, to act.
1.3 The
Lisbon Treaty
has modified the general framework of the Union's competences and established the conditions for their excercise.
Offering
greater clarity of competences division between EU and MSs
while aiming to
protect national sovereignty,
clarifying the margins of intervention of the Union.
The
Lisbon Treaty
has also inserted in primary law the
principle of reversibility, that opens the option to return Union competences to member states
by means of ordinary revision procedure.
1.2
Powers not attributed to the Union belong to the member states.
Articles 4-5 TEU
How many are there?
3 (+1) categories of competences
(defined by the intesity of the
Union's conferral)
[
principle of conferral
: The Union acts only and within the locus of the conferred competences]
SHARED
Both the Union and the states can act in a given area on the basis of the
principle of subsidiarity and pre-emption
.
They are the most numerous fields of Union intervention.
The list of shared competences
Article 4 TFEU
includes
:
internal market
social policy
(some aspects)
economic, social and territorial cohesion
agriculture, fishing and the environment
consumer protection
transport
The principle of subsidiarity
Delimits the scope of the Union intervention
with respect to the MSs
Confers normative power on the entity closest to the effects of the act and thus better able to verify them
In case the entity doesn't manage to reach the fullfill the established objectives, the indispensable intervention of a central authority could be invoked.
With the
Lisbon reform
, in addition,
the institutions must verify
, before the Union excercises a shared competence, not only
if those objectives can be achieved at the central level
,
but also that the same goals cannot be achieved at the regional and local level
Article 5 TEU
Subsidiarity implies a
comparative assessment
of the objectives that MSs could achieve separately or jointly.
Annual reports of the Commission on subsidiarity
show that the complex process is divided in
4 stages
:
(1) the Commission outlines its general intentions
(2) stakeholder(s) verify the Commission's approach financially and its administrative implications
(3) it is tested with a comparative efficency analysis if the Union intervention would be better than leaving the matter to MSs. An
explanatory memorandum
is written.
(4) The explanatory report is read and a recital of the propoced acts is consicely recalled + the reasons why it complies with the principle of subsidiarity
EXCLUSIVE
The power to legislate and adopt binding acts belong only to the Union.
The intervetion of national authorities is authorized by the Union.
Article 3 TFEU
includes
5 areas
within the sphere of exclusive competences:
the customs union
the definition of competition rules
monetary policy
for MSs using the Euro currency
common commercial policy
conservation of marine biological resources
The notion of exclusive competence presupposes a certain development of common legislation
,
otherwise there would be a legal vacuum that MSs could never fill.
Before intervening in areas of exclusive competence, the MSs must
consult the Commission for authorization.
Exclusive competence does not exclude
that in the absence of a supranational legislation,
member states may maintain pre-existing legislation or introduce new laws if authorized to do so.
SUPPLEMENTARY / PARALLEL
The Union is assigned complementary tasks of supporting and coordinating national policies and cannot replace, nor empty MSs norms.
(+1) Foreign and security policy and the common defence policy
continue to be
special fields of competence.
It is an area of collective action that must be detailed by means of unanimous agreement that takes the form of a binding act
What are their main purposes?
They define what are the areas where the MSs and the Union can act
(general need for clarity)
.
The need to achieve an objective by appropriate means, based on the system of competences conferred by the Treaties.
The current system of competences is based on the
listing and classification of powers attributed to the Union.
The flexibility and the functional approach
Defining competences does not exclude the
functional approach
implying that the
competence is evolutive in nature and may be progressively extended.
In certain areas the division of competences between the Union and the MSs is uncertain and mobile.
The need of making things move faster (with less obstacles) than the
ordinary procedures
has made these forms of flexibility a sort of rationale necessity.
It is possible to enact a
limited extension of competences
through certain
special revision procedures requiring unanimity in the Council
.
These procedures and the flexiblity of these measures are mentioned in
Article 25,311 TFEU
Article 42 TEU
General passarelle clauses
To make European Union (EU) decision-making more flexible, under certain specific conditions,
Article 48 (7)
of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) introduces the possibility of
two types of general passerelle clauses
(or bridge clauses)
to allow a change to be made to the legislative procedure initially provided for
.
The use of a passerelle clause means there is
no need to formally amend the EU treaties
and thus no requirement for this to be ratified by the EU Member States.
2 kinds
Where the
decision-making is changed from unanimity to qualified majority voting
It applies in the case of legislative proposals where the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) or
Title V of the TEU
(which concerns the EU’s external action and common foreign and security policy) specify that the Council should act by unanimity.
Where
legislative acts are
required by the TFEU to be adopted
under the special legislative procedure
,
with the Council as the sole legislator
, and the European Parliament is either consulted or asked for its consent.
Here the passerelle clause would result in a switch from the special legislative procedure to the ordinary legislative procedure
(formerly known as
co-decision
).
The flexibility clause
Article 352 TFEU
states what are the requirements
that need to be met for the institutions
to invoke this provision:
a) the act
must be necessary to achieve the objectives set out
by the Treaties
b) the action envisaged
must be part of policies
as defined by the Treaties
c)
the Treaties have not yet provided the necessary means
of action
It is inspired
by a functional logic
and it
plays a residual role.
The clause does not constitute a remedy for overcoming a lack of competence, but only
to carry out an action not provided by primary law within an area of attributed competence.