Notes from all European Union Law classes/KCs AND a self-made table of all primary legislation and caselaw and treaties (all separated) that have been discussed from week 1-6 at the middle of the document! + links to all caselaw/applicable legislation in each week.
Bundle 0
Good links:
https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/campus/university-library/searching-information/web-guide-european-u
nion
- the Treaty on European Union (TEU) contains the general provisions defining the Union
- the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) contains the specific
provisions with regard to the Union institutions and policies
→Curia
→Eur-Lex
Bundle 1 - European Integration: Drivers
and Phases
Readings:
Chapter 1
- Integration in one sector needs integration in another sector in order for its advantage in sector 1
to be maximized (such as, free movement of goods requires harmonization of laws in all sectors)
- ‘What’ should the EU do → output legitimacy
- Due to the four freedoms, MS has been limited in hwat it can actually do, such as not
having free movement of horsemeat regarding goods for example
- Output legitimacy has also brought a financial crisis with it. This crisis posed major
challenges for the EU: austerity measures led to major cuts in pension and social welfare
provision, eurozones are no longer free to devalue their currencies in order to regain
competitiveness bc they are forced into a cycle of ‘internal devaluation’ aka cuts to
wages and labor standards, pressure from the EU for States to open up provision of public
services to competition in order to obtain value for money.
- “How” should do the EU achieve these tasks^ → input legitimacy. Input legitimacy comprises of
the doctrine of separation of powers, the vertical division of competences between the States and
the EU, a powerful judicial system (incl. General principles of the EU, good administration,
information-related rights, and procedural rights)
- Vertical issue: the division of power between the EU and its member states
- Horizontal issue: the relative priority of economic over non-economic objectives
Chapter 4
- Fundamental rights as an achievement of liberal constitutionalism. This is based on the discovery
of the ‘individual’
- The union’s own bill of rights
,Chapter 2
- Charter of Rights
- Lisbon Treaty: it amends the TEU and EC Treaty.
Chapter 26
- Brexit: referendum w majority for UK to leave EU on 23 June 2016, and the process of UK
leaving EU finished on 31 January 2020
- Art 54 VCLT consensual withdrawal of a State from a Treaty (also 56 and 62)
- Art 50 TEU: unilateral right to withdraw, however, not an immediate right to do so.
- Referendum 2015 did not state the decision would be binding, which is not in conformity with art
50(1) TEU. However, it can be concluded that the vote to leave Brexit + European Union Act
2017 formed the UK’s domestic constitutional requirements for the purposes of art 50 TEU
- Art 50 obliges MS that want to leave the EU to notify the European Council of their decision,
however, this art does not provide guidance as to the form or the timing this notification must
take.
- Withdrawal from the EU is up to the MS itself alone, however, withdrawing the notification of
such leave is not up to the MS alone, and it brings the withdrawal procedure to an end
Legislation:
- TEU Articles 1-3, 6-7, 47(legal personality of EU), 49-51(50- withdrawal EU)
- TFEU Articles 1, 26(free movement of 4 thingies)
- Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFR) Preamble + Articles 47, 51-5
Caselaw:
- C-621/18 Wightman and Others, 10 December 2018. ECLI:EU:C:2018:999.
KC: What is the EU and how does it work?
➢ What is the EU?
○ The EU is an International Organization (IO), like … the UN, WTO, etc
○ Created by a Treaty (International Law)...
■ … to achieve specific goals / to perform specific tasks
■ … equipped with the necessary design (powers, institutions) to achieve those
goals / tasks
■ The EU has a regional nature
○ But, it is not the only IO in the European Region, which is the other? The Council of
Europe. (it has 47 members, while the EU only has 27 members)
➢ What is the relation between the EU and the CoE?
■ CoE is another IO with a regional nature
■ All EU members states are member of the Coe
○ European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR, 1950)
■ International treaty, catalogue of civil political rights
○ European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)
■ Compulsory supranational court interpreting the ECHR, sitting in Strasbourg
, ➢ What are the current legal foundations of the EU?
○ EU primary legal sources
■ How does the EU work? (institutions, goals, principles, policy areas)
■ How can the EU validly produce and enforce legal norms?
○ The EU is currently based on the Lisbon Treaty (2 Treaties - same legal value)
■ Signed 13 Dec 2007 - entered into force 1 Dec 2009
■ Treaty on European Union (TEU)
● General provisions (Democratic principles, EU principles, institutions,
enhanced cooperation, external action)
■ Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)
● Specific provisions (rules on EU competences, functioning of:
institutions, EU citizenship, policies, decision making)
■ + protocols to the Treaty of Lisbon (1-37)
● Legal value? As ‘footnotes’, interpretative tools
■ Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (CFR)
● Written Bill of Rights for the EU (currently the same value as the Treaty
see art 6(1) TEU)
○ Catalogue of rights in the EU?
■ The EU Charter of Fundamental rights (CFR)
● Created in 2000 → became HARD LAW with the Lisbon Treaty
● Outcome of a process of ‘codification’
● Before the CFR?
○ Already individual rights in CJEU’s Case Law
● Before the Lisbon Treaty?
○ CFR used as soft law (interpretative tool)
● Scope of Application
○ The CFR only applies when* EU law is applicable (for
instance, when MS implement EU Law) see art 51 CFR
➢ Is there a relation between EU law and the ECHR?
○ European Union (CFR) & Council of Europe (ECHR)
○ The European Convention on Human Rights is NOT EU LAW!
■ Future accession (?), see art 6(2) TEU
■ Fundamental Rights as guaranteed in the ECHR and in MS constitutional system
are general principles of EU law
■ Interpretation CFR must not lower the standards of protection provided by the
ECHR, see art 53 CFR
KC: Origin and drivers of EU integration
➢ The EU project
○ How did we get here? Origins and drivers of EU integration (the two faces of
nationalism)
■ 19th ct: Unification Nation States (Germany-Italy)
● Nationalism
● (push towards unification; prior boundaries… too small!!)
, ■20th ct: National Conflicts on a world scale: WWI and WWII
● Goal: long-lasting peace
● Strategy: supranational
● 1945 UN → international level
● 1950 ECHR → supranational regional level
■ 1951: European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
● 6 MS (DE, FR, IT, BE, NL, LU)
● Supranational management of strategic resources
■ 1954: European Defense Community (EDC) & European Political Community
(EPC)
● Common foreign policy / European legislative body (Federation)
● FAILED!
■ 1957: European Economic Community (EEC) - Treaty of Rome
● European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom)
● 6 MS (DE, FR, IT, BE, NL, LU)
● 1957 EEC treaty signed / 1958 EEC treaty in force
● Goal?
○ Gradual creation of common market
● How?
○ Common custom tariff, gradual removal of internal barriers to
trade (no tariffs, no quotas), circulation of economic factors (4
freedoms!!!) → goods, workers, capital, services
● Why?
○ Neofunctionalism: common market > interconnectedness >
spill-over effect > gradual integration > political integration
● Strategies: (to achieve a common market)
○ Key provisions limiting national aid to domestic industries
○ Key provisions limiting protective / discriminatory national
regulation
○ Key provisions on anti-competitive actions (by privates)
○ Approximation of policies
○ Common policies
➢ European Integration in 3 words:
○ Enlargement
■ (from 6 MS to 27 MS)
■ Admission of new MS: art 49 TEU (eligibility criteria!)
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