European Union law

The European Union is unique among international organizations in having a complex and highly developed system of internal law which has direct effect within the legal systems of its member states. Unlike other bodies of international law, it is generally recognized that European Union law overrides the national laws of its member states.

There are three sources of Union law:

primary legislation: the treaties
secondary legislation: regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations and opinions made by the Union's institutions in accordance with the treaties
decisions of the European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance

Primary legislation: the treaties

The primary legislation, or treaties, are effectively the constitutional law of the European Union. They lay down the basic policies of the Union, establish its institutional structure, legislative procedures, and the powers of the Union. The treaties that make up the primary legislation include:

the ECSC Treaty of 1951 (Treaty of Paris)
the EEC Treaty of 1957 (Treaty of Rome)
the EURATOM Treaty of 1957 (Treaty of Rome)
the Merger Treaty of 1965
the Acts of Accession of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark (1972)
the Budgetary Treaty of 1970
the Budgetary Treaty of 1975
the Act of Accession of Greece (1979)
the Acts of Accession of Spain and Portugal (1985)
the Single European Act of 1986
the Treaty of Maastricht of 1992
the Acts of Accession of Austria, Sweden and Finland (1994)
the Treaty of Amsterdam of 1997
the Treaty of Nice of 2001
the Treaty of Accession 2003 of 2003

All together is called the Acquis.

Secondary legislation

Secondary legislation include regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations and opinions.

Secondary legislation also includes interinstitutional agreements, which are agreements made between European Union institutions clarifying their respective powers, especially in budgetary matters. The Parliament, Commission and Council are capable of entering into such agreements.

The classification of legislative acts varies among the First, Second and Third Pillars.

In the case of the first pillar: Secondary legislation is classified based on to whom it is directed, and how it is to be implemented. Regulations and directives bind everyone, while decisions only affect the parties to whom they are addressed (which can be individuals, corporations, or member states). Regulations have direct effect, i.e. they are binding in and of themselves as part of national law, while directives require implementation by national legislation to be effective. However, states that fail or refuse to implement directives as part of national law can be fined by the European Court of Justice.

Legal history and governing treaties

The first pieces of the European project were laid in 1951, with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) by the Treaty of Paris. This was intended to prevent a war over coal or steel resources. In 1957, the Treaty of Rome was signed, establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC) and also the European Economic Community (EEC). The former organisation was created with the aim of co-operation between members' nuclear programmes, while the latter was intended to eventually create a single European market. The treaty of Rome was the foundation for later European treaties.

The status of overseas dependencies of the Netherlands (Antilles) and Denmark (Greenland) was regulated by treaty in 1962 and 1984, respectively.

In 1965, the Merger Treaty was signed, to gather together the three institutions of the ECSC, EAEC and EEC. This created the European Commission and Council of Ministers, governing bodies for the institutions. The three institutions would also now share a single budget. This treaty is regarded as the real beginning of the modern European Union. The term European Communities or EC came into use from this time onwards.

Budget and financial provisions underwent amendments in 1970 and 1975, respectively.

The treaty on the European Community was supplemented with successive accession treaties:

1972: Denmark, Ireland and United Kingdom (adopted 1973)
1979: Greece
1985: Spain and Portugal

In 1986 Single European Act became the first of many revisions to the Treaty of Rome. Like many of these treaties, it concerned reforming/refining the operating procedures of the institutions (by now strained with 12 rather than 6 members). Qualified Majority Voting was extended to new areas and an aim of a single market by 1992 was set.

After the 1992 Maastricht Treaty (Treaty on European Union) the European Communities became known as the European Union. The Maastricht Treaty significantly furthered progress on European Monetary Union (EMU) as well as establishing the "three pillars" framework:

Pillar 1 - the European Community
Pillar 2 - the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)
Pillar 3 - Justice and Home Affairs

In 1994, the accession treaty of Austria, Finland and Sweden (adopted 1995) further expanded the treaties of the Union.

Once again, in 1997, the framework of the European Union was amended by the Treaty of Amsterdam. This was essentially modifying the previous Treaty on European Union. It was to simplify decision making in addition to further integrating the Common Foreign and Security Policy concept. It also added new provisions on social policy and employment and integrated the Schengen Agreement.

To ready the European Union for further enlargement, the Treaty of Nice was agreed in 2000. The treaty set a cap on the number of MEPs (732) and the European Commission (25). The latter point meant that larger countries would go from two commissioners to one.

Qualified Majority Voting was again extended to more areas, abolishing the national right to veto in some areas. A concept of "enhanced co-operation" was introduced for countries wishing to forge closer links in areas where other states disagreed.

In 2003, the Treaty of Accession 2003 of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia further expanded the treaties of the Union.

Also in 2003, the Draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was introduced. Originally intended to be in place before the accession of 10 new states on 1 May 2004, it is still pending approval by the Council of Ministers. The constitution is intended to clearly define the competencies held by the European Union and those remaining with the member states. In a manner similar to national constitutions it declares clear principles for the European Union, including a section on human rights.

The three pillars

European Union policies are divided into three main areas, called pillars.

The first or 'Community' pillar concerns economic, social and environmental policies.
The second or 'Common Foreign and Security Policy' (CFSP) pillar concerns foreign policy and military matters.
The third or 'Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters' (PJCC) pillar concerns co-operation in the fight against crime.

Within each pillar, a different balance is struck between the supranational and intergovernmental principles. Supranationalism is strongest in the first pillar, while the other two pillars function along more intergovernmental lines. In the CFSP and PJCC pillars the powers of the Parliament, Commission and European Court of Justice with respect to the Council are significantly limited, without however being altogether eliminated. The balance struck in the first pillar is frequently referred to as the "community method", since it is that used by the European Community.

Origin of the three pillars structure

The pillar structure had its historical origins in the negotiations leading up to the Maastricht treaty. It was desired to add powers to the Community in the areas of foreign policy, security and defence policy, asylum and immigration policy, criminal co-operation, and judicial co-operation.

However, some member-states opposed the addition of these powers to the Community on the grounds that they were too sensitive to national sovereignty for the community method to be used, and that these matters were better handled intergovernmentally. To the extent that at that time the Community dealt with these matters at all, they were being handled intergovernmentally, principally in European Political Co-operation (EPC).

As a result, these additional matters were not included in the European Community; but were tacked on externally to the European Community in the form of two additional 'pillars'. The first additional pillar (Common Foreign and Security Policy, CFSP) deal with foreign policy, security and defence issues, while the second additional pillar (JHA, Justice and Home Affairs), dealt with the remainder.

Recent amendments in the treaties of Amsterdam and Nice have made the additional pillars increasingly supranational. Most important among these has been the transfer of policy on asylum, migration and judicial co-operation in civil matters to the Community pillar, effected by the Amsterdam treaty. Thus the third pillar has been renamed Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters, or PJCC. The term Justice and Home Affairs is still used to cover both the third pillar and the transferred areas.

Specific topics in EU law

External links

EUR-Lex - online access to European Union legislation
EUR-Lex: Treaties