Three pillars of the European Union

The three pillars of the European Union were a common image used to describe the EU's political system as introduced by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. The Lisbon Treaty of 2009 reshaped the EU in such a way that the three-pillar model is no longer suitable for describing it.

According to the Maastricht Treaty, the European Union (EU) did not have its own legal personality . It was merely a kind of umbrella organization that provided the institutional framework for three sub-areas, the so-called three pillars. These were the European Communities ( ECSC , EC , Euratom ), the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and cooperation in the field of justice and home affairs (ZJI). The first pillar, the communities, had existed before 1992; Decisions in the relevant policy fields were mostly made supranationally according to the majority principle in the Council of the European Union and with the participation of the European Parliament (so-called community method ). The second and third pillars (CFSP and ZJI), on the other hand, which were newly introduced by the Maastricht Treaty, were organized on an intergovernmental basis. The unanimity principle applied here in the Council, the European Parliament had no say, the ECJ only had very limited competence for the 2nd and 3rd pillars (Art. 46 lit d), e) EU [Nice]). In the area of ZJI, the EU initially had no legislative competence. All resolutions in this policy area had to be ratified by all member states as separate international agreements .

Most areas of the ZJI were transferred to the EC through the Treaty of Amsterdam , so that the supranational decision-making procedures now also applied here. Only police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters (PJZS) remained in the third pillar. The principle of unanimity in the Council of the EU continued to apply to them ; however, the resolutions passed there were now immediately valid and no longer had to be ratified by the individual states.

With the Treaty of Lisbon , a new uniform legal framework was created, through which the image of the “three pillars” lost its foundation: The European Union was no longer an umbrella organization, but was given legal personality (Art. 47 EU Treaty). This allowed the EC to be dissolved and all of its competencies transferred to the EU. At the same time, the same supranational decision-making procedures were introduced for the PJZS (see Art. 82-87 TFEU) that previously only applied to the EC. Only the CFSP retained its special decision-making procedures after the Lisbon Treaty and thus formed a special area within the EU (Art. 21-46 EU Treaty: " General provisions on the Union's external action and special provisions on common foreign and Security Policy " ). Euratom, which was part of the “first pillar” as one of the European Communities until the Treaty of Lisbon, was no longer specifically mentioned in the EU Treaty , but merely linked to the political system of the EU through a protocol to the Treaty.

graph

The following diagram shows the three-pillar model as it came into force from the Treaty of Amsterdam .

European Union

European Communities (EC)		Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)		Police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters (PJZS)
	European Community (EC): Agricultural policy Customs union and internal market Competition policy , state aid Structural policy Trade policy European Economic and Monetary Union Union citizenship Education policy and culture Research and environmental policy Trans-European Networks Healthcare Consumer protection Social policy Immigration policy Asylum policy Protection of the EU's external borders With the Treaty of Amsterdam to the EC, before that in the third pillar "Justice and Home Affairs": Judicial cooperation in civil matters Accompanying measures for the free movement of people EURATOM : Cooperation in the field of nuclear energy ECSC (own organization until 2002, afterwards tasks were taken over by EC): Mutual control of coal and steel		Foreign policy: cooperation Election observer Peacekeeping Human rights democracy Help for third countries Security Policy: Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) disarmament EU reaction force Economic aspects of armaments European security order		Drug and arms trafficking human trafficking terrorism Offenses against children Organised crime Bribery , corruption and fraud
First pillar		Second pillar		Third pillar