Principle of the limited individual authorization
The principle of limited individual authorization ( Art. 5 EU Treaty ) states that bodies of the European Union or the European Atomic Energy Community may only issue legal norms if they are explicitly authorized to do so by the treaties , known as primary law . The EU cannot acquire competencies on its own, it has no competency-competence . Any EU legislation therefore always requires an express basis in the treaties. Otherwise, the legislative power remains with the Member States.
The states come through an authorization in international law agree contracts of primary Community law, part of their sovereignty to dispense and transfer it into the competence of the EU. In Germany, this transfer finds its constitutional legitimation in Article 23 of the Basic Law .
The European Court emphasized so far in his decisions always the validity of the principle of conferral. However, he has so far regularly interpreted the authorizations contained in the treaties widely in favor of the competences of the European Union .
The principle of limited individual authorization is supplemented by the implied powers doctrine . This means that the competence norms provided for in the contracts also cover the facts without which the competence norms cannot be used meaningfully.