Subsidiary authorization to act
The subsidiary power to act according to Art. 352 TFEU (also rounded authorization called) authorizes the Council of the European Union to adopt acts, if action by the European Union within the framework of the Union Policy is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Treaties.
Since this standard of responsibility is in tension with the principle of limited individual authorization, there are special hurdles for this rounding-off authorization:
- The European Commission draws up a proposal and draws the parliaments of the member states particularly to the proposal ( Art. 352 (2 ) TFEU )
- the Council decides unanimously with the consent of the European Parliament
- the provision must not lead to the harmonization of legal provisions in those areas in which the treaties expressly exclude this ( Art. 352 (3 ) TFEU )
- the provision cannot be used to achieve objectives of the common foreign and security policy ( Art. 352 (4 ) TFEU )
However, since the Union has been better equipped with special empowerment norms in recent years , recourse to the rounding off authorization has become unnecessary.
history
The authorization to round off already existed before the Treaty of Lisbon and was regulated in Art. 308 of the EC Treaty as amended by the Treaty of Nice . The application of this provision, however, was only permitted if Community action required appears to attain one of the objectives within the framework of the common market . In the context of the aforementioned provision, the Council decided unanimously after hearing the European Parliament . So this had no way of preventing such a legal act.
literature
- Carsten Doerfert: European law. The foundations of the European Union with its political and economic relationships . 3rd edition Luchterhand, Neuwied 2007, ISBN 978-3-472-06799-3 .