(Redirected from
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. In contrast to nations such as the United States, European nations subscribe to the principle that international law adopted by a nation overrides national law, and hence it is the case European Union law overrides the national laws of its member states.
There are three sources of Union law:
-
It is more correct though, to make the distinction between European Community (EC) law and European Union law, as it is only EC law that overrides the national laws of the member states. The European Community constitutes one of the 'three pillars' of the European Union.
It should be noted that the European Union recently drafted a constitution that will be subject to the approval from all 25 members.
Primary legislation: the treaties
- Main article: Treaties of the European Union
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 various annexes and protocols attached to these treaties are also considered a source of primary legislation.
- Treaties and evolution of the structures of the European Union
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.
Directives and regulations can comprise of a mixture of maximum harmonisation and minimum harmonisation clauses, and can be enforced on either a home state or a host state basis
All EU legislation must be based on a specific treaty article, which is referred to as the "legal basis" of the legislation.
The European Convention's Working Group on Simplification, identified in total 15 legal instruments of the European Union. These, divided in the three pillars of the European Union are the following:
-
If the planned European Constitution is ratified, these acts will be reduced to only six: EU laws, EU framework laws, decisions, regulations, recommendations and opinions.
Legislative procedures
There are three main legislative procedures[1] in the European Union, with the main difference between them being how the European Parliament interacts with the Council of the European Union.
-
History of decision-making
Initially, the Consultation procedure was the primary interplay of the institutions. Unter it, Council must wait (unless it initiates an emergeny procedure) for the EP’s opinion before adopting the legislation. This possibility for delay was in the early days the EP’s only weapon.
The role of the European Parliament in this institutional triangle has been gradually strengthened. Major landmarks in this gradual strengthening process have been
-
- the transferral of budget responsibilities during the early 70s,
- the first direct elections in 1979,
- the introduction of the Cooperation procedure with the Single European Act (1986/87) and
- the codecision procedure with the Maastricht Treaty (1993/93), whose scope was expanded considerably by the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997/99) and the Treaty of Nice (2001).
Acquis
The whole body of EU law is together called the acquis communautaire, broken into 32 chapters for purposes of accession negotiations.
Specific topics in EU law
-
External links
-
