Chapter 1 FROM THE EEC TO THE EU

 The European Economic Community (EEC) was formed in January 1958 when the
Treaty of Rome came into effect.

 The EU was formed in November 1993 when the Treaty on European Union (TEU)
came into effect; at the same time the EEC was re-named as the European Community
(EC).

 For the next 16 years, the EC and EU existed side-by-side (although it would be more
accurate to say that the EC was part of the EU). However, in December 2009 the EC
ceased to exist when the Lisbon Treaty came into effect.

 That simplifies the situation as there is now simply the EU or ―the Union.

The ECSC

 In May 1948, the Congress of Europe passed a resolution calling for a united Europe
throughout whose area the free movement of persons, ideas and goods is restored.

 In 1951 the Treaty of Paris was signed by the governments of Belgium, the
Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, West Germany and Italy. It established the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the intention of which was to establish
a common market in coal and steel.

 It was seen as being a way of promoting co-operation between countries which had
been at war with each other less than a decade previously.

 It was also seen as a means of removing the raw materials for war from the control of
the Member States.

 The ECSC was (for the time) an unusual organisation. There was a Council of
Ministers, responsible for the overall development and policies of the ECSC, which
consisted of representatives of the Member States, with supranational power (i.e. the
power to make legally binding decisions without the intervention of national
parliaments or governments).

 There was a permanent executive called the High Authority (subsequently re-named
the European Commission), responsible for the day-to-day running of the ESCS, to
which power could be delegated by the Council.

 The Treaty of Paris also established a Court of Justice, which was to resolve any
disputes that arose between the Member States and to enforce the law in accordance
with the Treaty.

Treaty of Rome

 Following the success of the ECSC, the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957, which
established the European Economic Community (EEC) in January 1958.
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  Its purpose was to promote the general economic integration of its 6 original Member
States: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany.

 As the name suggested, the EEC had a much wider remit than the ECSC and was
designed to promote co-operation in a variety of economic fields, such as agriculture,
employment, fishing, trade and transport.

 The fundamental legal principles which aim to ensure the smooth functioning of the
EEC were set out in the Treaty of Rome.

 It is very important to note that these fields of operation are finite: the EEC only had
power to act in those areas identified in the Treaty itself. In other areas, for example
direct taxation, the individual Member States retained full control.

 The Treaty of Rome also created the Common Market, an area comprising all of the
Member States in which goods, people, services and capital would be free to move.

 A 2nd Treaty of Rome was also signed in 1957, establishing the European Atomic
Energy Community (EURATOM) in January 1958, which was intended to promote
co-operation in the generation and distribution of nuclear energy.

 Thus, from January 1958, there were 3 distinct European Communities: (1) EEC (2)
ECSC (3) EURATOM

 Although there were 3 Communities, from 1969 they were run by a single set of
institutions: the Council of Ministers (later re-named the Council of the EU), the
European Commission, an Assembly (later re-named the European Parliament) and
the Court of Justice.

ENLARGEMENT OF THE EU

 Since 1958, the EEC/EU has grown from an initial membership of 6 to 27, following
the accession of the United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland in 1973; Greece in 1981;
Spain and Portugal in 1986; Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995; Cyprus, the Czech
Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia
in 2004; Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall in
1989, East Germany was reunited with West Germany and absorbed into the EU. In
addition, three other states are involved in formal negotiations to join: Croatia,
Macedonia and Turkey. The United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union on
31 January 2020. Croatia is now a member of the EU since 1 July 2013.

LEGAL EXPANSION

 By the mid-1980s, the EEC was approaching 30 years of age.

 In 1986, the governments of the Member States signed a document called the Single
European Act (SEA), which came into effect in 1987. The SEA made a number of
modifications to the (first) Treaty of Rome, the most important being:
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 (1) The list of fields in which the EEC was competent to act was expanded. For e.g.
environmental protection was added to the list.
(2) The Court of First Instance (CFI) was created, to relieve some of the workload
from the European Court of Justice.
(3) The Common Market was re-named the Internal Market

THE TREATY ON EUROPEAN UNION 1992

 The Treaty on European Union (TEU) was signed in 1992 and came into effect in
November 1993. It is also known as the Maastricht Treaty, because it was signed in
the Dutch city of Maastricht.

 Amongst other things, the TEU:

(1) established the European Union (the EU);
(2) renamed the EEC as simply the EC;
(3) made various amendments to the Treaty of Rome;
(4) recognised the European Council (not to be confused with the Council of
Ministers) as an institution of the EU
(5) Paved the way for the adoption of the single European currency, the Euro,
in 2002.

 The EU did not replace the EC, and nor did the TEU replace the Treaty of Rome.
Rather, the EC became part of the EU. The Treaty of Rome remained in effect, and
remained the key legal document governing the functioning of the EC.

 The TEU, meanwhile, ran in parallel to the Treaty of Rome and governed those areas
of the EU other than the EC.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS

 2 further Treaties were signed in the next decade: the Treaty of Amsterdam (signed in
1997, came into effect in May 1999) and the Treaty of Nice (signed in 2001, came
into effect in February 2003).

 These made various amendments to both the Treaty of Rome and the TEU but did not
make any fundamental changes to the way in which either the EC or EU operated.

 The Treaty of Paris, signed in 1952, was only ever intended to last for 50 years and it
duly lapsed in 2002. As a result, the ECSC also ceased to exist. The provisions of the
Treaty of Rome were applied to those industries instead.

 2002 also saw the introduction of the single European currency, the Euro, in 12
Member States (Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain).

 Slovenia became the 13th Member State to adopt the Euro in 2007, followed by
Cyprus and Malta in 2008 and Slovakia in 2009. The European Central Bank (ECB),
based in Frankfurt in Germany, oversees the single currency.

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THE CHARTER OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS 2000

 In December 2000, a Charter of Fundamental Rights was approved by the

governments of the EU Member States. The document consists of 50 articles on a
range of issues, such as human dignity (Article 1), the right to life (article 2), respect
for private and family life (Article 7), freedom of expression (Article 11), right to
education (Article 14), right to asylum (Article 18) and equality between men and
women (Article 23).

 The Charter did not, initially, have binding legal force, but that changed in December
2009.

 It is very important to note that the Charter is not to be confused with the European
Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), a document which was signed in November
1950 and which came into effect in September 1953.

 The 2 documents share a number of common features but are not identical.

 All 27 Member States of the EU are signatories to the ECHR, along with 20 other
non-EU countries including Croatia, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland and
Ukraine.

 Enforcement of the ECHR is the responsibility of the European Court of Human

Rights, based in Strasbourg in France.

THE LISBON TREATY 2007

 The latest EU treaty is the Lisbon Treaty, signed in September 2007, which came into
effect in December 2009.

 The main features are:

1. The abolition of the EC;
2. The Treaty of Rome has been amended and re-named as the Treaty on the
Functioning of the European Union (TFEU);
3. The TEU has also been amended;
4. The Charter of Fundamental Rights 2000 has become legally binding;
5. The EU is committed to becoming a signatory to the ECHR;
6. The establishment of a President of the European Union;
7. The establishment of a High Representative of the Union for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy (in other words, a Foreign Minister for the
whole of the EU);
8. Combating climate change and global warming become official policies of
the EU;
9. The Court of First Instance (CFI) has been re-named as the General Court.

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CHAPTER 2 THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE EU

 There are 7 institutions of the EU:

1. The European Council;
2. The Council of the European Union;
3. The European Commission;
4. The European Parliament;
5. The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ);
6. The European Central Bank;
7. The Court of Auditors.

 Additionally there are a number of other institutions e.g. The General Court and The
Civil Service Tribunal.

THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL

 The European Council comprises all the Heads of State or Government of the
Member States (usually accompanied by the respective foreign ministers), its
President, and the President of the European Commission.

 The European Council began with fairly informal meetings in 1961 but began to meet
at formal summits in 1974 (the first summit was in Paris).

 For many years the Member State holding the Presidency of the Council of Ministers
at the time hosted the summits, but now the Council meets in Brussels, 4 times a year.

 Although the European Council has no formal executive or legislative powers, it is

required to "provide the Union with the necessary impetus for its development and
shall define the general political directions and priorities thereof (Article 15(1) TEU).

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

 Despite the similarity of name, the Council of the European Union is a different body
to the European Council and should not be confused with it.

 The Council of the European Union was formerly called the Council of Ministers, and
is now usually referred to simply as the Council.

 The composition of the Council is laid down in Article 16(2) TEU, which states that:
The Council shall consist of a representative of each Member State at ministerial
level, who may commit the government of the Member State in question and cast its
vote.

 The composition of the Council is fluid in that the items on the agenda determine who
will attend. For e.g. when the Council meets to discuss agricultural issues such as
fishing stocks in the Atlantic or milk quotas, Agriculture ministers attend the meeting.

 Article 16(1) TEU stipulates that the Council has the power to exercise legislative and
budgetary functions.
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  However, the Council does not operate in isolation in this respect; rather, it interacts
with the other institutions as part of the EU‘s legislative procedures.

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

 The Commission is headed by 27 Commissioners, one per Member State, regardless

of population size or economic strength (in other words, Germany has one
Commissioner as does Malta), supported by some 25,000 civil servants.

 The 27 members of the Commission are all appointed together for a renewable term
of 5 years.

 Commissioners are selected rather than elected. Once selected, they must act in the
general interests of the EU (rather than in the interests of their Member State).

 Each Commissioner is assigned a portfolio, but the Commission acts as a collegiate

body. It is organised into directorates general which correspond with the portfolios.

 The current President is Ursula von der Leyen.

 The Commission is the EU‘s executive body, responsible for its day-to-day running.

 The specific functions and powers of the Commission are set out in Article 17(1)
TEU. The Commission:
1. Has executive powers to implement policy, but only where the Treaties
have conferred this power.
2. Has the right to propose and draft legislation, which it then passes on to
the European Parliament and Council for approval and ultimate adoption.
Most of the Commission‘s legislative proposals take the form of
regulations and directives in areas such as consumer protection, health
protection and employment rights, but the Commission has recently moved
into the sphere of criminal law (e.g. criminalising the transportation of
toxic waste).
3. Has the power to commence enforcement proceedings against Member
States if they are not complying with their obligations under EU law
4. Has other significant powers for e.g. enforcement of EU competition
policy.

 The Commission can prosecute corporations for breaching EU competition law by

forming cartels with other corporations (prohibited by Article 101 TFEU), or abusing
a dominant market position (prohibited by Article 102 TFEU).

 If it finds that a case is proven then the Commission can also issue fines which can be
very large.

 In 2004, the Commission fined the Microsoft Corporation a then record €497m for
abusing its dominant market position. But this fine was dwarfed in May 2009, when
the Commission found that the Intel Corporation had also engaged in anti-competitive
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 practices and imposed a fine of €1.06 billion.

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

 The Parliament was originally called the Common Assembly but, by 1958, it was
known simply as the Assembly and, in 1962 it began calling itself the Parliament,
although this was only made official in 1986.

 The original Members were delegates of the Member States

 The first direct elections were held across Europe in June 1979. Elections are held
every 5 years. So far there have been 7 (1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004 and
2009).

 There are 750 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), with the proportions
varying per Member State according to size and population. So, for e.g. Germany has
96 MEPs, France has 74, the UK and Italy have 73 each, Spain has 54, Poland has 51,
Romania has 33, Holland has 26, five States have 22 each, and so on. The four
smallest countries only have 6 MEPs each.

 The functions of the European Parliament are:

1. Participation in the legislative process. The Parliament‘s role here has, and still is,
controversial. Despite being the only directly elected (and hence most democratic)
institution in the EU, the Parliament‘s role in the legislative process is purely
reactive.
2. It has the right to be consulted on all draft legislation and,
3. In certain circumstances, can veto proposed legislation.
4. But it has no powers to introduce legislation of its own (only the Commission can
do this) and
5. The Parliament cannot force through legislation if the Council of the EU opposes
it.
6. Supervisory functions (over the Commission).
7. Budgetary powers.

THE COURT OF JUSTICE

 The ECJ consists of 27 judges, one per Member State (Article 19(2) TEU).

 Each holds office for a renewable 6-year term.

 Judges are selected from persons whose independence is beyond doubt‘ (Article 19(2)
TEU).

 The judges elect one of themselves as President of the Court.

 The current President is Koen Lenaerts.

 The ECJ is assisted by 8 Advocates-General (A-G). These people give opinions on the
outcomes of most cases before the ECJ.

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  In approximately 80% of cases the ECJ follows the opinion (when it gives judgment
some months later), so as soon as an A-G opinion is available in a given case one can
predict with a high degree of confidence how the ECJ will eventually rule.
Traditionally, the A-Gs are selected from the 5 biggest Member States, plus 3 others
in rotation.

 The ECJ may sit as either:

1. the full court comprising all 27 judges;
2. a Grand Chamber comprising 13 judges;
3. in chambers of 3 or 5 judges (this allows for a degree of specialism and
efficiency – more cases can be processed by several chambers).

 The Court sits as a full court only in particular cases prescribed by the Statute of the
Court or where the Court considers that a case is of exceptional importance.

 It sits in a Grand Chamber when a Member State or an EU Institution which is a party

to the proceedings so requests, and in particularly complex or important cases. Other
cases are heard in chambers.

 The most important difference from the procedure in English courts is that the ECJ
always gives a collegiate judgement. This means that only one judgement is delivered
and there are never dissenting judgements. The ECJ usually follows the Opinion of
the A-G but is not bound to do so and does not always do so.

THE GENERAL COURT

 The General Court was known as the Court of First Instance (CFI) prior to the entry
into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in December 2009.

 The General Court began operations in 1989. According to the TEU, there is to be at
least 1 judge per Member State (Article 19(2) TEU).

 At present there are 27 judges. Unlike the ECJ, there are no Advocates General.

 The General Court mainly handles cases involving alleged breaches of EU

competition law, and some judicial review cases.

 Since February 2003, the General Court has had the (theoretical) power to handle
preliminary rulings alongside the ECJ.

THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK

 The European Central Bank is based in Frankfurt, Germany.

 The ECB is the central bank for Europe's single currency, the euro.

 The ECB‘s main task is to maintain the euro's purchasing power and thus price
stability in the euro area. The euro area comprises the 19 European Union countries
that have introduced the euro since 1999.

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THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE

 The ESC has 344 members, representing 3 groups: employers; workers; and various
others which include agricultural and consumer interests.

 Its sole function is to advise the Council, the Commission and the Parliament (Article
13(4) TEU)).

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

 The COR also has 344 members, representing regional and local bodies throughout
the EU.

 Like the ESC, its sole function is also to advise the Council, the Commission and the
Parliament.

THE CIVIL SERVICE TRIBUNAL

 The Civil Service Tribunal began work in October 2005. It deals with cases involving
disputes between the EU institutions and their employees.

 It is staffed by 7 judges, appointed by the Council for a renewable period of 6 years.

 Appeals against Tribunal decisions – on points of law only – are heard by the General
Court.