LAW 1020

EU Constitutional Law
22/10/2019

Accession Secession
When a nation wants to become a Member State, there are certain conditions it must meet (an
Accession Treaty) for admittance into the EU. This is then ratified by the Member States. The
Council of Ministers is who decides whether a nation is eligible to become a MS. Two substantive
criteria must be met:

 Geographic criteria (must be within the continent of Europe or have a tradition of belonging
to Europe – Article 49)
 Must embody and promote the EU values
European parliament needs to give its consent for a new Member State to gain access, also.
What is the European Union?
Is it a state, a federation or a supranational institution.
In the accession process, we can see that the EU is not a state – there is a long process dominated by
the EU institutions.
European Council receives application (Copenhagen criteria must be met – geographical, economic
[state needs to have a functioning market economic and needs to eb able to take the competitive strain
and market pressures of the European union – stems from when EU was extended to the east],
institutions need to be stable enough to guarantee rule of law, freedom, democracy, respect of human
rights including those belonging to minorities, a functioning government which isn’t corrupt, etc.)
The Commission then takes the next stage of the application – 35 negotiation chapters, divided into
normal chapters and uber chapters. Normal chapters comprise of values of freedom in movement of
goods, service, capital and … Regulations, compliments internal market also. Uber chapters are
judiciary – protect fundamental rights, make sure boarders are secure, etc. It takes about a decade to
adopt all 35 of these chapters, and that’s generally the amount of time it takes for a nation to become a
Member State.
Does the UK have a special position within the EU?

 They are not bound by the Eurozone – have a different currency to the rest of the Member
States.
 Have an easier time to lobby for any legislation to be rejected than smaller Member States –
but other larger MS share this.
 Have the option to opt out of migration policy.
Uber Chapters:
States must have an independent judiciary.
UK is a parliamentary democracy – their courts cannot invalidate or reject legislature from
Parliament. If the UK were to leave the EU, how would accession change for it? Would probably take
less time for it to be reaccepted.
Secession (withdrawal from the EU):
Article 50 TEU – any MS may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own
constitutional requirements. Secondly, MS which decides to withdraw should notify the Council, and
the European Council then provides guidelines to withdraw and the Union shall negotiate and
conclude an agreement with that withdrawing State…
Must take into account the future relationship between the State and the EU.
European Council gives directions, which European Parliament adopts. The Commission leads the
negotiations.
There is a dominance of the European Commission – devise their own negotiation mandate and take it
to the Council . Inflexible. Automatism – Article 50 automatically terminates