In this section, I'm going to talk about European Union Treaties.

I will answer the

questions what are the treaties, and where do I find them?

Your teacher might ask you to read Article 36 TFEU. Then you need to know
what is TFEU, how do I find it?

EU legislation takes the form of treaties and EU regulations, directives, and

decisions. A treaty is a binding agreement between EU member countries. It
sets out EU objectives, rules for EU institutions, how decisions are made and
the relationship between the EU and its member countries.

TFEU is the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union. There is also TEU,
the Treaty of European Union. On this page, you can find both in a consolidated
version. Play video starting at :1:4 and follow transcript1:04 Let's click on the
TFEU, in this page, you'll find access to treaty in every European union member
language. You can choose whether you prefer to access document in HTML or
PDF format. You will have the text as it is published in the official journal or in a
plain text. I click on the PDF symbol, this is the first page of the consolidated
version of the TFEU. Play video starting at :1:31 and follow transcript1:31 On the
top of the page, you find the date, the title Official Journal of the European Union,
the series is C, number of the issue and page. The document is divided into many
different parts where number 1 is the start. Usually, the last one is the tables of
equivalence, where you find old and new numbering of the articles. Going down in
the document, we can find the article we are looking for, number 36, in records, we
can read the old number of this article, number 30. In the previous, this treaty, TEC
treaty establishing the European community which was the old name of TFEU.
How did I find this page? You can find this page in the European union legal
document database, EUR-Lex. You find information about the treaties looking at
the third tab, EU law and related documents, treaties. Those are the ways of having
access to the treaty. If you prefer to have the treaty as an e-book that you can
download to your phone or tablet, you can find a nice version in the EU Bookshop.
In the webpage of EU Bookshop, you can find a list of titles from the Bookshop
about EU treaties. Here you can find the title, consolidated versions of the treaty on
European Union and the treaty on the functioning of the European Union. Play
video starting at :2:54 and follow transcript2:54 You can easily download the book
to a tablet or to your mobile phone. Another book that could be useful is, How the
European Union Works, Your Guide to EU Institutions. On page four, you can for
example, read about the history of the treaties. Play video starting at :3:12 and
follow transcript3:12 Today, we will look at secondary legislation and the legal
acts. Where to I find it? How do I get the right version? And how do I read it?
There are different kinds of legal acts, regulations, directives, decisions.
Regulation is a binding legislative act, it must be applied in entirety across the EU.
Directives is a legal act that sets up the goal that all EU countries must achieve, it
shall be implemented into national law within a certain time. It is up to the
individual countries to decide how. Decisions is binding on those to whom it is
addressed and it is directly applicable. I will use Council Regulation (EC) No.
1/2003 as an example, as I know that you will be reading this regulation during the
courses. Where do I find it? A regulation number is built up in a certain way. Play
video starting at :4:8 and follow transcript4:08 First comes the institution behind
the regulation, then you find the letters EC, which stands for European
Community. This was changed to EU when the Lisbon Treaty came into force. The
first digits are the numbers of the act, the last part is the year, when the act was
accepted. Let's go tot the home page of EUR-Lex, fill in the number and year and
document type, searching with a unique number, it will give you only a few
matches. The title begins with a number. This is a number that every legal
document within European Union gets beginning with a digit 3, it means that it is
legislation. Play video starting at :4:49 and follow transcript4:49 This is a reference
to the official journal where all legislation is published. It includes name, serial
number, date and pages linked to the document text and to more information. This
is a direct link to the text or if you prefer, to the PDF. This is the original version of
the directive. If there is any changes, they are not included. To see them, you need
to look at the consolidated version. Play video starting at :5:18 and follow
transcript5:18 You can find a lot of information about the directive all divided
under different tabs. They are in the text and different options of formats, for
example, about this document, procedure, and linked documents. Under about this
document, you can find information like validity. Under linked documents, you
find consolidated versions, national implementation, links to everything that is
based on this document or all documents mentioning this document. Play video
starting at :5:50 and follow transcript5:50 Further down, you can also find the
consolidated versions of the regulation. Make sure if the consolidated version is
something that you need or if it only concerns a certain country. On the front page
of EUR-Lex, you can find a title legislative drafting guide. Open this link and you
will get guidelines for how to read legislation. The title comprises all the
information in the heading of the act which serves to identify it. Play video starting
at :6:20 and follow transcript6:20 Preamble means everything between the title and
the enacting terms of the act, namely the citations, the recitals, and the solemn
forms which precede and follow them. The enacting terms are the legislative part
of the act. They are composed of articles which may be grouped in titles, chapters,
and sections and may be accompanied by annexes. I hope you will find the
legislation you need for the courses now. Why don't you try to find some of them
right now? Good luck and thanks for your attention. [MUSIC]