European LAW - ook guu i guess PDF

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EUROPEAN LAW1 OF THE EUTHE EUFirst map on PowerPoint is the EU today  Great Brittain is not green = BREXIT Denmark is subsidizing Greenland to an extent. 27 member states & 24 official languages. Is English an official language of the EU after Brexit? Yes, in Malta. Languages has grown since Ma...

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EUROPEAN LAW 1. HISTORY OF THE EU THE EU

First map on PowerPoint is the EU today  Great Brittain is not green = BREXIT Denmark is subsidizing Greenland to an extent. 27 member states & 24 official languages. Is English an official language of the EU after Brexit? Yes, in Malta. Languages has grown since Malta joined. Working languages = languages that are used in everyday life in the EU (= French & German) Languages that everyone can speak in Europe whether you’re from the east or north or west. 1952: 6 states got together and created European Coal and Steel Community – ECSC (expired 2002) institution that’s not private or public international law.  France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg = founding members Powers that are above the member states = supranational powers Why did they establish the communities? They are participating in the procedure and they can control it. Which power is this, the power that makes the law? Legislative power. Legislative power lies with the council. Council is making these rules and are represented by the member states. How did they vote in order for legislation to pass? They’re all sovereign states so with a consensus. From a democratic point of view, Germany would have more voting weight than Luxembourg, but from a public international law point of view the weight is the same. Power of applying law that is made by the council = executive power: to guard application of the law. Not controlled by member states anymore, they only make the law by consensus. Who decides whether law is correctly applied? Which state power? Judiciary (European court of Justice – ECJ) The EU has a hybrid function: it is between, national law and public national law.

1958: European Economic Community – EEC European Atomic Energy Community – Euratom 1967: Single Council and Single Commission 1968: The customs union (abolishing all customs between the Member States, introducing the Common Customs Tariff) What is a custom? Tax of duty that needs to be paid on imported goods. They exist for the protection of the domestic market. Members states gave up their sovereignty on customs. 1971: Community’s Own Resources How is this community financed? Who is financing the European Community? The member states.

The community doesn’t like it because they depend on the member states. If you run out of money, people normally take a loan, but the community can’t do this because otherwise the member states would be liable for the money. 1973: First time EU accepted additional members  First Enlargement Round (UK, Denmark, Ireland) Norway bailed out die to a negative referendum. Who was against UK joining the European Community? France, because they were scared that the influence of France would diminish if UK joined. Plus, UK’s relationship to the commonwealth countries. UK wasn’t sovereign anymore from this moment. When UK left EU, they had to get to their own trade agreements. 1979: Direct Election of Parliament EU is more accessible for the citizens. 1981: Greece joins (1986: Spain and Portugal as well) Why this late, why didn’t they join earlier? What was the issue with these countries?  Dictatorship in Spain, similar situation in Portugal and Greece (military). The political system didn’t really play a role, but it was clear that the member states would not get into a ‘club’ with a dictatorship within the European communities. You need to obey the rule of law. The member states would only let democracies join. 1985: Session of Greenland (autonomous region of Denmark) Not independent, but huge discussion about fishing quotas (Greenland was very known for their fish). When Greenland is part of EU, they have vast fishing quotas. 1985: SCHENGEN Agreement (signing) Schengen countries don’t have to members of the EU. What is Schengen about?  Associated with no border control (=people don’t have to present their passport when crossing the border). Why is that so? For immigrants. It’s about immigration. Country that isn’t member state of EU but is a member of Schengen agreement: Switzerland, Liechtenstein. They first had to align the immigration rules. They are allowed to change border controls for terrorist attacks or health. Schengen is not free movement of workers. Obstacles of EU: Why don’t you just study in Berlin for example? Because of language. Flanders first didn’t accept English programs in universities. 1986: Spain and Portugal join the EEC 1986: Single European Act - Completion of Internal Market was the main issue (completed in 1993) - Introduction of the Qualified Majority Voting in the Council (finalized in 2014)  Complicated because of the hybrid function of the EU

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If the EU was public international law each country would have 1 vote. But what if the entire EU was 1 country, how would the voting then be? The people would vote, and you would allocate those votes equal and free. Every vote is the same. In the past some people had 2 or more votes, they were privileged. Now everyone has the same vote. The EU is not a state. Stronger Role of European Parliament

1993: Launch of the European Single Market Economically, the EU is now one country. 1993: The Treaty of the European Union (Maastricht) (think of Greek temple) - Economic and Monetary Union (leading to the Euro) - EC and Euratom (first column) - Common Foreign and Security Policy (second column)  Who is in charge? The member states - Co-operation on Justice and Home Affairs (third column)  Who is in charge? The member states - EU-citizenship - Principle of Subsidiarity - Co-decision procedure introduced to strengthen to role of Parliament What’s the point of the 2nd and 3rd columns? Why did they create such complicated structure? How do you become EU citizen? Everyone who is citizen of a member state, is automatically member of EU. Who is in charge? The member states. Why did they create EU-citizenship? What aim is behind that expression? So that every member state has this European identity, to create a feeling of identity. It’s more of an idealistic function than a legal function. Principle of Subsidiary: if a case is for a lower level, the EU should take a step back. The smallest level should be in charge if they can do it better than the higher levels.  Co-decision: parliament became partner with council in some procedures, but with this co-decision procedure they became equal to the council. Huge step for the parliament, they can actively participate in legislative process. 1994: The European Economic Area – EEA - EFTA countries (Austria, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland) and EC from the EEA - Switzerland bails out 1995: Austria, Finland and Sweden join the EU, Norway bails out (due to a negative referendum)

1995: Schengen Agreement (implementation) Member states aligned immigration policy and stopped their border controls. 1999: Introduction of the Euro (as accounting currency, 2002 as physical coins and banknotes), thus creating the euro area (known as the eurozone) - Not all member states participate in the euro area - Some non-member states participate in the euro area by monetary agreement. - All states joining the euro area delegate their sovereignty on their monetary policy to the European Central Bank. 1999: Treaty of Amsterdam 2003: Treaty of Nice  Tiny steps to the reform 2004: Enlargement Round (Cyprus, Malta, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia) Issue with Cyprus, they weren’t supposed to join. What was the issue? Cyprus isn’t recognized internationally.  After this, commission was set up. And it came up with a new treaty which is now a constitution and has a president of the EU. Who has a constitution? A sovereign state. How’s a document called that sets up the UN? The UN Charter. For the EU this is the treaty. 2007: Romania and Bulgaria join the EU  FROM 6 TO 27 MEMBER STATES This called for reform  New Treaty 2009: Treaty of Lisbon (Reform Treaty)  It was signed in Lisbon, that’s why it’s called Lisbon - Aim: to prepare the EU for more than 25 member states - EC dissolves into the EU (Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union) - Fundamental Rights Charter - Qualified majority voting becomes the standard voting system in the Council - Co-decision procedure becomes the ordinary legislative procedure in the European Parliament (EP and Council on equal footings)  Unless said otherwise in the treaty, the EU parliament is now equal with the council in the legislative procedure. President of the council: Michel - President of the European Council - High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy who coordinates the foreign policy of the Member States (the Member States remain sovereign on their foreign policy)  It reformed the EU of 27 member states. The columns changed. The first column is no more the council of the EC but of the EU. 2nd column: Sovereignty still lies with the member states, but the structure of the columns has been dissolved.

Fundamental rights charter of the member states is part of the treaty. 2013: Croatia joins the EU 2020: Great Britain leaves the EU (Brexit) Questions: - What is the Treaty of Schengen about? - Who is a member of the Schengen Area? - In which EU institution are the Member States represented? - What is the function of the Council of the EU? what is the council of Europe? It’s an independent institution about human rights under public international law. Treaties summary: not when they were signed but when they first came up.

2. EU INSTITUTIONS The institutions (ART. 13 TEU)

 TEU = Treaty of Maastricht - European Parliament: was originally just the assembly - European Council - Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers)  both councils have the member states but different functions!!! (KEEP THEM APART FOR EXAM) - European Commission - Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) - European Central Bank (introduction of Euro) - Court of Auditors (everyone who has a budget has a body that checks if the budget is being spent by the rules) This lecture we will focus on the first 5 institutions: European Commission’s task: to look after the European corporation  How do the European states co-operate? Can be compared to a government but surely is not because the EU is not a state. Division of Power within the EU: - Study the illustration of the following slight - Note in particular the function of national governments (blue) in the Council (yellow) Which 3 powers in democratic state? LEGISLATION, JUDICIARY, EXECUTIVE

UPLOAD FILTER? Danger of them: freedom of expression The national parliament was the legislation in Europe, they lost their sovereignty and its power moved to the government. In order to diminish the democratic deficit, the council of ministers and parliament are nowadays equal. Parliament has president to make sure the debate goes fluently and well. Who is actually governing the EU? (executive) European Commission also has a president. Is elected by the European parliament. Commission is initiating the legislation. The commission is mostly the one who proposes the legislation. The parliament also wants to do this, so they put It in their own agenda, but they can’t. every parliament has rules of procedures and according to these it says that they can initiate legislation but that’s a lie. They may do ask the executive please initiate the legislation, but not more. The right of initiative lies only with the commission. European council: consists of heads of states or heads of government. It’s a summit meeting. They make the political guidelines the commission should follow. They talk about politics and they propose them to the president of the commission. They give the commission a political guideline of where to go in the future. They’re just proposals, the commission is not bound by the European council. Charles Michel is the president. He’s actually just the secretary, he is just coordinating and organizing so he actually has no power. 2 presidents: the president of the commission has the real power, she’s the boss of the executives.

The executive powers have more power in the EU than in a nation, because the EU is not a country, it’s supranational. Council of the European Union: - Also referred to as the Council of Ministers or just the Council - Not to be confused with the European Council or even the Council of Europe - One representative of each Member State (27 ministers)  Organization: - Presidency held by a member state’s government with six months rotation (1/2020: Croatia, 2/2020): Germany, 1/2021: Portugal, 2/2020: Slovenia) - The council is one entity with several configuration (10 at the time, for example General Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Economic and Financial Affairs)  Functions: - Legislative procedure (Note: national governments form a legislative body of the EU) - Foreign affairs (Common Foreign and Security Policy, coordinated by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) - Budget (together with Parliament)  they discuss it, member states decide on budget and parliament have to agree, if they don’t agree they will not ratify the budget Some countries receive more money than they give to the EU.  Legislative Procedure (EXAM!!!) TEU only has general rules. When did TEU take effect? 2009 - Qualified majority, Art.16 (4) TEU, art.238 (2) TFEU – by default, Art.16 (3) TEU!!! - Special qualified majority, Art.238 (3) TFEU - Simple majority, Art.238 (1) TFEU - Unanimity, Art.238 (4) TFEU What does qualified majority mean? Art.16 (4) Qualified majority is defined as 55% members of the council and they must represent at least 15 of them, and they must represent at least 65% of the population of the Union. So, 55% of 27 member states = 15 member states have to say yes, comprising at least 15 of them so that means the same and they must represent at least 65% of the population. Why would they do that? Member states have different sizes, but every state has an equal vote. But in supranational law, they take population in account (here 65%). They prevent smaller states from overruling the bigger member states. So, the smaller ones couldn’t dominate the larger ones and vice versa. No one overrules someone. 1. The TFEU has an article that says if one state has too many refugees, normally the member states are responsible not the EU. But TFEU says they can handle and help out one of the member states. Only 1 or 2 countries refused and didn’t want to accept refugees, but they were overruled by the qualified majority, so this decision passed.

Difference between Art.16 (4) and Art.238 (2) TFEU? Higher percent (65-55) but key difference is (2) DOES NOT ACT ON A PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION. Then they need a higher qualified majority, then 72% is required as qualified majority. 2. Special qualified majority: In which event is this article necessary? When not all member states participate. This is the case in situations that involve the Euro crises, the monetary policy. Why should states that are not involved with the Euro vote for something that has to do with Euro.  Art. 138 (3) 3. Simple majority Situations where member states are very relaxed about, they don’t care if they’re overruled. 4. Unanimous vote Reached when all agree but some member states abstain, it does not prevent the adaption of the vote. -

Voting calculator = link on pwp (to look what votes every state would need) You can choose if all countries participate or only eurozone.

European Council: -

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Not to be confused with the Council of Ministers (Council of the EU) or the Council of Europe Heads of State or government of the Member States, Council’s own president and the president of the commission (also present: High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) Originally an informal summit meeting (1975-2009), since 2009 (Treaty of Lisbon) formalized Defines the general political directions of the Union President: Charles Michel (since 1/12/2019)

European Parliament: - 751 MEP (directly voted) - 7 different parliamentary groups:

Kheb naar die kader hierboven echt ni geluisterd was veel te saai. En ook de kader erna. The EU has a democratic deficit if compared to a national state. Discuss the role of the national governments (executive) as members of the council (legislation), the low turnout at elections for the European Parliament and the relative influence of voters in the European Parliament. The EU combines elements of public international law and a modern national state. The Council is based on rules of public international law, as every member state has one seat and member states were originally seen as equals regardless their size which – however – was amended by the introduction of the qualified majority. By separating the powers (legislation, executive, and judiciary) and passing laws, the EU has some parallels to a national state. -

President: David Sassoli Ordinary legislative procedure, Art.294 TFEU No right to initiate legislation (different from a national parliament)

 Ordinary legislative procedure, Art.294 TFEU - Introduced by the Treaty of Maastricht (originally known as the co-decision procedure) - Council and European Parliament play an equal role - Council and European Parliament may suggest changes to the draft legislation European Commission: - 27 commissioners (originally 8 or 9) - President: Ursula von der Leyen (since 1/12/2019) - Each member state nominates a commissioner. The Parliament votes for the commission as a whole. However, the commissioners do not represent the member states but pursue the interests of the EU. - Executive function (governmental, law enforcement) - Legislative function (right of proposals) Court of the European Union (ECJ): - Seat: Luxembourg - Not to be confused with the European Court for Human Rights (Strasbourg), which has jurisdiction over the European Declaration of Human Rights - 27 judges nominated by each Member State - 5 different kind of proceedings

 Proceedings: Lees op pwp slide Example of the tiles: Someone buys your tiles, but there’s one defected (he doesn’t know this yet), he starts installing the tiles and only realizes it’s defected when installed. He asks for new tiles and gets them, but he also asks for the money of installation, but you won’t do it of course because you’re just selling the tiles not the installation.  request is done by national court. = request for preliminary ruling (the individual will have no direct bond with the national court) ECJ is not a criminal court. First 2 proceedings are the most common ones.

3. Sources of Law Sourc e of EU Law

Primary EU Law  The Treaties: - Treaty on European Union - Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union Secondary EU Law - Regulations - Directives  important to know difference between these two => involves many parts of our lives as a private person 1. The Treaties What does consolidated mean? The treaty on the EU was originally signed in 1992, took effect in 1993 (Maastricht) then we had several amendments (Nice, Amsterdam, Lisbon).  Consolidated version of the treaties on the website (if you click on the names in the PWP) means the updated version.  The member states have given the EU the competence to make their own law. The Treaty on European Union: - Originally signed in Maastricht in 1992 (effective 1993) - Predominantly political functions - Art.6: Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and European Convention on Human Rights  who is bound by these FR? The EU institutions. You can rely directly on the institutions. - Art.7: Suspension of Member State for breach of fundamental principles (Art.2)  The member states say they support fundamental things (freedom of expression etc.) Art.7 never has invoked until now, but it is on the way. - Some general rules on institutions The European parliament is one half in Brussels and one half in Strasbourg. Court of the council of Europe and human rights is in Strasbourg. 2 different courts:

1. council of Europe: European court of Human Rights in Strasbourg = independent of th...