The European Union (EU) is regarded as a worldwide organization regulating common financial, cultural, and safety policies for twenty-seven European nations. Originally restricted to Western Europe, the EU began a rapid development into Central and Eastern Europe at the commencement of the twenty-first century. Austria, Finland, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, and several other countries are members of the European Union. The United Kingdom, a founder member of the EU, will leave the association in 2020. The Maastricht Treaty, which came into force on November 1, 1993, created the European Union. The Treaty was proposed to support European financial and political integration by creating single money (the euro), a truly combined international and safety policy, prevalent citizenship rights, and progressing collaboration in immigration, refugee status, and prosecutorial affairs (Fabbrini 2015). In 2012, the EU received the Nobel Peace Prize, acknowledging its attempts to advance peace and freedom in Europe. The EU is the latest in a long line of attempts to incorporate Europe from World War II. After the war ended, a few Western European nations sought nearer financial, social, and political connections to attain financial development and military protection and endorse long-term reunification between Germany and France. To this end, the representatives of six nations, such as Belgium, Italy, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany, signed the Treaty of Paris in 1951, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community when it came into place in 1952 (ECSC) (Van der Vleuten 2016).
This paper mainly discusses the principal institutions and sources of law within the European Union. While discussing the same, it also sheds light on to what extent the law of the European Union controls the single market.
Regarding the creation of the European Union, it can be stated that the UK had been requested to join the ECSC and sent a spokesperson to notice conversations about its continuous growth in 1955, but the Labour government of Clement Attlee turned down membership, possibly premised on several factors, including the disease of key cabinet members, a strive to keep financial freedom, and a failure to acknowledge the society’s inevitable significance). The ECSC established a free-trade zone for many critical militaries and financial resources, including coal, steel, coke, scrap, and iron ore. The Treaty established numerous central authorities to handle the ECSC, encompassing a High Authority to manage, a Council of Ministers to pass laws, a Common Assembly to articulate policy, and a Court of Justice to explain the Treaty and fix related disagreements. A range of successive global conventions and treaty revisions premised largely on this model resulted in the establishment of the European Union. The European Union (EU) has an organizational framework to promote and safeguard its principles, priorities, preferences and the welfare of its residents and the Member States. This framework also helps to ensure the cohesiveness, efficacy, and consistency of EU actions and policies (Martinsen 2015). As per Article 13 of the Treaty on European Union, the organizational outline encompasses seven organizations, which include:
Every institution performs within the bounds of its mandate, as defined by the treaties, following the processes, conditions, and goals outlined. The European Economic and Social Committee and the European Committee of the Regions provide advisory services to the European Parliament, Council, and Commission. Within its boundaries, the European Union’s goals are as follows:
The goals of the EU are outlined in Article 3 of the Lisbon Treaty. The following values underpin the European Union:
The values of the EU are enshrined in article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The EU received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 for its contributions to the reasons of peace, unification, democracy, and human rights in Europe. On the other hand, The European Union is regarded as a political and financial union of 28 sovereign Member States that extend over 4 million km2 and has 503 million citizens. A structure was essential to manage any joint initiative. This framework has advanced and is consistently transforming over time. Decisions are made through a combination of “supranational” organizations (to which the Member States have assigned their power and authority) and “intergovernmental” bargaining (which concern the extents to which the Member States have not assigned their power but make choices together). Each Member State’s leaders connect with the President of the European Commission daily to organize, enhance, and integrate European Union policies and initiatives. They also deliberate key problems on which they cannot settle an arrangement. These congregations are also recognized as “European Summits” (Hantrais 2017).
Concerning the sources of law within the European Union, the European Union has its lawful order distinct from global law due to its legal personality. Moreover, EU law has a significant impact, either straight or indirect, on the legislation of its member states and becomes a portion of each member state’s judicial process. The European Union is regarded as a source of law in and of itself. The legal order is naturally divided into key legislation (the Conventions and prevailing lawful principles), secondary legislation (premised on the Conventions), and supplementary legislation (Chalmers, Davies, and Monti 2019). However, the sources of law within the European Union include:
The European Union is considered a rule-of-law Union that has formed a complete system of lawful remedies and procedures to permit the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to evaluate the legal implications of the EU if it acts (Article 263 TFEU). The Conventions and core rules, recognized as primary legislation, are at the top of the pyramid. Following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on December 1, 2009, the Charter of Fundamental Rights was provided with the same weight. The European Union’s international agreements are inferior to key legislation. Secondary legislation is regarded as the level below primary legislation and is only valid if it is consistent with the activities and arrangements that come before it. The ideology of EU law primacy is a core component of the EU lawful order that seeks to guarantee the harmony and reliability of EU law. The CJEU officially asserts that EU law takes precedence over domestic legislation of Member States, and it has always contended absolute power in developing the association between EU and domestic law (Nugent 2017).
The CJEU formed the basic doctrines of significant impact and prerogatives of EU law in the major cases like Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen Case [1963] 26/62. As per these principles, EU law has utmost primary importance over domestic legislation, and domestic courts should take this primary importance into account in their judgments. In subsequent proceedings, the CJEU affirmed these doctrines. Noticeably, it contended in Internationale Handelsgesellschaft that EU law takes precedence over national constitution-guaranteed fundamental rights (Greenwood 2017).
Mainly, the sources of EU law have been divided into two main categories, including primary legislation of the European Union and secondary legislation of the European Union. Article 288 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union lists the Union’s lawful acts. Regulations, guidelines, choices, suggestions, and viewpoints are all examples. These types of legal acts may be adopted by EU institutions only if the Treaties authorize them. The principle of conferral, which is enshrined in Article 5(1) TEU, governs the limits of Union competencies. The TFEU describes the scope of Union proficiencies, categorizing them as exclusive proficiencies (Article 3), common skills and abilities (Article 4), and supporting skills and abilities (Article 6), through which the EU embraces activities to strengthen or accompany Member States’ policies. The regions that fall under each classification of Union professionalism are listed in Articles 3, 4, and 6 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In the absence of special powers to achieve one of the Treaties’ goals, the organizations may invoke the provisions of Article 352 TFEU and thus, take ‘reasonable steps’ (Yesilada and Wood 2015).
However, only the organizations adopt the statutory provisions contained in Article 288 TFEU. The only exclusions are the common external, safety, and defense policies, which continue to use the inter-governmental technique. Prevalent strategies, prevalent actions, and principal roles have been supplemented in this region by ‘general guidelines’ and ‘choices determining’ activities to be conducted and stances to be embraced by the Union and the provisions for their execution (Article 25 TEU). There are also different forms of activity, such as suggestions, communications, and acts on the establishment and Functioning of organizations (such as inter-institutional contracts), the classification, framework, and legitimate impacts of which are derived from different clauses in the Treaties or rules adopted following the Treaties (Olsen and McCormick 2018).
Whereas Articles 289, 290, and 291 TFEU create a structure of secondary legislation between legislative activities, assigned activities, and executing activities. Legislative activities are lawful acts enacted through the regular or special legislation process. On the other hand, Assigned activities are non-legislative acts of general applicability that complement or modify non-essential components of legislative activity. The lawmaker may assign the Commission the authority to enact these acts (Parliament and the Council). The legislative act defines the goals, subject matter, extent, and duration of the sharing of authority and any emergency plans that may be necessary. Furthermore, the lawmaker establishes the circumstances under which the delegation is subject, including the power to rescind the delegation or the right to object. The multiple kinds of secondary legislation in the EU include regulations, directives, decisions, suggestions, and points of view (Anderson 2015).
However, the European Single Market, Internal Market, or Common Market is considered to be a single market that includes the 27 member states of the European Union (EU), and also, with some exclusions, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway via the European Economic Area Agreement, and Switzerland via bilateral conventions. The EU intends for EU people to be allowed to research, live, purchase, work, and retire in any EU nation while enjoying goods from throughout Europe. It accomplishes this by ensuring the free movement of products, services, investment, and people within a solitary EU internal market. The EU also allows individuals to exchange and do business openly by expelling technical, legitimate, and bureaucratic obstacles. The EU is also constructing a capital markets union to simplify small firms to generate capital and make Europe a more attractive place to do business. Furthermore, with EU-wide regulations for telecom services, intellectual property laws, and information security, the single digital market will digitalize the EU’s single market liberties (Duch-Brown and Martens 2015). Nevertheless, some barriers still exist within the single market, and the EU is working on improving harmonization:
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the Lisbon Treaty made major improvements to the defense of human rights in the EU, the most important of which are the modifications to Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union. These stipulate that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights has become lawfully enforceable, with the identical status as basic EU law. The EU “shall accede” to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Charter has been referred to numerous times by the European Court of Justice in the two years from when the Lisbon Treaty went into effect, and it now serves as the main source of human rights in the EU. The principal institutions of the EU perform within the bounds of its mandate, as defined by the treaties, following the processes, conditions, and goals outlined. The European Economic and Social Committee and the European Committee of the Regions provide advisory services to the European Parliament, Council, and Commission. The sources of law within the European Union include the Treaty on European Union (TEU), Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the International agreements, and secondary legislation. Regarding the single market regulation, it can be stated that the EU intends for EU people to be allowed to research, live, purchase, work, and retire in any EU nation while enjoying goods from the single market.
References
Anderson, K.M., 2015. Social policy in the European Union. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Chalmers, D., Davies, G. and Monti, G., 2019. European union law. Cambridge university press.
Duch-Brown, N. and Martens, B., 2015. The European Digital Single Market. JRC/IPTS Digital Economy Working Papers, forthcoming.
Fabbrini, S., 2015. Which European Union?. Cambridge University Press.
Greenwood, J., 2017. Interest representation in the European Union. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Hantrais, L., 2017. Social policy in the European Union. Red Globe Press.
Hatzopoulos, V. and Roma, S., 2017. Caring for sharing? The collaborative economy under EU law. Common Market Law Review, 54(1).
Martinsen, D.S., 2015. An ever more powerful court?: The political constraints of legal integration in the European Union. OUP Oxford.
Nugent, N., 2017. The government and politics of the European Union. Red Globe Press.
Olsen, J. and McCormick, J., 2018. The European Union: politics and policies. Routledge.
Van der Vleuten, A., 2016. The price of gender equality: Member states and governance in the European Union. Routledge.
Van Gend en Loos v Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen Case [1963] 26/62
Yesilada, B. and Wood, D., 2015. The Emerging European Union. Routledge.
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