What is the EU?

The European Union (EU) was created in 1992 by the Treaty on European Union (the TEU), generally called the Maastricht Treaty. The EU consists of three different Communities: the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community), the European Community (the EC, formerly known as the European Economic Community Treaty, or the EEC treaty - also known as the Treaty of Rome), and EURATOM (European Atomic Energy Community Treaty). The EU has what are referred to as 'the three pillars':

The European Union

Common Foreign and
Security Policy

ECSC
EC
EURATOM

Justice and Home
Affairs Policy

Put simply, the original aim of the Community was economic integration: to create a common market, later defined as a Single Internal Market, in which there could be free movement of goods, persons, services and capital. This was to be achieved by the creation of a free trade area, where Member States agreed to remove all customs duties (=import taxes) and quotas (=restrictions on the amount of goods imported across Member States' frontiers, or borders) between themselves, and a customs union, in which all members agreed to impose on goods coming into the area from non-member states a common level of duty (the Common Customs Tariff, or CCT). The three sources of EU law are the Treaties (EC, TEU, etc.), secondary legislation enacted by the EC (such as regulations and directives), and general principles, including fundamental human rights, subsidiarity, and citizenship of the EU for every national of a Member State.

Note: subsidiarity - the Community may only take legal action where it has exclusive competence, that is, power to govern, and where an action cannot be achieved by member states acting within their natural institutions, for example a trans-national action.


How does the EU impact on Member States?

The EC Treaty is directly applicable in every Member State. Accession to (membership of) the Community limits the power of national governments and affects national sovereignty - the power to govern. Community law has supremacy over, that is, overrides, national law. This supremacy was established in the case of Costa v ENEL (Case 6/64) ECR 545. The Single European Act 1986 made provisions (legal conditions) creating an obligation on the Community to take the necessary measures to achieve the Internal Market. Under Article 249 (ex Art 189) there are five types of legal act which the Community may use:

• Regulations - have general application and are binding in their entirety on all Member States and have direct effect, meaning they automatically become law in Member States.
• Directives - are binding on Member States as to their result but do not bind individuals until they have been transposed into national law (implemented).
• Decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) - are binding on those to whom they are addressed.
• Recommendations and opinions - have no binding force(=no legal power) but may be persuasive, that is, have influence