integration accession & withdrawal

Foundational treaties of the modern EU

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

Treaty on the European Union

Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union

Creation of supranational authority

Aim of EU to maintain and establish:

• independent from MSs

• Sovereign

• Direct effect

• Legal order

What is input legitimacy

How democratic and fair EU process decisions are

What is output legitimacy?

How effectively EU has contributed to support their objectives

What is neofunctionalism

A theory of integration

Spillover effect

Cooperation in one sector creates pressure for integration in others

Liberal intergovernmentalism

Theory of integration

Moravcsik in Preferences and Power in the European Community: a liberal intergovernmentalist approach demand for integration depends on national preferences → member states conduct cost benefit calculation to delegate decisional power or pool sovereignty for effective decision making

Multi level governance

Theory of integration

Integration as a process where authority and policy making is shared across levels of government

Rational choice institutionalism

Theory of integration

Institutions important → member states delegate supranational agents for credibility in commitments

Principal-agent literature focused on controls that principal may use to ensure agent doesn’t deviate from their desired goals

Constructivists

Theory of integration

Institution important to embody social norms and affect a persons’s interests and identity

Institutions include informal rules and intersubjective understandings as well as formal rules

Fundamental role for institutions, constitute as actors and shape preferences and identities along with incentives

ECHR article 1 (a)

European Union aims to provide “greater unity between members […] and facilitate their economic and social progress”

ECS

European Coal and Steel Treaty 1950

Creation of supranational authority (independent from member states, sovereign, maintenance of legal order between states, directly effective, supreme)

Departure from traditional intergovernmental organisation model

EEC

European Economic Community

Created in Spaak Report 1956 on negotiating Rome Treaties

incentives to fuse markets into common market

Created institutional divisions: Commission, Court of Justice, Council of Ministers, European Parliaments

EEC → EU

Maastricht Treaty 1992 and Single European Act

Goals of economic and monetary union

Citizens of the Union conceptualised free movement of persons beyond economic status as was in Rome Treaties

Common Foreign & Security Policy

Justice & Home Affairs

3 Pillars of the EU

European Community: supranational decision making processes

Common & Foreign Security Policy: intergovernmental processes

Justice & Home Affairs: processes in between supranational and intergovernmental, closer to intergovernmental

Nice and Lisbon Treaties

Nice: Adapted EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

Lisbon: Convention on the future of Europe to adopt constitution; abolished 3 pillar system to refer to whole as simply EU; creation of TEU and TFEU

Art 6 (1) TEU: recognises rights, freedoms & principles set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU […] which shall have the same legal values as the Treaties

Both: Extended external union powers for Common Commercial Policy Art 207 TFEU

joining the EU

Art 49 TEU: any state that respects Article 2 may apply for membership

Must satisfy Copenhagen Criteria under Art 49

acquius communitaire: expected to align laws with the EU’s

Expected commitment to joining Eurozone

Process of admission for joining the EU

Commission initial evaluation of new member state → Council gives unanimous decision to open negotiations (aquius) with new state → Commission’s screening process to identify tasks for accession using Copenhagen Criteria → once closed, treaty signed by new and ALL existing Member States

Leaving the EU

Art 50 TEU

Members can’t be expelled even if they violate laws, can only be sanctioned under Art 7 TEU

Ordinary revision procedure

Treaty revision

Requires Art 48(3) TEU and national ratification

Lighter version: doesn’t need convention

Substantive changes to EU policies that don’t increase EU powers

Treaty revision process

Requires European Council decision and national ratification

Changing special legislative procedure to ordinary

requires European Council decision, consent of European Parliament and agreement with national Parliaments