EU LAW
Lecture 1- Wednesday 8th October 2014
Before 1957- Second World War (1945) - without US funding it would be difficult for Europe to rebuild itself.
France and Germany- extremely competitive
European coal and steel community (1951)
The ECSC came with the aim of organising free movement of coal and steel and free access to sources of production. In addition to this, a common High Authority supervised the market, respect for competition rules and price transparency. It involved cooperation on the coal and steel production of these countries, which was important to the arms industry and was a major commodity in trade between the European countries. There were 6 countries participating: France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy.
The manufacturing of arms (production of weapons) caused disputes between France and Germany; these two countries in particular because they have always been competitive, even since the middle ages.
Since dispute leads to dire confrontation and consequently results in war, to avoid this, an international court was established. Therefore, any dispute that erupted would be sorted out by the legal international court. (A cautious confrontation at court was a compromise.)
The purpose of the cooperation was to pave the way for greater European cohesion by making the countries mutually dependent on each other’s coal and steel production, thereby preventing hostilities between them and ensuring durable peace in Europe.
The ECSC was established because some sort of collaboration was necessary to achieve lasting peace in Europe.
The ECSC was amended by several other treaties:
This is the founding treaty
Treaty of Rome (1957) - (European Economic Community: ECC was an international organization created by the treaty of Rome.)
The treaty of Rome was an international agreement that established the creation of a common market which later became known as the internal market.
What is the common market?
Article 2 of the EEC Treaty specifies that "The Community shall have as its task, by establishing a common market and progressively approximating the economic policies of member states, to promote throughout the community a harmonious development of economic activities, a continuous and balanced expansion, an increase in stability, an accelerated raising of the standard of living and closer relations between the states belonging to it".
The common market consisted of six countries participating in the treaty of Rome which established a common tariff union which imposed a common external tariff on imports from non-member countries. The custom union is an agreement between the European countries to eliminate trade barriers, and reduce or eliminate customs duty on mutual trade. (It was essentially the absence of internal barriers which is a vital foundation of the European Union (EU) that applies to all trade of goods (Article 28 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
The Custom Union meant that any products outside Europe are taxed when they come into the U.K. The elimination of trade barriers occurred through a series of common policies. These common commercial policies where not negotiated individually but as a single entity; the commission was in charge.
Treaty of Brussels, known as the "Merger Treaty" (1965)
Treaty amending Certain Budgetary Provisions (1970)
Treaty amending Certain Financial Provisions (1975)
Treaty on Greenland (1984)
The Single European Act (1986)-
It was the first major revision of the 1957 Treaty of Rome. The Act set the European Community an objective of establishing an internal market by 31 December 1992.
What is the internal market? (1986)
EXAM DEFINATION- The internal market is an area without internal frontiers where the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured. These are also called the four freedoms.
GENERAL DEFINATION- The internal market of the European Union is a single market