European Integration and the Treaty on European Union

Abstract

INTRODUCTION This chapter sets out the central features of the European integration process, which provide the historical and political context for European Union law. It also introduces some of the central concepts, ideas and developments in EU law. Section 2 explores how EU law is centred around an interplay between two themes. The first is the government of many contemporary problems through law. The second is the development of the ideals of Europe and European union. This interplay lays the ground for many of its debates. The European ideal conceives of Europe as the central place of progress, learning and civilisation, placing faith in humanity and its capacity to improve. Its dark side is its arrogance and its dismissal of ‘un-European’ ways of life or thought as violating these virtues. The idea of European union sets up a political community in competition with the nation-state but one, nevertheless, through which government policy is carried out. Section 3 considers the establishment of the three Communities, the European Economic Community (EEC), the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). It sets out the central institutions: the Commission, the Parliament, the Council and the Court of Justice. It also considers the central policies, most notably the common market. This section also compares two developments of the 1960s that set out the two dominant models of political authority in EU law: the Luxembourg Accords which set out an intergovernmental vision with political authority and democracy vested in the nation-state, and Van Gend en Loos which set out a supranational one in which these are vested in supranational institutions and the rights of European citizens. Finally, this section evaluates the Single European Act (SEA). This established the internal market, and transformed the legislative and political culture surrounding the European Communities by setting out both an ambitious legislative programme and providing for significant amounts of legislation to be adopted free from the national veto.