Zakres terytorialny stosowania umów handlowych Unii Europejskiej – pomiędzy teorią a praktyką. Uwagi w świetle orzecznictwa Trybunału Sprawiedliwości Unii Europejskiej

Abstract

As a general rule on the territorial scope of treaties, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969 assumes that a treaty binds each party in respect of its entire territory. However, this is only a presumption, as any party may decide otherwise. In the second half of the 1990s, the European Union concluded the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements with Israel and Morocco, which contain in their content, a very generally worded territorial clause, according to which they apply to the territory of the European Union, and Israel or Morocco. However, this seemingly clear and precise rule has in practice caused numerous problems in bilateral relations between the European Union and Israel and between the European Union and Morocco. The purpose of this paper is firstly, to characterise the territorial scope of the Treaties in the light of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, both in theory and in practice, using the example of the trade agreements concluded by the European Union with Israel and Morocco. Secondly, to point out that in practice this scope is much broader, as it includes “third” territories such as those of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Thirdly, to answer the question whether this practice is compatible with the obligations to respect the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law imposed on the European Union by Articles 3(5) and 21(1) of the Treaty on European Union.