4. Competence

Abstract

All books in this flagship series contain carefully selected substantial extracts from key cases, legislation, and academic debate, providing students with a stand-alone resource. The existence and scope of EU competence are outlined in the Lisbon Treaty: the EU may have exclusive competence, shared competence, or competence only to take supporting, coordinating, or supplementary action. This chapter examines these three principal categories of EU competence, and their implications for the divide between EU and Member State power. It also considers certain areas of EU competence that do not fall within these categories, and the extent to which the new regime clarifies the scope of EU competence and contains EU power. The UK version contains a further section analysing issues of EU competence in relation to the UK post-Brexit.