Joint Exercise of Sovereign Powers of the Member States of the European Union. The French Approach to Legal Understanding of the European Union

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 77-108
Author(s):  
P.-Y. Monjal ◽  

Introduction. This article analyses the legal nature of the European Union (hereinafter referred to as the Union). The research presented in this article is based on two closely related theses. On the one hand, the Union is a legally qualifying entity, and on the other hand,the Unionists for a long time exercising legal (judicial) activism because they have been trying to form their own entity. Theoretical Basis. Methods. The object of the study is the legal identification of the Union and the semantic and conceptual category of ‘joint exercise of powers’. Taking into account the data from the analysis of doctrinal sources, Union law, applying the methodological tools of functionalism as a sociological and anthropological theory, which offers an explanation of the functioning of society based on elements that ensure stability, the author concludes that the stability manifest¬ed in the independence of the Union leads to the opposite effect – a break with the democratic foundations of states that united in the Union, yielding part of their sovereignty. Results. The author of the article concludes that the peculiarity of the Union lies in the particular way in which it exercises the state powers delegated to it. What distinguishes it from other categories of international governmental organisations is not so much the accumulation of powers, their scope and multipolarity, but rather how they are exercised. In this context, Member States are faced not so much with the deprivation of national powers as with a new manifestation of shared sovereignty embodied in the concept of shared exercise of powers. Discussion and Conclusion. From a legal point of view, the Union is a unique, distinctive legal and political entity. The Member States rejected the federal (state-legal) form of the Union. It cannot be reduced to an international intergovernmental organisation, although it borrows much from this legal category. The Union has many specific features in economic, political and legal terms that characterise it as a special subject of public international law. The concept of the Union reflects the legal traditions of the Member States. The author summarises in the article that French legal doctrine has been able to offer a theoretical vision of the Union in terms of the particularities of its political-legal culture. The author therefore believes that the joint exercise of powers is a tool that reveals the essence of the Union. This makes it difficult for France, which has a very developed concept of national sovereignty, to legal understanding of nature of the Union.

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Celeste Perrucchini ◽  
Hiroshi Ito

Empirical evidence suggests an overall convergence in terms of GDP and per capita income occurring among the European Union (EU) Member States. Nevertheless, economic inequalities have been increasing at the regional level within European Union countries. Through the review of relevant literature, this study analyzes the increasing inequalities from an economical point of view, focusing on Italy and the UK as examples. First, a general overlook of the empirical evidence of the GDP and per capita income at national and sub-national levels will be presented. Second, an explanation of the possible causes of the results will be proposed through the use of economical and sociological theories. The findings of this research might uncover the relative inefficacy of EU Cohesion policies and point towards the necessity for deeper and more thoughtful measures to continue the convergence of Member States while preserving internal equilibria. This paper ends with discussions for the future directions of the EU.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iwona Bąk ◽  
Katarzyna Cheba

Abstract The aim of the study is to determine the pace and directions of changes (understood as: improvement or deterioration) occurring in selected areas of sustainable development of EU Member States. The paper analyzes dynamics of changes in selected areas of sustainable development monitored on the basis of headline indicators published by Eurostat from 2008 to 2015. In the paper, three variants of reference points of synthetic measure of development were considered. On the basis of the obtained results, the countries in which the improvement in the sustainable development and its deterioration can be observed were identified. The results have confirmed the existence of significant developmental disparities between EU Member States in this field, but it should be noted that the obtained results depend on the methodological approach both to the selection of features and the adoption of a specific standardization formula, as well as the considered variants of reference points. The results obtained can be utilized in subsequent years to examine the directions of change observed both from the point of view of European Union as one organization, and the individual EU Member States.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Petrică Sorin Angheluță ◽  
Dumitru Alexandru Bodislav ◽  
Maria Loredana Popescu ◽  
Florina Bran

A solid industrial base positively influences society as a whole. Business development is favored by the degree to which companies are active in the market. The article presents an analysis of employment in companies active in the Member States of the European Union. The evolution of the establishment of active enterprises according to their branches of activity is also addressed. Openness to local markets can lead to successful business activities. Cooperation between different companies can also be facilitated by new technologies. From the point of view of mobility, employment in foreign affiliates of domestic enterprises is another subdomain analyzed in the article. The way in which companies approach the field of expenditure can influence their activity. Thus, by increasing technological capacities and promoting innovation, technological development measures lead to the development of enterprises. The article presents an analysis of the way in which expenditure is shared at the level of enterprises in the Member States of the European Union.


Author(s):  
Edith Drieskens

Belgium is one of the six founding members of European integration, but it is often seen as a special one. In both policy and research, the country is widely known as the “heart of Europe.” It even sells itself to the outside world in this way. This metaphor has a double meaning, a literal and a figurative one. First, Belgium’s capital, Brussels, qualifies as the unofficial capital of the European Union. This meaning is strongly supported by facts, with the city hosting the most numerous and the most important institutions. The second meaning requires more detailed consideration. Indeed, and second, Belgium is perceived to be the most European of all European countries, even prepared to exchange sovereignty for supranationalism at any time and any price. A closer look at data, decisions, and developments shows, however, that while support for European integration is widespread, it is not omnipresent either in time or in place. Particularly in Flanders, the northern part of the country, support has been less obvious than elsewhere. Indeed, to understand Belgium and/in the European Union, one also has to understand the functioning of Belgium as a federal state composed of communities and regions, thus as a system of multilevel governance. While it is not the only federation among European Union member states, it uniquely combines a wide variety of federal characteristics. Most importantly here, the gradual process of federalization that Belgium has experienced has given the federated entities a strong voice in European Union decision-making. Member states still need to speak with one voice, however, resulting in a complex system of coordination and representation. The possibilities and realities of this system have attracted quite a lot of scholarly interest. The same goes for the rather fundamental question of whether the European Union and federated entities should be seen as unintended partners in the hollowing out of the federal state or whether the opposite holds true and the European Union is coming to Belgium’s rescue. The jury is still out on this, though the answer seems to be growing more and more complex as time passes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-85
Author(s):  
Tom de Boer ◽  
Marjoleine Zieck

Abstract The world is experiencing its largest refugee crisis since the Second World War, and more than ever before, the lack of an equitable burden-sharing mechanism is making itself felt: the world’s poorest States are hosting most of the refugees. The durable solution of resettlement of refugees is, in theory, the principal means of securing responsibility sharing within the framework of international refugee law. In practice, this cannot be realized since fewer than 1 per cent of the world’s refugees can be resettled annually due to the small number of available resettlement places. However, initiatives are being developed to increase the number of States that offer resettlement places to refugees and hence the number of available resettlement places. Europe, too, traditionally lagging well behind in terms of the number of resettlement places it offers, is endeavouring to contribute more places. It must nonetheless be noted that Europe’s increasing support for resettlement is paired with a policy of extraterritorialization of asylum claims and minimization of ‘spontaneous’ refugee arrivals. If Europe indeed aims to replace the regular asylum system with controlled refugee resettlement, this will raise issues of access to asylum. While the current Common European Asylum System contains a plethora of procedural and substantive rights for asylum seekers, resettlement – due to its essentially discretionary nature – appears to take place in a legal void, that is, it appears to suffer from arbitrariness in the selection of refugees and a lack of procedural rights and legal remedies for the refugees involved in the resettlement process. The question is whether this is also the case with the European Union (EU) resettlement proposals and, if so, whether this can be sustained from a legal point of view. This article reviews these proposals, along with the current practice of refugee selection by EU Member States, and analyses them from a refugee rights perspective. It examines whether EU initiatives affect the discretionary nature of resettlement, and specifically analyses whether the 1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union apply to the resettlement procedures of EU Member States and, if so, what rights could be invoked by the refugees involved under those instruments.


2020 ◽  
pp. 108-143
Author(s):  
Pavlos Eleftheriadis

This chapter examines the question of the relations between EU law and domestic law from the point of view of a political theory of the European Union. It is common to see EU law under ‘federalism’ or under a theory of ‘statism’. These two views are outlined at the start of this chapter by examining various arguments made for them. They are both rejected. The chapter defends a rival view, the ‘internationalist’ reading of the EU, according to which it is a branch of the law of nations. A careful look at the EU treaties and the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU shows that the EU endorses an internationalist model based on equality and reciprocity. The EU does not replace the relation between citizens and political power. It does not establish a new constitutional law that replaces the national ones. It is a new way of organizing the relations between the various member states whose equality it fully respects. The coherence of European Union law is therefore not provided by uniformity imposed by a single master or constitutional rule, but is given by the political coordination of the laws of the member states achieved under the treaties. Coherence is achieved because the member states have adopted similar, although not identical, constitutional principles.


Author(s):  
Piotr PODSIADLO

Due to the imperfect functioning of labour markets in certain cases, State aid may be an appropriate instrument for creating new jobs and preserving existing ones. Legal regulation of the issue of State aid is an element of the competition mechanism protection, which was recognized in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). This paper discusses guidelines for implementation of art. 107–109 of the TFEU, from the point of view of State aid for employment. Statistical analysis was carried out on State aid granted by EU Member States in the period 2001–2018 – from the perspective of its impact on competitiveness of these countries. This should lead to verify the thesis that the amount of State aid granted by EU Member States for employment should be positively correlated with the size of the GDP per capita of these countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 63 E ◽  
pp. 110-127
Author(s):  
Daniela PÎRVU ◽  
Amalia DUŢU ◽  
Carmen Mihaela MOGOIU

"The European Union Member States use different organizational and functional models of tax administration that could determine better or worse performances. This paper analyzes the way of organization and operation of tax administrations in European Union Member States from the perspective of the 21 variables obtained based on the information made available on the OECD’s Tax Administration Comparative Information Series. Using the hierarchical clustering procedures, tax administrations in the European Union Member States were grouped into clusters. The purpose of this approach was to observe if the respective clusters can be associated with a certain grouping of the tax administrations, made according to their classification, from the point of view concerning the activity efficiency. The efficiency of the activity was evaluated based on 5 indicators developed in the specialty literature. The research showed that the tax administrations in the formed clusters can be found in one of the ranking parts. Therefore, the grouping of tax administrations based on variables that reflect their characteristics can be a useful tool in identifying an organization and functioning model for the tax administration that associated with a certain efficiency level."


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Moška ◽  
Peter Plavčan

This text provides an overview of the international document on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular migration, alongside other international documents, in particular issued by the European Union, on the recognition of professional qualifications. Comments on the individual provisions of the document are also provided in connection with possible application practice. It is based on the current state of migration in Europe and the world, and explains the causes and consequences, details of migratory waves and the consequences of non-compliance with legal regulations by individual states in this area. In addition, the Global Compact is characterized, and the positive impacts and the requirements on important facts that are crucial for migrants in the receiving states are outlined. The negative impacts of migration in the social, economic and cultural spheres are also described. The text lists one of the 23 objectives of the Global Compact, namely the development of skills and the mutual recognition of skills, qualifications and competences. It highlights the risks of recognizing education and qualifications from the point of view of regulated and unregulated professions in the Member States of the European Union. This issue is governed by special regulations. Finally, the European Union Member States are recommended to focus on the actual employability of migrants on their labour markets by focusing on language courses for migrants, social assistance and, in particular, on organizing specialized courses for migrants to carry out specific activities in the field of specific occupations with employers in unregulated professions. Of course, the performance of regulated migrant professions is also proposed when meeting the requirements. Key words: global framework, migration, recognition of professional qualifications, international document.


Author(s):  
Assima AUBAKIR ◽  
Tuleutay SULEIMENOV

Determination of clear contours of European policy for Central Asia, which could satisfy the interests of both the European Union and the countries of the region, took quite a long time, and is still at the stage of forming common approaches to the implementation of mutually beneficial cooperation. The first program documents of the European Union in relation to Central Asia, called strategies, were to a greater extent only action plans aimed at maintaining its political and economic presence in the region. Meanwhile, the Central Asian countries are always interested in pragmatic interaction with the European Union on equal basis. In 2019, the European Union adopted a new Strategy for Central Asia, which replaced the previous 2007 document. According to European politicians, it marks a new stage in relations between the two regions with improved approaches to building interaction between them. The purpose of the article is to analyze new trends in relations between Central Asia and the European Union from the point of view of both participants of this process and the evolution of the relevant EU policy documents.


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