Text 17. The history of Eurojust

 

Eurojust was established as a result of a decision taken by the European Council of Tampere, held in October 1999. The European Council held a special meeting dedicated to the creation of an area of freedom, security and justice in the European Union; this would be achieved by concentrating on establishing a more uniform immigration and asylum policy based on solidarity and on the reinforcement of the fight against trans-border crime by consolidating cooperation among authorities.

To reinforce the fight against serious organised crime, the European Council, in its Conclusion 46, agreed that a unit (Eurojust) should be set up, composed of national prosecutors, magistrates, or police officers of equivalent competence, detached from each Member State according to their own legal systems.

On 14 December 2000, a provisional judicial cooperation unit was set up under the name Pro-Eurojust, operating from the Council building in Brussels. This was Eurojust's forerunner, whose purpose was to be a sort of round table of prosecutors from all Member States, where Eurojust’s concepts would be tried and tested. Pro-Eurojust started work on 1 March 2001 under the Swedish Presidency of the European Union.

The attacks of 11 September showed that the phenomenon of terrorism was not limited to the national or regional sphere and that the fight against terrorism must be coordinated in the widest international context. This thought served as a catalyst to setting up a judicial coordination unit, and Eurojust was established in 2002 by Council Decision 2002/187/JHA.

In the first half of 2002, during the Spanish Presidency of the EU, many important stepping stones were laid: the Eurojust Decision was published on 28 February, the budget was released in May, and the Rules of Procedure were agreed upon in June.

On 29 April 2003, Eurojust moved to its final seat, in The Hague (NL). Shortly after its establishment, Eurojust faced the challenge of the European Union enlargement: in May 2004, ten new National Members joined the College, and in January 2007 two more were added, bringing the total number to 27.

Since the enlargement, Eurojust has been very active in working towards signing cooperation agreements allowing the exchange of judicial information and personal data. Agreements were concluded with Europol, OLAF, CEPOL, the European Judicial Training Network, UNODC, Iber-RED, Iceland, Romania, Norway, the USA, Croatia, Switzerland, and fYROM. Liaison prosecutors from Norway and the USA are permanently based at Eurojust.

In addition to cooperation agreements, Eurojust also maintains a network of contact points worldwide.

Since 2000, Eurojust has grown tremendously and so have its operational tasks and involvement in European judicial cooperation. This is why more powers and a revised set of rules became necessary.

In July 2008, the French Presidency approved the New Council Decision on the Strengthening of Eurojust, which was voted on in December 2008 and published on 4 June 2009.

The new Decision’s purpose is to enhance the operational capabilities of Eurojust, increase the exchange of information between the interested parties, facilitate and strengthen cooperation between national authorities and Eurojust, and strengthen and establish relationships with partners and third States.

UNIT 8: EUROPIAN UNION LAW

TEXT 1. LEGISLATION AND TREATIES

 

Application of EU law

The European Commission is the institution responsible for ensuring EU law is applied throughout all Member States.

The Secretariat-General helps the Commission manage the work involved in this. Broadly speaking this entails keeping track of the measures taken by the authorities in the Member States to incorporate EU law into their national law and taking action when they fail to do so properly. The Commission also has special responsibility for enforcing EU competition policy - this involves monitoring support (known at the Commission as "State aid") given by national authorities to commercial organizations.

The Secretariat-General ensures the Commission follows the proper rules and procedures for doing this work.

Infringements of EU law

The Secretariat-General manages the Commission's decision-making procedure in connection with suspected and established infringements of EU law. These may be breaches alleged in a complaint or breaches the Commission discovers on its own initiative. The Commission also takes action where national authorities fail to notify it by the required deadline of measures they have taken to implement specific EU laws (directives).

State aid

The Commission also manages the decision-making process involved in determining whether government support to undertakings is legal or not. Again, sometimes it is notified of this support by outside complaints and sometimes it uncovers cases on its own initiative.

TEXT 2. WHAT IS EU LAW?

 

The main goal of the EU is the progressive integration of Member States' economic and political systems and the establishment of a single market based on the free movement of goods, people, money and services.

To this end, its Member States cede part of their sovereignty under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) which empowers the EU institutions to adopt laws. These laws ( regulations, directives and decisions ) take precedence over national law and are binding on national authorities. The EU also issues non-binding instruments, such as recommendations and opinions, as well as rules governing how EU institutions and programmes work, etc.

What are EU regulations?

Regulations are the most direct form of EU law - as soon as they are passed, they have binding legal force throughout every Member State, on a par with national laws. National governments do not have to take action themselves to implement EU regulations.

They are different from directives, which are addressed to national authorities, who must then take action to make them part of national law, and decisions, which apply in specific cases only, involving particular authorities or individuals.

Regulations are passed either jointly by the EU Council and European Parliament, and by the Commission alone.

What are EU directives?

EU directives lay down certain end results that must be achieved in every Member State. National authorities have to adapt their laws to meet these goals, but are free to decide how to do so. Directives may concern one or more Member States, or all of them.

Each directive specifies the date by which the national laws must be adapted - giving national authorities the room for manoeuvre within the deadlines necessary to take account of differing national situations.

Directives are used to bring different national laws into line with each other, and are particularly common in matters affecting the operation of the single market (e.g. product safety standards).

What are EU decisions?

Decisions are EU laws relating to specific cases. They can come from the EU Council (sometimes jointly with the European Parliament) or the Commission.

They can require authorities and individuals in Member States either do something or stop doing something, and can also confer rights on them.

EU decisions are:

• addressed to specific parties (unlike regulations),

• fully binding.

The Commission's role

The Commission's role is to ensure EU law is properly applied - by individuals, national authorities and other EU institutions.

The Commission can impose sanctions on individuals or companies who break EU law. It can take formal action against national authorities if they are suspected of doing the same, asking them to remedy the situation by a certain date. This may involve taking them to the European Court of Justice.

 

TEXT 3. TREATIES

 

The European Union is based on the rule of law. This means that everything that it does is derived from treaties, which are agreed on voluntarily and democratically by all Member States. Previously signed treaties have been changed and updated to keep up with developments in society.

The main treaties are the following:

Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community which was signed on 18 April 1951 in Paris entered into force on 23 July 1952 and expired on 23 July 2002.

Treaty of Rome establishing the European Economic Community (EEC), signed in Rome on 25 March 1957, and entered into force on 1 January 1958. The Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) was signed at the same time and the two are therefore jointly known as the Treaties of Rome.

Merger Treaty: signed in Brussels on 8 April 1965 and in force since 1 July 1967, which provided for a Single Commission and a Single Council of the three European Communities.

Single European Act (SEA) signed in Luxembourg and the Hague, entered into force on 1 July 1987, provided for the adaptations required for the achievement of the Internal Market.

Treaty on European Union which was signed in Maastricht on 7 February 1992, entered into force on 1 November 1993. The Maastricht Treaty changed the name of the European Economic Community to simply "the European Community". It also introduced new forms of co-operation between the Member State governments - for example on defence, and in the area of "justice and home affairs". By adding this inter-governmental co-operation to the existing "Community" system, the Maastricht Treaty created a new structure with three "pillars" which is political as well economic. This is the European Union (EU).

Treaty of Amsterdam: signed on 2 October 1997, entered into force on 1 May 1999. It amended and renumbered the EU and EC Treaties. Consolidated versions of the EU and EC Treaties are attached to it. The Treaty of Amsterdam changed the articles of the Treaty on European Union, identified by letters A to S, into numerical form.

Treaty of Nice: signed on 26 February 2001, entered into force on 1 February 2003. It dealt mostly with reforming the institutions so that the Union could function efficiently after its enlargement to 25 Member States. The Treaty of Nice, the former Treaty of the EU and the Treaty of the EC have been merged into one consolidated version.

Treaty of Lisbon: was signed on 13 December 2007 and entered into force on 1 December 2009. Its main objectives are to make the EU more democratic, meeting the European citizens’ expectations for high standards of accountability, openness, transparency and participation; and to make the EU more efficient and able to tackle today's global challenges such as climate change, security and sustainable development.

The agreement on the Treaty of Lisbon followed the discussion about a constitution. A "Treaty establishing a constitution for Europe" was adopted by the Heads of State and Government at the Brussels European Council on 17 and 18 June 2004 and signed in Rome on 29 October 2004, but it was never ratified.

Moreover, the founding treaties have been amended on several occasions, in particular when new Member States acceded in 1973 (Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom), 1981 (Greece), 1986 (Spain, Portugal), 1995 (Austria, Finland, Sweden) and 2004 (the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia).

Based on the Treaties, EU institutions can adopt legislation, which is then implemented by the Member States.