Direito europeu

Direito Comunitário
2º Semestre 2005/2006
--------------------------------------Theoretical Classes-------------------------------

Comparative reading between the Treaty of Nice and the European Constitution;

Who should have the legislative competences? The member states, the European Union? We have to think about the EU in terms of treaties and enlargements. The first treaty within the Union was the Treaty of Rome in 1957. In fact, there was a prior treaty which isn’t considered, the Treaty of Paris:

Treaty of Paris & Treaty of Rome – 1950’s: Coal and Steel, this community was the 1st and has lasted for 50 years, next came EURATOM (to study atomic energy) and the EEC (European Economic Community).

In Paris we dealt with one community (Coal and Steel), and in the Treaty of Rome with another two communities – Euratom & EEC.

The people that wrote these treaties were killing each other just a few years before (France and Germany) – but the main objective of the EEC was to create such a unity that no other internal war would be fathomable – and it worked because in the last 50 years there has not been another war like WWI and II. Some people think that the main reason is because people don’t want to loose money, others say that it hasn’t happened because we are so concentrated on commercial transactions that there isn’t time to go to war – basically there are several theories to explain why there has been peace in the European territories.

1. The Treaty of Rome was a contract between six countries – Belgium , Germany, ,France, Italy, Luxembourg and Netherlands. After these first founding partners, other countries wanted to become a part of this union: » The 1st enlargement took place in 1964 and the countries involved were – UK, Ireland and Denmark; » The 2nd enlargement was in 1981 when Greece joined.

2. In 1986 the Single European Act was constituted. This was the 1st act that amended the Treaty of Rome, it doesn’t have the formal