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The Distribution of Competences Between the Union and the Member States

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The European Union after Lisbon

Abstract

The order of competency of the Lisbon Treaty largely follows the vertical division of powers between the Union and the Member States. It is based on main principles elaborated by the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), but has been innovated and reformed by the Lisbon Treaty in several aspects. Both the “Declaration on the Future of the Union” and the “Declaration of Heads of Government of Laeken” underlined the question of division of competences in the post-Nice process. The mandate of the Constitutional Convention even considered the rendering of attributed competencies to the Member States as a possibility. The divergent linguistic versions of the “Declaration on the Future of the Union” as well as the mandate of the European Council based on the Declaration of Laeken gave leeway to rather differing concepts in the search for a better vertical delimitation of competences between the Union and the Member States. The mandate also aimed at the re-examination of Art. 95 and 308 EC to bar the extension of the Union versus the Member States. Within Working Group I (“Subsidiarity and Additional Competences”) there was consensus to reformulate the competency in order to find a clearer definition and structural division of powers.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Hermann (2008a), p. 85.

  2. 2.

    Oppermann (2003), p. 1165.

  3. 3.

    Oppermann (2003), p. 1172 (fn. 39); with a different view Götz 2004, p. 44.

  4. 4.

    See Schwarze (2004), p. 510; Nettesheim (2004), p. 528; Dougan (2003), p. 769.

  5. 5.

    Case 6/64 Flaminio Costa v E.N.E.L. (ECJ 15 July 1964) p. 1269.

  6. 6.

    For example, Blanke (1991), p. 143 et seqq.

  7. 7.

    Pache and Rösch (2008), p. 479.

  8. 8.

    Blanke (2004), p. 234.

  9. 9.

    Herzog (1963), p. 400.

  10. 10.

    d’Atena (2004), p. 136.

  11. 11.

    Calliess & Ruffert (2006), Art. I-11, para 24.

  12. 12.

    EG Bull 12–1992, I.

  13. 13.

    See e.g. Wuermeling (2004), p. 224; Calliess & Ruffert (2006), Art. I-11, para 28.

  14. 14.

    See Meyer and Hölscheidt (2003), p. 621; Ruffert (2004), p. 182.

  15. 15.

    Nettesheim (1995), p. 107.

  16. 16.

    Calliess & Ruffert (2006), Art. I-11, para 39 with further references.

  17. 17.

    German Federal Constitutional Court, 2 BvR 2134, 2159/92 (12 October 1993) para 162 (in: BVerfGE 89, 155 [212]).

  18. 18.

    Davies (2003), p. 692.

  19. 19.

    Nettesheim (2006), p. 309 et seqq.

  20. 20.

    Case 804/79 United Kingdom v Commission (ECJ 5 May 1981), note 17.

  21. 21.

    CONV 375/1/02 REV1 final report WG V, p. 6; Craig (2004), p. 80.

  22. 22.

    Calliess & Ruffert (2007), Art. 5, para 33.

  23. 23.

    Calliess & Ruffert (2006), Art. I-14, para 16.

  24. 24.

    Calliess & Ruffert (2006), Art. I-12, para 19 et seqq.

  25. 25.

    Case C-491/01 The Queen v Secretary of State for Health, ex parte: British American Tobacco (ECJ 10 December 2002) note 1.

  26. 26.

    Weber (2008), p. 12.

  27. 27.

    Weber (2008), p. 12.

  28. 28.

    See Hermann (2008b), p. 116.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fachbereich Rechtswissenschaften, Universität Osnabrück, Heger-Tor-Wall 14, 49069, Osnabrück, Germany

    Albrecht Weber

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Correspondence to Albrecht Weber .

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  1. , Faculty for Economics, Law and Social Sc, University of Erfurt, Nordhäuser Straße 63, Erfurt, 99089, Germany

    Hermann-Josef Blanke

  2. Regionalism, Federalism and Self-Governm, National Research Council - Institute fo, Via dei Taurini 19, Rome, 00185, Italy

    Stelio Mangiameli

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Weber, A. (2012). The Distribution of Competences Between the Union and the Member States. In: Blanke, HJ., Mangiameli, S. (eds) The European Union after Lisbon. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19507-5_12

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