Aims, principles and competences of the EU

According to Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) (article 2), the Community shall have as its task, by establishing a common market and an economic and monetary union and by implementing common policies or activities referred to in Articles 3 and 4, to promote throughout the Community a harmonious, balanced and sustainable development of economic activities, a high level of employment and social protection, equality between men and women, sustainable and non-inflationary growth, a high degree of competitiveness and convergence of economic performance, a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment, the raising of the standard of living and quality of life, and economic and social cohesion and solidarity among Member States|limb|.»

According to Treaty on European Union (article B), the Union shall set itself the following objectives:

- to promote economic and social progress which is balanced and sustainable, in particular through the creation of an area without internal frontiers, through the strengthening of economic and social cohesion and through the establishment of economic and monetary union, ultimately including a single currency in accordance with the provisions of this Treaty;

- to assert its identity on the international scene, in particular through the implementation of a common foreign and security policy including the eventual framing of a common defence policy, which might in time lead to a common defence;

- to strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of the nationals of its Member States through the introduction of a citizenship of the Union;

- to develop close cooperation on justice and home affairs;

- to maintain in full the ‘acquis communautaire’ and build on it with a view to considering, through the procedure referred to in Article N(2), to what extent the policies and forms of cooperation introduced by this Treaty may need to be revised with the aim of ensuring the effectiveness of the mechanisms and the institutions of the Community.

The objectives of the Union shall be achieved as provided in this Treaty and in accordance with the conditions and the timetable set out therein while respecting the principle of subsidiarity as defined in Article 3b of the Treaty establishing the European Community.

Achievement of aims is carried out on the basis of principles of the EU.

Principles of the eu are principles which are contained in the fundamental Treaties of the European Union and include principle of subsidiarity, proportionality and conferral.

The principle of subsidiarity means that the Community must not undertake or regulate what can be managed or regulated more efficiently at national or regional levels. This principle, implying multi-level governance must be exercised in a spirit of cooperation between the various levels of power. According to the Treaties (Article 5 TEC and Article 2 TEU), the Community/Union must act within the limits of the powers conferred upon it by the Treaties and of the objectives assigned to it therein. In areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Community must take action, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved by the Community. Specifically, it is the principle whereby the Union does not take action (except in the areas that fall within its exclusive competence), unless it is more effective than action taken at national, regional or local level. It is closely bound up with the principle of proportionality, which requires that any action by the Union should not go beyond what is necessary to achieve the objectives of the Treaties. It ensures that decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen and that constant checks are made to verify that action at Union level is justified in light of the possibilities available at national, regional or local level.

The principle of proportionality is laid down in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Community. And implies that, if a Community action proves to be necessary to attain the objectives of the Treaty, the Community institutions must further examine whether legislative action is required or whether other sufficiently effective means can be used (financial support, encouragement of cooperation between Member States by a Recommendation, inducement to take action by a Resolution, etc.).

To comply with the principle of proportionality, Community action must be as simple as possible, consistent with satisfactory achievement of its objectives. The Community must therefore legislate only to the extent necessary and give preference to directives rather than regulations and to framework directives rather than detailed measures. Moreover, Community measures must leave as much scope for national decision as possible; and respect well established national arrangements and the working of Member States legal systems. The important thing is to ensure that Community legislation does not impose on national, regional or local authorities or on civil society any constraints which are illogical, superfluous or excessive given the objective.

The Commission applies the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality both to direct its initiatives and to evaluate the need for Community legislation, both future and existing. It conducts wide-ranging consultations and presents whenever necessary reference documents (Green Papers) prior to proposing legislative texts. In the explanatory memorandum accompanying its proposals, the Commission includes a "subsidiarity recital" summarising the objectives of the proposed measure, its effectiveness and why it is necessary. The Council verifies that a proposal of the Commission is in accordance with the provisions of Article 5 (TEC), on the basis of the preamble and the explanatory memorandum of the proposal. The Court of Justice has consistently held that the choice of the legal basis of a Community measure must be based on objective factors, which are amenable to judicial review. Among those factors are included in particular the purpose and content of the measure. Difficulties arise if the measure in question pursues several aims for which different legal bases can be selected. According to the Court, in that case, the principal aim of the measure should determine the choice of the legal basis.

Under the principle of conferral, specified in the Treaty of Lisbon (as in the draft Constitutional Treaty), the Union shall act within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States in the Treaties to attain the objectives set out therein, all other competences remaining with the Member States (Article 3b, Lisbon). This is to say that the Member States - and they alone - may confer to the Union parts of their sovereign powers, if and when they consider that their interests are better served by common action.

The Community can act in an area only in so far as the competence has been conferred to it by the Member States.

The Treaty of Lisbon does not depart from current practice on the question of transfer of sovereign rights from the Member States to the Union, but it defines in detail the principles which govern this transfer and guarantees that these principles should not be infringed. These principles are: the principle of conferral, under which the Union shall act within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States in the Treaties (Article 3b, Lisbon = Article I-11, Constitution); and the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, which henceforth are submitted to the control of national parliaments (Article 8 C, Lisbon = Article III-259, Constitution).

The Treaty of Lisbon does not change substantially the principles ofsubsidiarityand proportionality. However, it introduces a major innovation in this regard, requiring that the national parliaments be directly involved in monitoring the proper application of the subsidiarity principle.

Nearly all common policies have a European dimension and a national dimension. The appropriate decision-making level - national, European or both simultaneously - depends on the type of each policy measure under consideration. In the case of laws or decisions which must apply uniformly in all Member States, there is little room for national initiative. On the contrary, when the Treaty provides for non-binding coordination of national policies, the scale of European action leaves a wide margin of manoeuvre to the national authorities. As a common policy develops, the European dimension increases at the expense of the national dimension. The Member States accept the decrease of their powers to the extent that their interests are better served by common action than by national action.

Competences or powers of the EU are the spheres of actions, in which decisions are made by the European institutes or countries-members of the EU.

There are such types of competences or powers:

a) Exclusive Competences - the Member States have irrevocably relinquished all possibility of taking action.
The EU has six exclusive competences. In these areas the EU makes legislation and decisions on its own. The nation state takes no decisions and does not interfere with the competence for these matters given to the EU, for it has granted the commission power to issue decisions in these areas. They concern management of:

1. the customs union, made up of an internal free trade zone between members who apply the same European customs duties (taxes) to goods coming into the EU zone, regardless if they are being imported into Ireland or Estonia.

2. the economic and monetary policy of the EU, including sharing a single currency, the euro, overseen by the European central bank. Under the stability and growth pact, the 12 eurozone members operate common economic policies, and promise to keep their budgets and spending under control.

3. competition laws to ensure a level playing field between European businesses, controlling state aid from national governments and the actions of companies bestowing unfair competitive advantage through mergers or acquisitions. The European Commission and the DG for Competition Policy have primary competence for enforcing EU competition law.

4. a common position in international trade negotiations such as the WTO trade rounds, as part of a common international trade policy

5. conservation of marine biological resources (part of the common fisheries policy between EU states)

6. as well as the concluding of some international Treaties.

b) Supporting, Co-ordinating or Complementary Competences - the Community's sole task is to coordinate and encourage action by the Member States. There are quite a few areas where the Commission has very little direct involvement. The E.U. can financially support the actions of the member states that have agreed to co-ordinate their domestic policies through the EU. These areas include: education policy, learning EU languages, study time abroad, and the mutual recognition of educational qualifications from other countries. In the Constitutional Treaty, new areas conferred to the community in this category include tourism and sport.

Example: Learning EU languages is very much the domain of the Irish government, but they haven't instigated a national policy on learning foreign languages. A number of EU funding programmes actively promote language learning and linguistic diversity, but the E.U. has very limited influence in this area as the content of educational systems remains the responsibility of individual Member States. Some of the EU's initiatives include foreign exchange programmes like Erasmus for students in third level education and the Comenius and Lingua programmes that fund language learning in primary and secondary schools. The use of ICT in education is promoted by the EU programme Minerva.

Example: 2004 was celebrated by the EU as the Year of Education Through Sport. The EU proposes to support members' actions in the sporting arena by promoting sports issues, encouraging co-operation between European sporting bodies, supporting each others' preparation for international sporting competitions, and possibly pooling training facilities, trainers and sports specialists. It is unlikely that sports figures will compete together under the EU flag.

c) Concurrent or Shared Competences - the most common case.
The vast majority of other policies come under the heading of shared competencies. In these areas, both member states and the EU have the power to make laws. If the EU has either stopped making initiatives in this area or if it never did, countries have the option of taking action in these areas themselves using their own initiative and resources. And of course, any member state may always go beyond the minimum standards that are set by the EU, for example by setting more ambitious development aid targets, or stricter regulations on advertising to children. Shared competences cover anything from food, its safety and its sources, passenger flying rights, film and television, aid to Africa, the environment, or human rights. Here, we'll look at a few of the main ones.

d) No Competences Whatsoever

Among those areas that remain the sole responsibility of the nation state are the syllabuses of schools, national citizenship, housing and the funding of public television (RTE, TG4 only), the welfare state, hospitals and the health service, corporate tax rates and any policy that requires large commitments of public money. Until the pillar structure is abandoned in favour of the competence structure envisioned in the constitution, issues included in the 2nd (common foreign and security policy) and 3rd pillars of Maastricht (police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters, or justice and home affairs), will continue to be decided through intergovernmental Treaty by decision-making in the council using unanimity. Individual governments may abstain. In these areas, the commission and parliament play only a minor role. The policies that this arrangement affects are: foreign policy, development aid, human rights, battlegroups, the European rapid reaction force and peacekeeping in the 2nd pillar, and anti-terrorism measures, drug or human or arms trafficking, crime and fraud from the 3rd.