Direct effect, Indirect Effect, State Liability Flashcards
Koninklijke Scholten Honig NV v Council and Commission (1977)
- Regulations are of general application to everyone
Directives
- Addressed to Member States
- Not directly applicable
- Set out objectivs which MS must seek to achieve but free on how to implement
Regulations
- Of general application to everyone
- Directly applicable
- Set out general rules to create uniformity in law between Member States
Decisions
- Binding on their addressees only
- May be addressed to Member States collectively or singularly, or to individuals or undertakings.
Art 5(2) TEU
- EU can act only within the competences placed upon it by the Member States
- 3 types of competence:
- Where the treaties confer on the Union exclusive competence in a specific area, only the Union may legislate.
- Competences shared with the Member States in a specific area, both may legislate and adopt legally binding acts.
- Competences to carry out actions to support, coordinate or supplement the actions of the Member States, without superseding their competence in these areas.
Principle of Subsidiarity
- Article 5(1) TEU requires that the EU should only act where the Member States could not achieve similar objectives as effectively, e.g. where EU is better placed to meet objectives because of advantages of scale and effect.
Van Gend en Loos [1963]
- Treaty articles can have direct effect within the national legal systems of the Member States by conferring individual rights immediately which national courts are required to protect.
- Rights conferred under the Treaty can be relied upon and enforced in proceedings brought in national courts.
- Provisions must be sufficiently clear and precise and unconditional.
Costa v ENEL [1964]
Supremacy of EU law - asserts the primacy of EU law over the domestic laws of the Member States
Futtermittel (1970)
EU law takes precedence over the national constitutional law of a Member State including fundamental rights provided by that constitution.
Simmenthal (1978)
A national court must not wait for a national measure to be set aside, but the EU provision must be given direct effect to the ruling immediately.
Direct applicability
- Regulation does not need to be implemented into the domestic law of the Member States
- Once adopted, automatically becomes part of their domestic law.
Direct Effect
- Provisions of EU law may give rise to immediate rights which can be enforced by individuals within the national legal systems of Member States.
- Provision must be sufficiently clear and precise and unconditional.
Lutticke [1966]
- Direct effect also applied to positive obligations.
- Obliged Member States to remove discriminatory internal taxes post-1962.
Defrenne v Sabena (No 2) (1976)
Established a treaty article could also have direct effect against private individuals and private bodies (horizontal).
Politi v Ministry of Finance for Italian Republic [1971]
Regulations and Decisions can have direct effect not only vertically against the Member State but also horizontally against private parties, as long as they comply with Van Gend en Loos criteria.
Franz Grad [1970]
- Decisions could have direct effect because it would be incompatible with the binding effect of them if they couldn’t.
- Only have direct effect to the party to whom the decision was addressed.
Van Duyn [1974]
Directives could have direct effect as long as they satisfy the Van Gend en Loos criteria.
Ratti [1979]
- Member State cannot rely on its own failure to implement a Directive.
- Direct effect can only take place after the implementation deadline has passed.
- An individual may be able to rely on a directive in the national court of a Member State where the Directive has not been implemented at all or has been incorrectly implemented as long as the implementation date has passed and its provisions satisfy the conditions for direct effect.