Introduction to EU Law

General Overview of EU Treaties
The European Economic Community (EEC) was established in the aftermath of the devastation caused by the second world war when the economies of the European Countries lay in ruins. The EEC was created by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 with the aim of fostering economic growth and to achieve economic stability among the six-member states namely France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
The French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, promoted the plan putting coal and steel resources under common ownership and control. It was intended that the nations of Europe (France and Germany in particular would be bound together in peaceful, economic cooperation. This led to the creation of European Coal and Steel Community 1951 (ECSC) under the Treaty of Paris which aimed at creating a common market in coal and steel.
The ECSC created supranational institutions like the High Authority, an Assembly, a Council and a Court. The member states of ECSC signed the European Defence Community Treaty in 1952, which had a common army, but it failed due to two reasons; firstly, because of French objections and the lack of a common foreign policy. The six Member States later met at Messina, Italy in 1955 which set out the plan for two further economic communities, the European Atomic Energy Community
(Euratom) under the Treaty of Rome, which aimed and promoted the peaceful use of nuclear energy and the European Economic Community which created a common market among the member states.
In 1949, The Council of Europe had already been established, but it is a totally separate organization from the EEC. Its main aims and objectives included protection of human rights, strengthening democracy and upholding the rule of law. The Council of Europe was the one to draw up the European Convention on Human Rights. It also created the European Court of Human Rights, to provide remedies for violation of human rights.
Now I am going to talk about the Common Market created under the Treaty of Rome, whose main purpose was to increase wealth, growth and productivity in Europe. The developed Common Market has an internal market which is also referred to as the Single Market. An internal market is an idea that companies can produce goods and sell them throughout the whole area of the internal market (European Member states of the EEC).
The first step in the establishment of the internal market is the removal of customs duties between the member states and to deal with goods produced outside the internal market the member states set up a common customs tariff. However, the removal of barriers to trade goes much further than this. The Common Market set up by the Treaty of Rome guarantees four freedoms. 1) Free movement of goods; 2) Free movement of persons; 3) Free movement of services; 4) Free movement of capital. Article 18 of the Treaty of Rome states the basis of the internal market which is that there should be no discrimination between the member states.
The Treaty of Rome also contained provisions establishing a Competition Policy to ensure that the monopolies of companies came to an end. Among other policies, that were established included, Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Common Transport Policy and a Common Fisheries Policy.
In 1965, a Merger Treaty was signed which led to the cohesion of ECSC, Euratom and EEC. The High Authority of the ECSC was merged with the Euratom and EEC Commissions formed a single body. The present European Commission, and the Council was joined with the Council of Ministers.
Under the Treaty of Rome 1957, the Council introduced a new voting mechanism known as the qualified majority vote (QMV). Prior to this, unanimity voting ensured that every country had veto power. QMV threatened that veto power and thus, France objected to adopting this mechanism. They protested and the protest took the form of an ‘empty chair policy’ where French delegates refused to attend meetings in the Council. Hence, ‘Luxembourg Accords’ or ‘Luxembourg Compromise’ was reached where negotiations were said to be continued where the matter was focused on important national interests.
In 1970, the first Budgetary treaty was passed, which changed the basis of the Community’s finances to the Community’s own financial resources and strengthened the role of the Parliament in the budgetary process. In 1975, the second Budgetary treaty was passed and this established a Court of Auditors. During the years of 1973-86, six countries joined the EEC, including the United Kingdom.
In 1986, the Single European Act (SEA) was passed which mentioned the trade barriers that still existed within the Common Market. The Act aimed at removing these as the Member States would greatly benefit from it. The result was the decision to launch a programme to complete the ‘single’ or ‘internal’ market by a deadline of 31 December 1992.

[@uzmaharoon17]

ماشاءاللہ