The European Union

Development
• First successful regional organization
(1957) European Economic Community
(EEC)
• EEC became European Community (EC)
(1986)
• EC became European Union (EU) (1993)
• Essentially borderless, once inside the EU
• Freedom of movement of capital, labour,
services, people
 Three Pillars of Responsibility
• First Pillar
– Areas where member states have given up
some degree of sovereignty to EU institutions
• Customs union
• Agriculture policy
• Environmental policy
• Competition and trade policy
• Fiscal and monetary issues
 Three Pillars of Responsibility
• Second Pillar
– Matters managed on intergovernmental basis
• Foreign policy
• Security policy
 Three Pillars of Responsibility
• Third Pillar
– Matters relating to police and judicial
cooperation – managed on an
intergovernmental basis
• Police cooperation
• Racism
• Crime
• Terrorism
 Institutions
• European Council – heads of state advise on
high level policy
• The council of the European Union – main
decision making body – enacts laws
• European Commission – bureaucracy to
propose and implement legislation
• European Parliament - pass laws, control budget
• European Court of Justice – dispute settlement
 Harmonization of Laws
• Regulation
– Binding in its entirety, directly applicable to all
member states
• Directive
– Prescribes objectives, but allows individual states
freedom in form and method of compliance
• Decision
– Binding on individual state, person, entity to whom it
is addressed (e.g. Microsoft, Boeing)
• Recommendation
– Non-binding suggestion
 EU Law
• Primarily Civil Code Basis
– Immense body of written law
– Continues to grow at a great rate
EU provisions relevant to Canadian
Business
• Competition Law (page 99 and sub)
• Product Liability