Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-15T10:10:02.091Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Article 13(2) TEU: Institutional Balance, Sincere Co-Operation, and Non-Domination During Lawmaking?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

David Yuratich

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This Article assesses the extent to which Article 13(2) TEU supports a republican reading of the EU's institutional structure. This question has arisen in light of the move towards more intergovernmental forms of economic governance following the Eurozone Crisis. Dawson and de Witte and Bellamy have critiqued this mutation through theory-driven readings the institutional balance clause of Article 13(2) TEU, arguing that it establishes a norm of non-domination between EU institutions that has been undermined by increased intergovernmentalism. This Article considers whether the institutional balance case law supports their reading. It finds that institutional balance's dominant role is not normative: It protects pre-existing institutional competences. It does carry a normative side when used as a general principle of EU law to support arguments about increasing the European Parliament's legislative contributions, but this is not an independent head of claim. A better legal support for the presence of a non-domination in Article 13(2) lies within its second clause, the principle of sincere cooperation. Ultimately, the case law around both clauses of Article 13(2) TEU means that the provision is best understood as having a tripartite structure providing a constitutional basis for non-domination during lawmaking.

Type
Articles
Information
German Law Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , 01 January 2017 , pp. 99 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by German Law Journal, Inc. 

References

1 Kaarlo Tuori & Klaus Tuori, The Eurozone Crisis: A Constitutional Analysis 4–5 (2014).Google Scholar

2 Id. at 9.Google Scholar

3 Id. at 16.Google Scholar

4 Id. at 205. See generally Eduardo Chiti & Pedro Gustavo Teixeira, The Constitutional Implications of the European Responses to the Financial and Debt Crisis, 50 Common Mkt. L. Rev. 683 (2013); Ben Crum, Saving the Eurozone at the Cost of Democracy?, 51 J. Common Mar. Stud. 614 (2013).Google Scholar

5 See generally Chiti and Teixeira, supra note 4.Google Scholar

6 See generally Kohler, Manfred, European Governance and the European Parliament: From Talking Shop to Legislative Powerhouse, 52 J. Common Mkt. Stud. 600, 601–02 (2014); Andreas F&;llesdal & Simon Hix, Why There Is a Democratic Deficit in the EU: A Response to Majone and Moravcsik, 44 J. Common Mkt. Stud. 533 (2006).Google Scholar

7 See infra, Section C.Google Scholar

8 See generally Lenaerts, Koen, The Principle of Democracy in the Case Law of the European Court of Justice, 62 Int'l & Comp. L. Q. 271 (2013); Daniel Halberstam, The Bride of Messina: Constitutionalism and Democracy in Europe, 30 Eur. L. Rev. 775, 784 (2005); G. Federico Mancini & Keeling, David T., Democracy and the European Court of Justice, 57 Mod L. Rev. 175 (1994). This process is not uncontroversial—see generally Thomas Horsley, Reflections on the Role of the Court of Justice as the “Motor” of European Integration: Legal Limits to Judicial Lawmaking, 50 Common Mkt. L. Rev. 931 (2013).Google Scholar

9 Nicole Scicluna, Politicization Without Democratization: How the Eurozone Crisis is Transforming EU Law and Politics, 12 Int'l. J. Constit. L. 545, 562–56 (2014).Google Scholar

10 Id.at 563.Google Scholar

11 See infra, Section F.Google Scholar

12 Tuori & Tuori, supra note 1, at 216–21; Chiti & Teixeira, supra note 4, at 688. For earlier discussions, see generally Thomas Christiansen, The European Union After the Lisbon Treaty: An Elusive ‘Institutional Balance‘?, in EU Law After Lisbon (Andrea Biondi, Piet Eeckhout & Stefanie Ripley eds., 2012); Jean-Paul Jacqué, The Principle of Institutional Balance, 41 Common Mkt. L. Rev. 383 (2004).Google Scholar

13 Chiti & Teixeira, supra note 4, at 686.Google Scholar

14 Tuori & Tuori, supra note 1, at 205; Agustín José Menéndez, Editorial: A European Union in Constitutional Mutation?, 20 Eur. L. J. 127 (2014).Google Scholar

15 Koen Lenaerts, EMU and the EU's Constitutional Framework, 39 Eur. L. Rev. 753, 763 (2014).Google Scholar

16 Case C-370/12, Thomas Pringle v. Government of Ireland, (Nov. 27, 2012), http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=130381&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=Ist&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=164236 [hereinafter Pringle].Google Scholar

17 Lenaerts, supra note 14, at 757.Google Scholar

18 Pringle, supra note 15, at 158–59. See generally Borger, Vestert, The ESM and the European Court's Predicament in Pringle, 14 German L. J. 113 (2013); Pieter-Augustijn Van Mallegham, Pringle: A Paradigm Shift in the European Union's Monetary Constitution, 14 German L. J. 141 (2013); Jonathan Tomkin, Contradiction, Circumvention, and Conceptual Gymnastics: The Impact of the Adoption of the ESM Treaty on the State of European Democracy, 14 German L. J. 169 (2013).Google Scholar

19 Scicluna, supra note 9, at 561.Google Scholar

20 Chiti & Teixeira, supra note 4, at 689.Google Scholar

21 For details of these instruments, see Eur. Comm., The EU's Economic Governance Explained (2014), http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-979_en.htm.Google Scholar

22 Lenaerts, supra note 14, at 757.Google Scholar

23 Cristina Fasone, European Economic Governance and Parliamentary Representation: What Place for the European Parliament?, 20 Eur. L.J. 164, 175–76 (2013).Google Scholar

24 Id. at 176Google Scholar

25 Id. at 176–81.Google Scholar

26 Id. at 181.Google Scholar

27 Id. at 184; Crum, supra note 4, at 622.Google Scholar

28 Mark Dawson & Floris de Witte, Constitutional Balance in the EU After the Euro-Crisis, 76 Mod. L. Rev. 817, 817–18 (2013).Google Scholar

29 Id. at 819–20.Google Scholar

30 Id. at 822.Google Scholar

31 Id. at 829.Google Scholar

32 Koen Lenaerts & Amaryllis Verhoeven, Institutional Balance as a Guarantee for Democracy in EU Governance, in Good Governance in Europe's Integrated Market 47 (Christian Joerges & Renaud Dehousse eds., 2002).Google Scholar

33 Dawson & de Witte, supra note 28, at 842–43.Google Scholar

34 See generally Chryssochoou, Dmitris N., The European Synarchy: New Discourses on Sovereignty, 1 Göttingen J. Int'l. L. 115 (2009).Google Scholar

35 Richard Bellamy, “An Ever Closer Union Between the Peoples of Europe”: Republican Intergovernmentalism and Democratic Representation Within the EU, 35 J. Eur. Integration 499, 500 (2013).Google Scholar

36 See generally Held, David, Models of Democracy (2008).Google Scholar

37 Phillip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government 22 (1997).Google Scholar

38 Phillip Pettit, Legitimate International Institutions: A Neo-Republican Perspective, in The Philosophy of International Law 140 (Samantha Besson & John Tasioulas eds., 2010).Google Scholar

39 These encompass issues such as whether non-domination requires or demands a highly participatory citizenry and the extent to which it can or should be secured through judicial review. See generally Samantha Besson & José Luis Martí, Law and Republicanism: Mapping The Issues, in Legal Republicanism: National and International Perspectives (Samantha Besson & José Luis Martí eds., 2010).Google Scholar

40 Id. at 21–22; Pettit, supra note 37, at 145–50.Google Scholar

41 Pettit, supra note 37, at 150.Google Scholar

42 Paul Craig, Democracy and Rule-Making Within the EC: An Empirical and Normative Assessment, 3 Eur. L. J. 105, 114–16 (1997).Google Scholar

43 Id. at 118.Google Scholar

44 Richard Bellamy & Dario Castiglione, Democracy, Sovereignty and the Constitution of the European Union: The Republican Alternative to Liberalism, in The European Union and Its Order: The Legal Theory of European Integration 187 (Andrew Scott & Zenon Bankowski eds., 2000).Google Scholar

45 Bellamy, supra note 35, at 507.Google Scholar

46 See also Fabbrini, Federico, States' Equality vs States' Power: the Euro-Crisis, Inter-State Relations and the Paradox of Domination, 17 Cambridge Y.B. Eur. L. Stud. 3 (2015).Google Scholar

47 Bellamy, supra note 35, at 505.Google Scholar

48 Id. at 513.Google Scholar

49 Id. at 507.Google Scholar

50 Id. at 507.Google Scholar

51 Id. at 508.Google Scholar

52 Id. at 509–10.Google Scholar

53 Id. at 835.Google Scholar

54 Consolidated Version of the Treaty on European Union of May 9, 2008, arts. 10, 17, 2008 O.J. (C. 115) 13.Google Scholar

55 Case 26/62, NV Algemene Transport-en Expeditie Onderneming van Gend & Loos v Netherlands Inland Revenue Administration, 1963 E.C.R. 1.Google Scholar

56 Id. at 12.Google Scholar

57 Damian Chalmers & Luis Barroso, What Van Gend en Loos Stands For, 12 Int'l J. Constit. L. 105, 108 (2014).Google Scholar

58 Id. at 121.Google Scholar

59 Id. at 120.Google Scholar

60 Case 179/80, Roquette Frères v. Council, 1982 E.C.R. 3623.Google Scholar

61 Id. at para. 33.Google Scholar

62 Case T-222/99, Martinez v European Parliament, 2001 E.C.R. II-2823.Google Scholar

63 Case C-486/01 P, Front National v. European Parliament, 2004 E.C.R. I-6289.Google Scholar

64 Id. at para. 146.Google Scholar

65 Bellamy, supra note 35, at 509.Google Scholar

66 See generally Besson & Martí, supra note 38.Google Scholar

67 For present links, see generally Richard Bellamy & Sandra Kröger, Domesticating the Democratic Deficit? The Role of National Parliaments and Parties in the EU's System of Governance, 67 Parliamentary Aff. 37 (2014); Adam Cygan, Accountability, Parliamentarism, and Transparency in the EU (2013).Google Scholar

68 Gerard Conway, Recovering a Separation of Powers in the European Union, 17 Eur. L. J. 304, 320–21 (2011).Google Scholar

69 Opinion of Advocate General Maduro at para. 31, Case C-133/06, Parliament v Council (Sept. 27, 2007), http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=63513&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=331243.Google Scholar

70 Case 149/85, Roger Wybot v Edgar Faure, 1986 E.C.R. 2391, para. 23.Google Scholar

71 Bart Driessen, Interinstitutional Conventions and Institutional Balance, 33 Eur. L. Rev. 550, 560 (2008).Google Scholar

72 Case C-409/13, Council v Commission (Apr. 14, 2015), http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=163659&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=Ist&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=331361 [hereinafter MFA].Google Scholar

73 Id. at para. 64.Google Scholar

74 Case C-77/11, Council v Parliament (Sept. 17, 2013), http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=141561&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=331613.Google Scholar

75 MFA, supra note 72, at paras. 75–76.Google Scholar

76 Merijn Chamon, The Institutional Balance, an Ill-Fated Principle of EU Law ?, 21 Eur. P. L. 371, 386 (2015).Google Scholar

77 Id. Google Scholar

78 Bruno de Witte, Institutional Principles: A Special Category of General Principles of EU Law, in General Principles of European Community Law 158 (Ulf Bernitz & Joakim Nergelius eds., 2000).Google Scholar

79 Takis Tridimas, The General Principles of EU Law 4 (3d ed. 2006).Google Scholar

80 MFA, supra note 72, at para. 64.Google Scholar

81 Tridimas, supra note 79, at 19.Google Scholar

82 Id. at 52.Google Scholar

83 Id. at 53.Google Scholar

84 Case C-70/88, Parliament v Council, 1990 E.C.R. I-2041.Google Scholar

85 Id. at para. 12.Google Scholar

86 Id. at para. 26.Google Scholar

87 De Witte, supra note 78, at 151–52.Google Scholar

88 Case 817/79, Roger Buyl v Commission, 1982 E.C.R. 245 [hereinafter Buyl]; Case C-65/90, Parliament v Council, 1992 E.C.R. I-4593 [hereinafter Cabotage I]; Case C-388/92, Parliament v Council, 1994 E.C.R. I-2067 [hereinafter Cabotage II]; Case C-392/95, Parliament v Council, 1997 E.C.R. I-3213 [hereinafter Visas].Google Scholar

89 See generally Eckes, Cristina, How the European Parliament's Participation in International Relations Affects the Deep Tissue of the EU's Power Structures, 12 Int'l J. Constit. L. 904 (2014).Google Scholar

90 These processes have typically been litigated upon. See generally Kieran St. Clair Bradley, Powers and Procedures in the EU Constitution: Legal Bases and the Court, in The Evolution of EU Law 85 (Paul Craig & Gráinne de Búrca eds., 2011).Google Scholar

91 Buyl, supra note 88.Google Scholar

92 Id. at para. 16.Google Scholar

93 Id. at paras. 23–24.Google Scholar

94 Cabotage I, supra note 88.Google Scholar

95 Id. at para. 16.Google Scholar

96 Cabotage II, supra note 88.Google Scholar

97 Opinion of Advocate General Darmon, at para. 17 in Cabotage II (Mar. 16, 1994), http://curia.europa.eu/juris/showPdf.jsf?text=&docid=98665&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=334142.Google Scholar

98 Id. at paras. 17–19.Google Scholar

99 Id. Google Scholar

101 Visas, supra note 88.Google Scholar

100 Id. at para. 59; Cabotage II, supra note 88, at para. 15.Google Scholar

102 Opinion of Advocate General Fennelly, at para. 23 in Visas (Mar. 20, 1997), http://curia.europa.eu/juris/showPdf.jsf?text=&docid=100707&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=334514.Google Scholar

103 Visas, supra note 88, at para. 22.Google Scholar

104 Dawson & de Witte, supra note 28, at 508.Google Scholar

105 Case C-246/07, Commission v Sweden, 2010 E.C.R. I-3317.Google Scholar

106 Id. at para. 69.Google Scholar

107 See generally Daniele Davison-Vecchione, Beyond The Forms of Faith: Pacta Sunt Servanda and Loyalty, 16 German L. J. 1163 (2015); Andres Delgado Casteleiro & Joris Larik, The Duty To Remain Silent: Limitless Loyalty in EU External Relations?, 36 Eur. L. Rev. 524 (2011).Google Scholar

108 Christophe Hillion, A Powerless Court? The European Court of Justice and the Common Foreign and Security Policy, in The European Court of Justice and External Relations Law: Constitutional Challenges 68 (Marise Cremona & Anne Thies eds., 2014).Google Scholar

109 Case C-65/93, Parliament v Council, 1995 ECR I-643 [hereinafter UNCTAD].Google Scholar

110 Id. at para. 23.Google Scholar

111 Visas, supra note 88, at para. 22.Google Scholar

112 MFA, supra note 72, at para. 83.Google Scholar

113 Case C-48/14, Parliament v Council, at para. 57–58 (Feb. 12, 2015), http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=162261&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=335377.Google Scholar

114 MFA, supra note 72, at paras. 101–05.Google Scholar

115 UNCTAD, supra note 109, at para. 14.Google Scholar

116 Id. at paras. 27–28.Google Scholar

117 Opinion of Advocate General Tesauro, at paras. 18–20 in UNCTAD (Dec. 13, 1994), http://curia.europa.eu/juris/showPdf.jsf?text=&docid=98895&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=336647.Google Scholar