The European Union and International Responsibility

This monograph has analysed the respective international responsibility of the EU and its Member States in the event of a breach of an international obligation that occurs in the course of the implementation of EU law. It has done so from a practical perspective by examining how international bodies attribute an internationally wrongful act to the EU. More precisely, it has shown how different international bodies understand the relationship between the EU and its Member States in relation to their responsibility for a breach of an international agreement which is the direct result of the implementation of EU law.

Chapter 1 began by examining how the EU is bound by the international agreements it has concluded. However, rather than focusing on how international agreements are implemented in the EU, this chapter examined how EU law was implemented. This shift of focus provides greater clarity as to the circumstances under which the EU could breach an international agreement, and consequently sheds some light on the issue of attribution. The chapter showed the legal and institutional mechanisms that inform the implementation of EU law in its Member States. The decentralized implementation of EU law is controlled by the EU through a set of principles (primacy, competence, duty of cooperation) and through institutional procedures (i.e. infringement procedures, judicial control by the CJEU) that highlight member States’ lack of autonomy in their compliance with EU law. The chapter concluded with the proposition that rather than focusing on whether the EU has a competence covering the breached agreement to attribute responsibility, it would be wiser to examine the legal grounds under which the acts breaching an international obligation were adopted. If the acts were adopted to comply with an EU norm i.e. adopted the EU's normative control, there is a case to be made in favour of considering the wrongful act as committed by the EU.

Chapter 2 and 3 examined the extent to which the recent ILC's codification process took the EU's executive federalism into account. In particular, the chapter examined how ARIO could apply to the different situations in which the EU and/or its Member States could incur international responsibility when complying with EU law.