THE INSTITUTIONAL REFORM ACCOMPLISHED BY THE TREATY
OF MAASTRICHT
Luca Petru legal expert Ph.D. candidate
Ioan Lazăr proffesor’s assistant Ph.D. candidate
University “1 Decembrie 1918” Alba Iulia
The creation of the European Communities, the enlargement of the
cooperation fields and the adhesion of more and more countries to it knew a long
way, over a half of a century, and it still continues today.
All along this way the treaties suffered a series of changes. The changes
were produced by the enlargement of the cooperation fields, by the adhesion of
new countries and also by the new social and economic realities.
This sort of changes were mentioned in the adhesion treaties of certain
states at the Community or at the Union, treaties having as an aim this sort of
changes (for example The Fusion Treaty) other treaties or community documents.
Statements concerning the activity or the working of the community
institutions have been brought also by the European Court of Justice, in the cases
the Court has been informed concerning the working of the treaties or concerning
the disputed issues generated by them.
There has been also a situation of being out of force of a Treaty,
respectively the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).
Among the Treaties which have brought important reforms in the field of
the treaties and also in other fields, economic, social, political, was the Maastricht
Treaty, considered as a turning point of the european adhesion. The Maastricht
Treaty creates the European Union, which consists of three pillars: the European
Communities, common foreign and security policy and police and judicial
cooperation in criminal matters. Through this Treaty were created a new series of
names, and we give here as an example “the European Union citizenship”, and
also have been brought important changes concerning the structure of the
European institutions and their attributions, have been created new politics, like
the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Cooperation in the field
of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA), which represent the second and the third pillar
of the Treaty.
The knowledge of the Treaty through all the changes brought to the
institutional environnement is important for a better understanding of the
1
European Union’s evolution. The recent adhesion of Romania to the European
Union justifies the knowledge of the general evolution of the European Union and
of the Maastricht Treaty in particular, knowing on one hand, the great chalange
Romania has to face, and on the other hand the lack of deep understanding of the
realities of the European Union by some romanian citizens.
Our goal is to analise the institutionl reform accomplished by the
Maastricht Treaty.
The first chapter presents a short history of the European Union’s
evolution, starting with the moment of the creation of the Communities until the
birth of the Maastricht Treaty and ending with the present reality.
We shall continue presenting the Treaty, anlising each of its chapters and
insisting on the changes brought to the previous Treaties, institutions and of course
the innovations they bring.
We shall also refear at certain aspects concerning the adhesion of
Romania at the European Union, ending with some conclusions resulted from this
analise.
1. The way toward an United Europe
a) Before the setting-up of the European Union
The first Community organization was created in the aftermath of the
Second World War when reconstructing the economy of the European continent
and ensuring a lasting peace appeared necessary. Thus the idea of pooling FrancoGerman coal and steel production came about and the European Coal and Steel
Community (ECSC) was formed. This choice was not only economic but also
political, as these two raw materials were the basis of the industry and power of the
two countries. The underlying political objective was to strengthen Franco-German
solidarity, banish the spectre of war and open the way to European integration. The
French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, proposed that Franco-German coal and
steel production be placed under a common High Authority within the framework
of an organization in which other European countries could participate. France,
Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands accepted the challenge
and began negotiating a treaty.
At last, the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community
was signed in Paris on 18 April 1951 and entered into force on 24 July 1952, with a
validity period limited to 50 years. The Treaty expired on 23 July 2002.
The purpose of the Treaty was to contribute, through the common market
for coal and steel, to economic expansion, growth of employment and a rising
standard of life. Thus, the institutions had to ensure an orderly supply to the
common market by ensuring equal access to the sources of production, the
establishment of the lowest prices and improved working conditions. All of this
had to be accompanied by growth in international trade and modernization of
2
production. Establishing the common market, the Treaty introduced the free
movement of products without customs duties or taxes. It prohibited discriminatory
measures or practices, subsidies, aids granted by States or special charges imposed
by States and restrictive practices.
For the achievement of its objectives, through the Treaty were created its
own leading and coordinating institutions: it established a High Authority, an
Assembly, a Council of Ministers and a Court of Justice, each of them having
special attributions.
The High Authority was placed at the highest level with the task of
achieving the objectives laid down by the Treaty and acting in the general interest
of the Community. It was made up of nine members appointed for six years. It was
a truly supranational body with power of decision. It supervised the modernization
and improvement of production, the supply of products under identical conditions,
the development of a common export policy and the improvement of working
conditions in the coal and steel industries. The High Authority took decisions,
made recommendations and delivered opinions. It was assisted by a Consultative
Committee made up of representatives of producers, workers, consumers and
dealers. Its decisions had obligatory power for the Member States, the
recommendations were obligatory only in the aspect of the results that had to be
obtained and the opinions were not obligatory, they were given related to some
minor Community problems.
The consultative Committee’s role was to conciliate in the decisional
process. It was made up of 30-51 members, designate by the Special Minister
Council, that represented the manufacturers, the traders, the workers and the
consumers from the production and commercialisation of the coal and steal fields
belonging to the Member States.
The Council consisted of six representatives of the national governments.
The Presidency of the Council was held by each Member State in turn for a period
of three months. The role of the Council was to harmonise the activities of the High
Authority and the general economic policy of the governments. Its approval was
required for important decisions taken by the High Authority.
The Common Assembly’s role was to supervise the activity of the High
Authority and to revoke its members that didn’t fulfil their attributions, being
composed by the representatives of the national parliaments of the Member States.
It didn’t have attributions that allowed it to emit normative acts.
The Court of Justice consisted of seven judges and two general lawyers
nominated for six years by common agreement between the governments of the
Member States. It ensured that the law was observed in the interpretation and
implementation of the Treaty. The Court of Justice had competence in judging the
disputed issues between the Member States, and those related to the
implementation of the Treaty, those between the community institutions and
juridical or physical persons.
3
In order to realise the goal registred in the Paris Treaty, that is the
enlargement in what concerns other fields, in 25 Mars 1957, the representatives of
the Member States signed at Rome another two treaties: The European Economic
Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), both
of them entered into force on 1 January 1958.
Through the two Treaties were created their own institutions, the two
Commissions, two Councils, two Assemblies and two Justice Courts, thus, the
three Communities, having juridical power and own institutions, they worked
separately.
Later, they realize that even if it was favorable for the development of the
European Communities, it was necessary to get together the institutions of the three
communities; on the contrary there was the risk of bad working, a break in front of
the progress.
The Comunities institutional unifiction process took place in two phases.
The first phase coincided with the moment of the signing the Roma
treaties, when was signed The relative Convention at some European Comunities,
as a result to this, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Court of Justice became
unique institutions for the three Comunities.
The second phase took place on 8 April 1965 when was signed at
Bruxelles the Treaty for the creation of an unique Council and Commission for the
three communities, also known as the Fusion Treaty. The Treaty entered into force
on 1 January 1967. This Treaty had establish that the Council be named the
European Union’s Council or informally the Council of Ministers.
In 1973 Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom join the European
Communities. The state and the govern leaders of the Member States founded in
1974 the European Council, institution with a political nature.
The European Communities enlarged in 1981 when Greece joined.
On 14 June 1985 was signed the Schengen Accord which referred to the
abolition of checks at common borders. Through this Accord they adopted
measures intending to establish the free movement for the persons of the signatory
States, also measures for common custom prices, the unique settlement for
merchandise transport and other economic measures. These measures were to be
taken on short and long term such as it results from the two titles of the Accord.
Portugal and Spain join the European Communities in 1986.
In February 1986 (on 17 February 1986 at Luxembourg and on 28
February 1986 at Hague) was signed the Single European Act (SEA). This Act
revises the treaties of Rome in order to add new momentum to European
integration and to complete the internal market. They decided to create the
Common Market until 22 December 1992. In what concerns the European
institutions, it was made official the name of European Parliament; the procedure
of cooperation of the Parliament in some fields was introduced; to facilitate the
establishment of the internal market, the act provides for increasing the number of
4
cases in which the Council can take decisions by qualified majority voting instead
of unanimity. The SEA creates the foundations for the Court of First Instance
(CFI). All cases may be transferred to this court with the exception of preliminary
rulings requested by the Member States or the institutions as well as references for
preliminary rulings. The Single European Act (SEA) entered into force on 1 July
1987.
b) After the creation of the European Union
An important step of the integration process begun on 7 February 1992,
when it was signed the Maastricht Treaty by the twelve members of the European
Communities; also known as the Treaty on European Union 1. The Treaty entered
into force on the 1 of November 1993 and brought other important changes of the
previous Treaties, thus, after the Single European Act, the Maastricht Treaty is
considered to be the second fundamental reviewing2.
In 1996 Austria, Finland and Sweden signed the Treaty of Accession to the
European Union.
On 2 October 1997 was signed the Treaty of Amsterdam, Treaty that
entered into force on 1 May 1999, bringing all along changes to the previous
treaties and extending the attributions of the European Parliament.
The Treaty of Nice was signed on 26 February 2001 and entered into force
on 1 February 2003
after being ratified by the fifteen Member States of the
European Union (EU) according to their respective constitutional rules; it also
brought changes for the Treaties with the desire of preparing the institutions for the
big process of enlargement that followed. The result of this Treaty was the creation
of the Public Function Court of the European Union that had competences in
solving the public functions issues.
The Enlargement process continued in 2004 when Cyprus, Czech
Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and
Hungary signed their Accession Treaties to the European Union.
In 2004 was elaborated an European Constitution project at Bruxelles,
project that hasn’t been ratified by France and Holland.
Bulgaria and Romania signed their Treaty of Accession to the European
Union on 1 January 2007. Today, the European Union has 27 Member States.
The Treaty of Lisbon, signed on 13 December 2007, changed the Treaty on
European Union and the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. The last
Treaty is expected to enter into force on 1 January 2009, being however
conditioned by the ratification of the Treaty by the Member States.
“The birth certificate” of the Communities are the treaties mentioned
above. These European Communities appeared after the international Treaties were
1
2
Octavian Manolache, Drept comunitar, IV Edition, All Beck, Bucharest, 2003, p. 9.
Gilles Ferreol, Dicţ
ionarul Uniunii Europene, Polirom Edition, Bucharest, 2001, p. 239.
5
signed, situation that gave birth to institutional mechanisms that never existed
before in the public international law3.
2. The Maastricht Treaty / the Treaty on European Union
a) The European Union versus the European Communities
The Treaty presents the European Union as a new stage in the process that
creates an even closer union among the people of Europe, an Europe where the
decisions are taken respecting the interests of its citizens. The Treaty of Maastricht
creates an European Union based on the European Communities and completed
through cooperation forms stipulated in the Treaty4.
In the first title of the Treaty, Common Regulations 5 it is mentioned the
creation of the European Union, its characteristics, its objectives and the
institutions that will help fulfil the objectives.
The European Union has the following characteristics:
- it is based on three pillars, the first pillar, the central one, alludes to the
Community dimension and comprises the arrangements set out in the European
Communities, ECSC and Euratom Treaties, to this pillar it is added two new
politics: the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the third one refers
to Police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
- the communities were not abolish by this Treaty, on the contrary they
represent the first pillar of the Union
- it’s a new phase of the European integration process, its fate being
conditioned by the integration on the first pillar of the other two pillars;
- the Union is the frame that assures the working of the three pillars, thus,
the tasks of the second and third pillars are accomplished through the first pillar.
- because it doesn’t have juridical power, the Union can’t conclude
international documents, only the Communities have such competences
- the accomplish of the objectives it is made through the specific
institutions of the Communities, having in view the fact that the Union does not
have its own institutions
- The Union recognizes and respects the national identity of the Member
States and the fundamental rights of its citizens
The objectives established by the Treaty are:
- promoting a durable economic progress in a space without internal
borders, through economic and social cohesion among the Member States and
establishing economic and monetary union
3
Ion P. Filipescu, Augustin Fuerea, Drept instituţ
ional comunitar european, V Edition, Actami,
Bucharest, 2000, p. 14.
4
Viorel Marcu, Drept instituţ
ional comunitar, IInd Edition, Lumina Lex, Bucharest, 2001, p. 42.
5
To se the entire Treaty see also Beatrice Andreş
an Grigoriu, Tudorel Ştefan,Tratatele Uniunii
Europene, Hamangiu Editions, Bucharest, 2007, p. 1.
6
- reinforcing the Community's international position by establishing a
common foreign and security policy
- the creation of the Union citizenship having the aim to protect more the
citizens of the Member States
- the improvement of the cooperation among the Member States in what
concerns the third pillar
- the continuous improvement of the Treaties of the Communities in order
to work better
These objectives are accomplished with the aide of the next institutions:
- the Council of the European Union
- the Council
- the European Commission
- the European Parliament
- the Court of Justice
- the Court of First Instance (CFI)
- the European Court of Auditors
The main changes brought to the European institutions are discussed in the
following pages.
b) The changes brought to the Treaty on the European Economic
Community are presented in the II Title of the Maastricht Treaty
We can find an important change in the first part of the Treaty, a change
that refers to the change of the name “European Economic Community” into
“European Community”; the objectives are redefined having in consideration the
changes brought to the communitarian competences where have been introduced a
certain number of institutional changes6 . This change was generated by the
continuous developing of this community, its competence is not only in the
economic field but also it was expanded to other fields.
This Treaty consecrated the name of the Council of the European Union
for the ex Council of the Communities and the name of the European Commission
for the European Communities Commission.
There have been also made changes in what concerns the objectives and
the actions of the Community for the next integration phase, the ways of achieving
this, the principles that guide the Community actions.
Another change regards the new organisms that have been created: The
Central European Bank7 and the European Investment Bank; their attributions and
status have been mentioned in the treaty.
The second part of the Treaty develops a whole new concept: “the
citizenship of the Union”. Citizenship of the Union is hereby established. Every
6
7
Augustin Fuerea, op. cit., p. 44.
Its aim is to administrate and issue the unique coin, EURO.
7
person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union.
Citizenship of the Union shall complement and not replace national citizenship.
The European citizen rights are:
- the right of free movement and residence throughout the Union8
- the right to vote and and the right to stand in local and European
elections in any Member State, other than the citizen's own, under the
same conditions as the nationals of that state
- the right to protection by the diplomatic or consular authorities
- the right to petition the European Parliament and the right to apply to
the European Ombudsman
There have been brought changes for the creation of an Economic and
Monetary Union (EMU) having the aim to realise the economic and monetary
union, both of them having different objectives, ways and deadlines. Once the
Monetary Union was created, the internal market began to work. This was also the
moment of the European unique coin.
The sector politics of the European Union suffered changes. Thus, the VIII
Title has been changed from “Social Politic” into “Social politic, education,
professional formation and youth”, there were also predicted the lines of action in
these fields. There have been also brought changes referring to the social and
economic cohesion, research and technologic development, environment.
It was also predicted the politic of helping some countries that are now in
progress with the aim of respecting the human rights.
Regarding the European Union Institutions were introduced important
changes:
- the European Parliament increases its competences, being invested
with decisional powers and with the solving of the petitions
- it was organised the Ombudsman Institution, it is named by the
European Parliament and has as attribution to solve citizen issues, that
obligatory have to refer to the activity of the European institutions or
organisms
- they specify the right of representation for the Council members
- there have been changes in the nomination and investment for the
Commission members
- the competences of the Court of Justice have been enlarged
- there have been brought changes to the organisation and function of
the Economic and Social Committee
- the Region Committee was created, with a consultative role
- the Court of Auditors became European institution
8
In Romanian legislation, the right of free movement of Romanian citizens was reglemented by the
Law No. 248 from 20 July 205, published in the O.M. No. 682 from 29 July 2005.
8
The procedures of concluding international acts with states or international
organisations were changed.
Within the European Commission the institutions can adopt acts that are
directly applicable in the Member States that have a priority in front of the internal
right9.
c) The changes brought to the European Community of Steal and Coal
The changes are predicted in the third Title of the Maastricht Treaty and
refer to the Community Institutions:
- a High Authority, named “the Commission”, it is uphold by a
consultative committee
- a Common Assembly, named “the European Parliament”
- a special minister council, named “the Council”
- a Court of Justice
- a Curt of Auditors
In the same Title there are mentioned the attributions of these institutions.
d) The changes brought to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic
Energy Community
The changes are mentioned in the IV Title of the Maastricht Treaty and
they make reference to the community institutions and their attributions, that are
similar to those predicted in the Treaty establishing ECSC.The two treaties have
been modified only to create an accord with the changes brought to the E.C.
Treaty10.
e) Regulations concerning common foreign and security policy
Such regulations are predicted in the V Title of Maastricht Treaty and they
are a separate chapter, separate from the three previous treaties 11.
It has been created a common foreign and security policy of the Member
States, which is the II pillar of the Treaty. Inside CFSP they coordinate the actions
of the Member States in the field of common foreign and security policy12, the
Treaty also establishes the ways of achieving it and the objectives
The objectives are the next:
- defending the common values, the interests and the European Union in
dependence
9
Augustin Fuerea, op. cit., p. 272.
Augustin Fuerea, Instituţ
iile Uniunii Europene, Universul Juridic Editions, Bucharest, 2002, p. 23.
11
Augustin Fuerea, Manualul Uniunii Europene, IIIrd Edition, Universul Juridic, Bucharest, 2006, p.
45.
12
Gilbert Gornig, Ioana Eleonora Rusu, Dreptul Uniunii Europene, C. H. Beck Editions, Bucharest,
2006, p. 22.
10
9
-
-
guaranteeing the security of the Union and of the Member States
maintaining the peace and the reinforcement of the international
security, according to the United Nation Charter13, The Helsinki Final
Act14 and the Paris Charter15
the development of the state
respecting the human rights and fundamental liberties
There are also mentioned the modalities of fulfilling the goals,
respectively:
- the cooperation between the Member States in the political issues, by
informing each other, by agreeing on common foreign policy inside the
Council, by coordinating the actions and having common views inside
the organisations and international conferences;
- applying, step by step, the common actions in the fields where the
Member States have important interests
The Treaty also mentions that the Member States commit themselves to
support actively without reserves this politic, to act in the loyalty and solidarity
spirit and to avoid the actions that are against the Union’s interests.
There are also predicted the attributions of the European institutions in
achieving this politic.
The Presidency represents the Union to the international organisations and
conferences, and it has as responsibility to apply the common actions. To clarify
certain aspects, the Presidency can consult with the European Parliament.
The European Parliament can interrelate and address recommendations to
the Council in matters of this politic.
The European Council’s attributions are to define the principles and
general orientations of this pillar.
The Council takes decisions in order to implement the principles and the
general orientations stated by the European Council.
The Commission’s attributions are to inform the Council concerning
different issues and also to inform the Parliament about the evolution of these
issues.
The Treaty also anticipates the obligations of the Member States and of
their representatives in other states to accomplish this pillar.
As a first obligation, the Member States present in the international
organisations or conferences have to inform the Member States that haven’t been
represented about the common issues.
13
Entered into force on 24 October 1945.
Signed on 1 August 1975.
15
Signed on 21.11.1990, published in the O.M. No. 181 from 09.09.1991.
14
10
Another obligation refers to the Member States that are part of the Security
Council; they have to sustain there the Union’s interests and to agree with the other
states on the common views that have to be adopted.
The representatives of the Member States and the Commission delegations
in different states, at international conferences, cooperate; make change of
information to arrive to a common point of view.
f) Regulations concerning the cooperation in the fields of justice and home
affairs
The VI Title contains dispositions concerning the cooperation in justice
and home affairs and has as aim the systematisation of the cooperation in an
informational way or on convention grounds concluded by all the Member States
or just by some of them, being stipulated the next fields of interest16:
- the asylum policy
- the rules governing the crossing by persons of the external borders of the
Member States
- the immigration policy and the policy that refers to the conditions of
entry and movement by nationals of third countries on the territory of Member
States
- combating drug addiction
- combating fraud on an international scale
- judicial cooperation in civil matters
- judicial cooperation in criminal matters
- customs cooperation
- police cooperation for the purposes of preventing and combating
terrorism, unlawful drug trafficking and other serious forms of international crime,
the organization of a Union-wide system for exchanging information within a
European Police Office (Europol).
These matters shall be dealt with in compliance with the European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 4
November 1950 and the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July
1951.
The third pillar will be realized by the next means:
- the coordination of the Community’s actions by a special Committee,
compound by high officials that will produce the necessary acts to the
Council in the decisional process.
- Informing between the Member States inside the Council to coordinate
their actions with the Community institutions.
The Community Institutions have attributions in realizing this pillar.
16
Augustin Fuerea, Instituţ
iile Uniunii Europene, Universul Juridic Editions, Bucharest, 2002, p. 23.
11
The Presidency informs and consults the European Parliament regarding
the activities it develops.
The Council, at the Commission initiative or the Member States adopts in
the common matters decisions and common actions and elaborates conventions for
the collaboration and then it recommends them to the Member States to be adopted.
The European Parliament can ask questions and formulate
recommendations to the Council, in each year there is a debate that analyses the
progresses made in this pillar.
The Commission informs regularly the European Parliament in what
concerns the undertaken activities.
The Court of Justice interprets the conventions between the Member States
and judges the issues.
g) Final provisions
The last Title of the treaty, the VII Title, refers to the Court of Justice’s
competence, the Treaty’s applicability and modification procedure, the procedure
of joining other States to the Union, the abrogation of the provisions of the Treaty
of fusion of the executives in 1965 and the Treaty’s viability.
According to these provisions, the Court of Justice has a competence in
interpreting the provisions of the Treaty and judging the issues appeared once with
the Treaty. Thus, in what concerns the applicability of the international treaties
concluded by the Member States before they join o the European Union, the Court
decided that the community organs would have to gave the possibility to a Member
State to respect its obligations that follow from a previous treaty they concluded17.
In what concerns the Treaty’s applicability, it is mentioned that, except the
changes brought to the three treaties, there is not other disposition that brings
changes to them, thus, the unmodified provisions of the treaties and of other acts,
are still in actuality.
As a changing procedure, every Member State or the Commission can
show to the Council projects for changing of the treaties. In this situation, the
Council, after consulting the European Parliament and of the Commission, emits an
act for the reunion of a conference of the representatives of the governments of the
Member States. After the ratification of the changes by all the Member States, they
will enter into force. The procedure of ratification of the changes by the Member
States is the one established by the national constitutions.
Regarding the adhesion of a new member to the Union, the new state has
to submit to the Council an adhesion request. The Council verifies if the solicitor
meets the criterion for the adhesion and consents the admission, this has to be in
17
The decision ECJ from 15.14.1980, the case No. 812/1979, Proces penal intentat împotriva lui
Juan Burgoa, Culegerea jurisprudenţ
ei Curţ
ii de Justiţ
ie Europene 1980, p. 2787, quoted by Fabian
Gyula, Curtea de Justiţ
ie Europeană Instanţ
ă de Judecată Supranaţ
ională, Rosetti Editions,
Bucharest, 2002, p.208
12
unanimity. Next, between the Member States and the new solicitor concludes an
accord containing the conditions that it has to meet that state in order to complete
the adhesion and the changes that will be done to the basic treaties.
The viability of the treaty is unlimited.
3. Romania, state of the European Union
On 1 January 2007, Romania together with Bulgaria joined the European
Union, thus being a part of the “great European” family, that counts today 27
Member States.
To touch this objective, Romania had to meet all the conditions; economic,
legislative, the progress of all sectors until they arrived at the requested European
standard.
Once with the adhesion to the European Union, Romania benefits by all
the rights given by the member condition, having representatives inside the
European institutions18, participating to all the activities undertaken at the
European level and also to the creation of normative acts regarding the Union.
The Romanian citizens, now considered European, gain equal rights, in
what concerns the free movement and stay, electing and being elected, petition,
diplomatic and consular assistance, work, European justice.
Once a member of the European Union, Romania has rights and also
obligations.
Romania has to accomplish all obligations that result from the adhesion
Treaty, and put the accent on the eradication of corruption, reforms in all the fields,
having the justice, the economy and the health as a priority. Romania will have to
take part to all the Union’s activities, to sustain the Union’s actions, and in the
same time not to neglect the national interest. Another obligation for Romania is to
use the European funds in the directions they were given by the Union. Through all
the steps Romania takes, it has to apply the Union’s reality and to present the
positive aspects our county has for their implementations within the other Member
States.
As a Member State, Romania became the northern border of the Union,
this involves a huge responsibility. For the guarantee of the free movement of the
Union’s persons and goods, on one hand, and for their selection inside the
European Union, on the other hand, all the measures have to be continued; among
the measures: the borders security, visa introduction for some states, the asylum’s
problem, the collaboration with the Union in juridical matters, international
terrorism, prostitution, illicit traffic of narcotics, minor traffic.
In the same time, Romania has to sustain other countries in the adhesion
process, with the condition that those countries fulfil the adhesion requests.
18
The Romanian representatives to the European Parliament took place on 25 November 2007.
13
For a rapid integration and for the realisation of all the objectives Romania
has to take some measures that sometimes could be considered unpopular by its
citizens.
The fulfilment of all obligations is very close followed and in case of not
fulfilling them, Romania is sanctioned by the European Union.
Besides the mentioned rights, the Romanian citizens have obligations that
come from the rights. In the first place, we have to know the European Union in all
its aspects: institutions, competences and tasks, European legislation and its
applicability.
Another obligation is to respect the Union’s legislation and the internal
legislation of a Member State, in the case when a citizen is in that Member State.
Romania has to accomplish all obligations that result from the quality of
Member State, and European citizen.
4. Conclusions
This work tries to present the European Union’s evolution and its most
important moments, accentuating the changes and the innovations brought by the
Maastricht Treaty.
The idea of creating the Communities proved its justice, and when we say
this we have in view the great number of Member States and the progress obtained
by those states in all the fields, compared with the other countries that are not part
of the Union.
From the creation of the Communities until today there have been lots of
changes, resulted from the new adhesions on the Union, from the extension of the
fields and from the permanent search of new solutions for the attributions of the
community institutions.
The European Union’s evolution wasn’t accomplished in a perfect unity of
thought and action, there existed controversies that have been solved in the end.
All the treaties suffered improvements, even the Maastricht Treaty; the
proof stays in its last change.
We consider as an imperfection of the treaties the lack of mention of the
juridical personality of the Communities and later of the Union itself, thing that
brought important difficulties in the institution’s activities, so it was necessary to
create some acts to regulate this. The doctrine tried to clarify the issues generated
by the existence or the inexistence of the juridical personality, but it didn’t arrive at
an unanimity point of view.
There are some difficulties concerning the applicability of the
Community’s right, the right precision of the domain, of the Community right
priority before the national right, and the applicability limits. In what concerns the
Romanian legislation, the art. 145 from the Romanian Constitution, states that, as a
result of the Romanian adhesion, the European Union’s treaties and other European
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settlements that are obligatory, have priority compared to the national legislation.
Also in this article it is mentioned that these stipulations are applicable for the
adhesion to the acts of revision of the treaties.
There exists the idea that once the community right is applied, some citizen
rights could be restricted. We exemplify by the European warrant for the arrests,
which states that the Member State’s citizen that has such a warrant is obliged to
arrest the citizen and to hand him to the Member State that gave the warrant.
Apparently, this action violates the human rights stipulated in the European Human
Rights Chart, namely the extradition. The reality is different. The institution of the
European warrant was created for a better application of the European justice; this
being applicable only within the Member States, the warrant changes in these states
the extradition institution. It is stipulated that the execution of the warrant is made
under the national law. Between the Members States it is still applicable the
extradition. Analysing carefully these aspects we see that we can’t talk about the
flagrant violation of the human rights. In Romanian legislation, this aspect was
regulate by the Law No. 302 dating since 28 June 2004, concerning international
judicial cooperation and published in O.M. No. 594 from 1 July 2004, there are
also stipulated the Romanian institutional attributions and the action manner.
As it was stipulated, the petition right is guarantee, but in the same time it
is restraint in some aspects. Thus, in the Ombudsman’s case, we can address him
petitions having as object the activity of an institution or organism of the Union,
the petitions addressed to the European Parliament have to be formulated in a
language agreed by the institution. We appreciate that the possibilities could be
enlarged, in the Ombudsman’s case through the strengthening of its role and in the
case of the other petitions through the expanding of their object.
The work deals with only few aspects that are not cleared totally.
We can say that the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe clarified
totally the misunderstandings of the previous treaties. This conclusion comes from
the Treaty’s mention referring to the fact that, when the Treaty enters into force, all
the previous treaties will loose their viability. The rejection of this Treaty by
France and Holland, countries with a tradition in the European Union, shows that
we have to insist more in this direction, this fact makes uncertain not only the entry
into force but also the final form of it.
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