The European Union’s primary law

SUMMARY OF:

EU primary law

WHAT IS PRIMARY LAW?

• It is the supreme source of law in the European Union (EU). It comes mainly from the founding treaties, notably the Treaty of Rome (which evolved into the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union) and the Treaty of Maastricht (also called the Treaty on European Union).
• Primary law sets out the distribution of competences between the EU and the EU Member States. It provides the legal context within which EU institutions formulate and implement policies.

KEY POINTS

Primary law, also known as primary sources, is derived from the EU’s:

• 1.

  founding treaties;

• 2.

  amending treaties;

• 3.

  accession treaties;

• 4.

  protocols annexed to those treaties;

• 5.

  supplementary agreements amending specific sections of the founding treaties;

• 6.

  the Charter of Fundamental Rights (since the Treaty of Lisbon).

• The founding treaties are:
  • the Treaty of Paris establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (1951);
  • the Treaty of Rome establishing the European Economic Community (1957);
  • the Euratom Treaty (1957);
  • the Treaty of Maastricht (1992).
• The amending treaties are:
  • the Single European Act (1986);
  • the Amsterdam Treaty (1997);
  • the Treaty of Nice (2001);
  • the Treaty of Lisbon (2007).
• The accession treaties concern the following Member States:
  • Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom (1) (1972);
  • Greece (1979);
  • Spain, Portugal (1985);
  • Austria, Finland, Sweden (1994);
  • Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia (2003);
  • Romania, Bulgaria (2005);
  • Croatia (2012).
• The supplementary agreements are:
  • the Treaty of Brussels (Merger Treaty) (1965);
  • the Treaty amending certain budgetary provisions of the Community treaties (1970);
  • the Treaty amending certain financial provisions of the Treaties establishing the European Economic Communities and of the Treaty establishing a single Council and a single Commission of the European Communities (1975);
  • the Act on election of members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage (1976).

Scope of primary law

• Geographical:
  • Member States;
  • outermost regions of the EU.
• Temporal: from the time a treaty enters into force.

BACKGROUND

In addition to primary law, EU law is based on secondary and supplementary sources.

• Secondary sources include five types of legal acts: regulations, directives, decisions, opinions and recommendations.
• Supplementary sources include case-law of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) and general legal principles.

International agreements with non-EU countries or with international organisations are also an integral part of EU law. These agreements are separate from primary law and secondary legislation and form a sui generis category (that is, a unique category of their own). According to the CJEU judgment in the Demirel v Stadt Schwäbisch Gmünd case, international agreements can have direct effect and their legal force is superior to secondary legislation, which must therefore comply with them. An international agreement is directly applicable if it contains a clear and precise obligation that is not subject to the adoption of any subsequent measure.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union – Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union – Consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union – Protocols – Annexes to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union – Declarations annexed to the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference which adopted the Treaty of Lisbon, signed on 13 December 2007 – Tables of equivalences (OJ C 202, 7.6.2016, pp. 1–388).

last update 12.10.2022

(1) The United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union and became a third country (non-EU country) as of 1 February 2020.