Goodbye!

This blog has now been disconnected.

Prezi!!

Here are the lecture presentations.  A link to Prezi home page is here

You must then search for the following:

Worker Introduction 1, Family Rights 2, Social Rights 3, Social Rights 4 and Limitations 5

(the numbers are important!)

Answer/Problem

Social Rights – Problem Question (p27) Outline Answer:

Part A.

• Briefly – Worker / Worker Rights – Who is a Worker? Art. 45(3) TFEU rights = (a) (b) (c) (d)

• Concept of a Worker -should know no real definition in Art 45 or Dir 2004/38.

• Lawrie-Blum concept of ‘worker’ has led to a wide interpretation of the term Levin

• To keep status = ‘having left his job is capable of taking another’: Hoekstra or Steymann, • Equal Treatment When You Lose You Job (i.e. to keep social benefits of a worker) Unintentionally – relation to Dir 2004/38 Art 7(3) he retains this status in some circumstances a-d (i.e. involuntary unemployed) vs Voluntarily – do you keep status Ninni-Orashe, Baumbast case. Art 3(1) 883/2004 Art 4(1)

• How long do you have to work to claim benefits – Monique Chateignier, Collins, Antonissen?

• Non-discrimination aspect of TFEU e Directive 2004/38

• Charter of Fundamental Rights of EU Article 34 (Social Rights) and 35 (Heath Care) – now enacted by Lisbon

Part B.

• Right of residence / Job seeker rights. Right to remain Art 45 (3) (a) Art 6 & 7 Dir 2004/38 3mth/6mth rule job seeker. Also must connect Dir 2004/38 with MS obliged or not = social rights (3mths!). Royer e Collins cases – Commission v Belgium

• Should notice – Dir 2004/38 provides for a right of residence after 5 years. • Right of residence. Right to remain further than 6 mths discussed in – Antonissen. General discussions maybe on not burdening the MS Art 14 (1)

• Job Seekers under Reg 883/2004 states and with regard to rights to social assistance (unemployment or sickness) Dir 2004/38 Art 24 and Art 14 (4) (b). Also must connect Dir 2004/38 with MS obliged or not (3mths) = social rights

• Derivative rights – 1612/68 (families not living under same roof) – Diatta e Reed + new rules under Dir 2004/38 – what about under 21 or is she a dependent (daughter?)

• Rights for Workers’ Families Reg 883/2004 has now interpreted widely by the ECJ = social rights of worker conferred to family members Commission v Belgium Art 2, 7, 24 and 10 Dir 2004/38

• Could she claim ‘sickness benefit’ under 883/2004? For looking after father? Hervein case • Charter of Fundamental Rights of EU Article 35 (Heath Care) – now enacted by Lisbon • Could mention health care 883/2004 – Commission v Luxembourg and Heinze.

Social Rights!

Some extra reading – a link to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of The European Union which is now part of  the Lisbon Treaty is HERE.

Family Rights + ECHR

Just a short post this week. An interesting article on family rights and the ECHR which shows the importance the court is now putting on Article 8 (respect for private and family life) is HERE it’s by Helen Stalford.

Social Rights + The Worker

Happy New Year!! Welcome to semester 2 of European Law.  For the first part of the semester (6 weeks) the focus will be on Social Rights and the Worker which is a clearly defined topic on its own.  At the end of the 6 weeks there will be a piece of coursework to be completed (details to follow) and will take the form of an in-class test.  Hope you enjoy it.  Below is an introduction to the topic with (as always) some useful links.

Social rights and the rights of the worker have been adopted by the EU in many forms over the past couple of decades.  The Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers (find it HERE), adopted on 9 December 1989 by a declaration of all Member States, with the exception of the United Kingdom, established the major principles on which the European labour law model is based and shaped the development of the European social model in the following decade. The fundamental social rights declared in the Community Charter are further developed in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (find it HERE) that have become legally binding with the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon (find it HERE).

Under the Charter EU members States are obliged to provide for the fundamental social rights of workers under the following headings:

• Freedom of movement (Articles 1 to 3)
• Employment and remuneration (Articles 4 to 6)
• Improvement of living and working conditions (Articles 7 to 9)
• Social protection (Article 10)
• Freedom of association and collective bargaining (Articles 11 to 14)
• Vocational training (Article 15)
• Equal treatment for men and women (Article 16)
• Information, consultation and participation for workers (Articles 17 to 18)
• Health protection and safety at the workplace (Article 19)
• Protection of children and adolescents (Articles 20 to 23)
• Elderly persons (Articles 24 to 25)
• Disabled persons (Article 26)
• Member States’ action (implementation) (Articles 27 to 30)

Edit This

General Principles!

A short post this week.  This week we are covering general principles in tutorials i.e. the main fundamental issues which are the basis of EU law.  The Lisbon Treaty (yes that again!) has influenced these principles and will have an impact on the future for europe and its citizens. Have a look HERE.

Welcome To Federalism

We have now moved on to federalism which will be discussed in next weeks tutorial.  This post will merely be a sign post to discussions on the subject (the rest is up to you).  There is a website dedicated to such a discussion called Federal Union and you can find it HERE.  This is an interesting article by R. Daniel Keleman (from Oxford University but on Princeton’s pages) HERE.  There is an article from the Telegrapah in 2003 where Gordon Brown (then the Chancellor) criticising EU federalism and was being rather eurosceptic HERE.  Something more political is website called the New Federalist which also discusses other EU issues is HERE. . What does the official EUROPA site say on the subject and how is the EU system made up – see HERE.  The judgement HERE of the German Constitutional Court on the Lisbon Treaty and Europe not becoming a federal state is interesting.  O.k. the last one is an interesting article by Dr Thomas Schmitz from 2005 which discusses the conception of the European Union and what kind of system it might be – its HERE.  Oh one more thing you maybe be wondering what the above picture is (or not)? Well it is a flag – the original EU flag in fact (it’s a big ‘E’) but is now used by activists promoting federalism in the EU.

 

The Effect Is Direct

A concise explanation of ‘Direct Effect’ from the Eurofound website can be found HERE.  They also mention (and link to) two cases of interest but outside the main cases normally associated with direct effect – The Viking Case and the Laval Case.  Keep well.

How Does The EU Work?

Here goes!

• The Council of the European Union, which represents the member states, is the EU’s main decision-taking body. When it meets at Heads of State or Government level, it becomes the European Council whose role is to provide the EU with political impetus on key issues.
• The European Parliament, which represents the people, shares legislative and budgetary power with the Council of the European Union.
• The European Commission, which represents the common interest of the EU, is the main executive body. It has the right to propose legislation and ensures that EU policies are properly implemented.

I. The decision-making triangle

The European Union is more than just a confederation of countries, but it is not a federal state. It is, in fact, a new type of structure that does not fall into any traditional legal category. Its political system is historically unique and has been constantly evolving over more than 50 years.
The European Parliament: his vote is your voice.

The Treaties (known as ‘primary’ legislation), are the basis for a large body of ‘secondary’ legislation which has a direct impact on the daily lives of EU citizens. The secondary legislation consists mainly of regulations, directives and recommendations adopted by the EU institutions.

These laws, along with EU policies in general, are the result of decisions taken by the institutional triangle made up of the Council (representing national governments), the European Parliament (representing the people) and the European Commission (a body independent of EU governments that upholds the collective European interest).

(a) The Council of the European Union and the European Council

The Council of the European Union (also known as the Council of Ministers) is the EU’s main decision-making body. The EU member states take it in turns to hold the Council Presidency for a six-month period. Every Council meeting is attended by one minister from each EU country. Which ministers attend a meeting depends on which topic is on the agenda: foreign affairs, agriculture, industry, transport, the environment, etc.

The Council has legislative power, which it shares with the European Parliament under the ‘co-decesion’. In addition to this, the Council and the Parliament share equal responsibility for adopting the EU budget. The Council also concludes international agreements that have been negotiated by the Commission.

According to the Treaties, the Council has to take its decisions either by a simple majority vote, a ‘qualified majority’ vote or unanimously, depending on the subject to be decided.

The Council has to agree unanimously on important questions such as amending the Treaties, launching a new common policy or allowing a new country to join the Union.

In most other cases, qualified majority voting is used. This means that a Council decision is adopted if a specified minimum number of votes are cast in its favour. The number of votes allocated to each EU country roughly reflects the size of its population.

Number of votes for each country in the Council
Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom	29
Spain and Poland	27
Romania	14
Netherlands	13
Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary and Portugal	12
Austria, Bulgaria and Sweden	10
Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Finland	7
Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg and Slovenia	4
Malta	3
Total:	345
A minimum of 255 votes out of 345 (73.9 %) is required to reach a qualified majority. In addition:  a majority of member states (in some cases two thirds) must approve the decision, and any member state may ask for confirmation that the votes cast in favour represent at least 62 % of the EU’s total population

The European Council meets, in principle, four times a year. It is chaired by the president or prime minister of the country holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union at the time. The President of the European Commission attends as a full member.

Under the Treaty of Maastricht, the European Council officially became an initiator of the Union’s major policies and was empowered to settle difficult issues on which ministers meeting in the Council of the European Union fail to agree.

The European Council also deals with pressing international issues through the common foreign and security policy (CFSP), which is intended to allow the EU to speak with one voice on diplomatic questions.

(b) The European Parliament

The European Parliament is the elected body that represents the EU’s citizens. It exercises political supervision over the EU’s activities and takes part in the legislative process. Since 1979, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have been directly elected, by universal suffrage, every five years.

Number of seats in the European Parliament per country 2007–09
Austria	18
Belgium	24
Bulgaria	18
Cyprus	6
Czech Republic	24
Denmark	14
Estonia	6
Finland	14
France	78
Germany	99
Greece	24
Hungary	24
Ireland	13
Italy	78
Latvia	9
Lithuania	13
Luxembourg	6
Malta	5
Netherlands	27
Poland	54
Portugal	24
Romania	35
Slovakia	14
Slovenia	7
Spain	54
Sweden	19
United Kingdom	78
Total	785