European Union

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of the European Union Image File history File links European_flag. ... The European Union or EU is a supranational and intergovernmental union of 25 European states. ...

Three pillars Pillar I: European Community Pillar II: Common Foreign and Sec. Policy Pillar III: Police and Judicial Cooperation Political Institutions Commission President (José Barroso) Barroso Commission Council of Ministers & European Council Presidency (Finland) Parliament President (Josep Borrell) MEPs Constituencies Elections 2009 2004 / by country Party groups Committees Judiciary Court of Justice All the members Court of First Instance Civil Service Tribunal Patent Tribunal Advisory bodies Economic and Social Committee Committee of the Regions Financial bodies European Central Bank European Investment Bank European Investment Fund Decentralised bodies Agencies of the EU Law Acquis communautaire Procedure Treaties Regulations - Directives - Decisions Recommendations - Opinions EU-related topics Economic and Monetary Union Enlargement Foreign relations Pan-European political parties Table of affiliated parties by country Party affiliations on the Council

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The French term acquis (or sometimes acquis communautaire) is used in European Union law to refer to the total body of EU law accumulated so far. The term is also used to describe laws adopted under the Schengen treaty, prior to its integration into the European Union legal order by the Treaty of Amsterdam, in which case one speaks of the Schengen acquis. The Treaty of Maastricht which established the European Union, divided EU policies into three main areas, called pillars. ... The European Community (EC), most important of three European Communities, was originally founded on March 25, 1957 by the signing of the Treaty of Rome under the name of European Economic Community. ... The Common Foreign and Security Policy or CFSP, german Gemeinsame Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik (GASP), was established as the second of the three pillars of the European Union in the Maastricht treaty of 1992, and further defined and broadened in the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997. ... Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters is the third of the three pillars of the European Union, focusing on co-operation in law enforcement and combating racism. ... The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive body of the European Union. ... François-Xavier Ortoli, Romano Prodi, José Manuel Barroso and Jacques Delors The President of the European Commission is notionally the highest ranking unelected official within the European Union bureaucracy. ... This article needs to be updated. ... The Barroso Commission is the European Commission that has been in office since 22 November 2004 and is due to serve until 31 October 2009. ... The Council of the European Union forms, along with the European Parliament, the legislative arm of the European Union (EU). ... The European Council, informally called the European summit, is a meeting of the heads of state or government of the European Union, and the President of the European Commission. ... Presidency of the Council of the European Union refers to the responsibility of presiding over all aspects of the Council of the European Union, when exercised collectively by a government, on a pre-established rota of the member states, of the European Union. ... The European Parliament building in Strasbourg The inside of the building The European Parliament (formerly European Parliamentary Assembly) is the parliamentary body of the European Union (EU), directly elected by EU citizens once every five years. ... The President of the European Parliament oversees all the activities of the European Parliament and its constituent bodies. ... Josep Borrell Josep Borrell Fontelles (born April 24, 1947) is a Spanish politician. ... A Member of the European Parliament (English abbreviation MEP)[1] is a member of the European Unions directly-elected legislative body, the European Parliament. ... In five European Union Member States (Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy and the United Kingdom), the national territory is divided into a number of constituencies for European elections. ... Elections in the European Union gives information on election and election results in the European Union. ... Elections to the European Parliament will be held in June 2006 in the then–27 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom. ... Elections to the European Parliament were held from June 10, 2004 to June 13, 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom. ... Party groups in the European Parliament combine the MEPs from European political parties, informal European political blocs, and independents. ... The Standing Committees of the European Parliament are designed to aid the European Commission in initiating legislation. ... The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is formally known as the Court of Justice of the European Communities, i. ... As of August 17, 2006: Categories: | | | ... The Court of First Instance, created in 1989, is a court of the European Union. ... European Union Civil Service Tribunal, since December 2, 2005 a new specialised tribunal within the European Union institutional framework. ... The European Unions Economic and Social Committee is the consultative assembly of European social and economic partners. This phrase refers mainly to representatives of business, employers and trade unions. ... The Committee of the Regions (CoR) is an institution of the European Union created by the Treaty of Maastricht. ... The ECB building in Frankfurt The European Central Bank (ECB) (French: Banque Centrale Européenne, German: Europäische Zentralbank, Greek: Ευρωπαϊκή Κεντρική Τράπεζα) is one of the worlds largest central banks, being in charge of monetary policy for the European Unions official currency, the euro, which is used by over 300... The European Investment Bank (the Banque Européenne dInvestissement) is the European Unions financing institution and was established under the Treaty of Rome (1957) to provide loan finance for capital investment furthering European Union policy objectives, in particular regional development, Trans-European Networks of transport, telecommunications and energy... The European Investment Fund, established in 1994, is a European Union agency for the provision of finance to SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). ... The agencies of the European Union (or decentralised bodies of the European Union) are bodies which are distinct from the European Unions institutions, in that they have not been created by the treaties but rather by acts of secondary legislation, in order to accomplish a very specific task. ... The European Union is unique among international organisations in having a complex and highly developed system of internal law which has direct effect within the legal systems of its member states. ... The European Union legislative procedure describes the way the European Union creates and enacts legislation across the community. ... The treaties of the European Union are effectively its constitutional law, making up the EUs primary legislation. ... A European Union Directive is the (mutually binding) collective decision made by the member states, acting through their national Government Ministers in the Council of the European Union and the Parliament. ... A European Union decision (defined in Article 249/EC) is one of the three binding instruments provide by secondary EU legislation. ... In European Union Law a recommendation Differs from regulations, directives and decisions, in that they are not binding for Member States. ... // Origins of the EU History of the European Union European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) Euratom Single market. ... In economics, a monetary union is a situation where several countries have agreed to share a single currency among them. ... The European Union (EU) was originally created by the six founding states in 1952, but has grown to its current size of 25 member states. ... Foreign relations of the European Union Foreign relations of Austria Foreign relations of Belgium Foreign relations of Cyprus Foreign relations of the Czech Republic Foreign relations of Denmark Foreign relations of Estonia Foreign relations of Finland Foreign relations of France Foreign relations of Germany Foreign relations of Greece Foreign relations... A European political party, formally a political party at European level, sometimes informally (especially in academic circles) a Europarty, is a type of political party organization operating transnationally in Europe. ... The majority of major political parties in Europe have aligned themselves into the pan-European political organisations listed below. ... The member-states of the European Union by the European party affiliations of their leaders, as of April, 2006. ... Information on politics by country is available for every country, including both de jure and de facto independent states, inhabited dependent territories, as well as areas of special sovereignty. ... The European Union is unique among international organisations in having a complex and highly developed system of internal law which has direct effect within the legal systems of its member states. ... Schengen Treaty members are in dark blue, while signatories (where it is not yet implemented) are in light blue. ... The Amsterdam Treaty (in full: Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty of the European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and certain related acts) which was signed on October 2, 1997, and entered into force on May 1, 1999, made substantial changes to the Treaty on European Union which...

Chapters of the Acquis

During the process of the enlargement of the European Union, the acquis was divided into 31 chapters for the purpose of negotiation between the EU and the candidate member states for the fifth enlargement (the ten that joined in 2004 plus Romania and Bulgaria). These chapters were: The European Union (EU) was originally created by the six founding states in 1952, but has grown to its current size of 25 member states. ...

For the negotiations with Croatia and Turkey, the acquis was split up into 35 chapters instead, with the purpose of better balancing between the chapters: dividing the most difficult ones into separate chapters for easier negotiation, uniting some easier chapters, moving some policies between chapters, as well as renaming a few of them in the process: A lobster boat unloading its catch in Ilfracombe harbour, North Devon, England. ... In economics, a monetary union is a situation where several countries have agreed to share a single currency among them. ... Regional policy is the means by which governments and international organisations seek to reduce spatial disparities in economic well being. ... Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters is the third of the three pillars of the European Union, focusing on co-operation in law enforcement and combating racism. ... A customs union is a free trade area with a Common External Tariff. ... The Common Foreign and Security Policy or CFSP, german Gemeinsame Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik (GASP), was established as the second of the three pillars of the European Union in the Maastricht treaty of 1992, and further defined and broadened in the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997. ...

1. Free movement of goods
2. Freedom of movement for workers
3. Right of establishment and freedom to provide services
4. Free movement of capital
5. Public procurement
6. Company law
7. Intellectual property law
8. Competition policy
9. Financial services
10. Information society and media
11. Agriculture and rural development
12. Food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy
13. Fisheries
14. Transport policy
15. Energy
16. Taxation
17. Economic and monetary policy
18. Statistics
19. Social policy and employment (including anti-discrimination and equal opportunities for women and men)
20. Enterprise and industrial policy
21. Trans-European networks
22. Regional policy and coordination of structural instruments
23. Judiciary and fundamental rights
24. Justice, freedom and security
25. Science and research
26. Education and culture
27. Environment
28. Consumer and health protection
29. Customs union
30. External relations
31. Foreign, security and defence policy
32. Financial control
33. Financial and budgetary provisions
34. Institutions
35. Other issues

Correspondance between chapters of the 5th and the 6th Enlargement:
Freedom of movement for workers is a policy chapter of the acquis communotaire of the European Union. ...

Such negotiations usually involved agreeing transitional periods before new member states needed to implement the laws of the European Union fully and before they and their citizens acquired full rights under the acquis.

Other uses

The term acquis has been borrowed by the World Trade Organization Appellate Body, in the case Japan - Taxes on Alcoholic Beverages, to refer to the accumulation of GATT and WTO law ("acquis gattien"), though this usage is not well established. WTO Logo The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international, multilateral organization, which sets the rules for the global trading system and resolves disputes between its member states, all of whom are signatories to its approximately 30 agreements. ... General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (usually abbreviated GATT) functions as the foundation of the WTO trading system, and remains in force, although the 1995 Agreement contains an updated version of it to replace the original 1947 one. ...

It has been used to describe the achievements of the Council of Europe (a body unconnected with the European Union): The Palace of Europe in Strasbourg European Flag: used by the Council of Europe and by the European Union The Council of Europe (French: Conseil de lEurope , German: Europarat /ˌɔɪ.ˈro. ...

The Council of Europe’s acquis in standard setting activities in the fields of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental human rights and freedoms should be considered as milestones towards the great European political project, and the European Court of Human Rights should be recognised as the pre-eminent judicial pillar of any future architecture.

(Section 12, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Resolution 1290) The rule of law is the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedure. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... European Court of Human Rights building in Strasbourg The European Court of Human Rights, often referred to informally as the Strasbourg Court, was created to systematise the hearing of human rights complaints from Council of Europe member states. ...

It has also been applied to the body of "principles, norms and commitments" of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE): The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is an international organization for security. ...

Another question under debate has been how the Partners and others could implement the OSCE acquis, in other words its principles, norms and commitments on a voluntary basis.

Intervention by Ambassador Aleksi Härkönen, Permanent Representative of Finland to the OSCE, Annual Security Review Conference [1]

The OECD introduced the concept of the OECD Acquis in its "Strategy for enlargement and outreach", May 2004. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization of those developed countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. ...

External links

• EUR-Lex, European Union Law
• EU law blog, EU law blog