Institutional Variation across Policy Fields in the Evolution of European Union Law
| Date | 01 September 2013 |
| Published date | 01 September 2013 |
| Author | Bruno de Witte |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1302000308 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
20 MJ 3 (2013) 465
INSTITUTIONAL VARIATION ACROSS
POLICY FIELDS IN THE EVOLUTION
OF EUROPEAN UNION LAW
B W*
e contributors to this anniversary issue of the Maastricht Journal explore the ty pical
institutional cha racteristics of a number of EU policy elds a s they have evolved since the
Maastricht Treaty came into force, in November 1993. In doing so, the authors foc us on
three legal elements that toget her constitute what EU legal writing t raditionally describe s
as the institutional law of t he European Union, namely: the s ystem of legal sources; the
decision-making and governance r ules; and the enforcement mechanisms.
e phenomenon of institutional variat ion across policy elds has always been more
pronounced in European Union law than in t he national constitutional law of its Member
States. It has been a constant factor t hroughout the history of European integration.
Even though, in the early decades of Community law, there were far fewer policy elds
than today, so that there logica lly was less variation across policy elds , the institutional
functioning of t he Communities was nevert heless dierent from one sector to another.
Indeed, the decision, taken in 1957, to set up two new Communities a longside the
European Coal a nd Steel Community rather than establi shing a broader multi-purpose
organization was pri marily inspired by the governments’ view that institutiona l rules
that had been appropriate for regulating t he coal and steel markets were not suitable
for the much broader multi-sectoral Europea n Economic Community. In particu lar,
when setting up the EEC , the Member States granted to the Commission more limited
independent decision-making powers tha n to the Commission’s equivalent – the High
Authority – under the ECSC Treaty.
Within the EEC itsel f, dierent legal instru ments and dierent decision-making
rules were used in the main policy elds as they then were – agriculture, compet ition
and harmonizat ion within the operation of the common market. e ma in embodiment
of institutional va riation was the central role played, i n Community law, by the legal
basis requi rement. Whereas federal constitutions usually list the broad policy domains
attributed to either the federa l or Member State level, the Community Treaties operated
a much more detailed division of competences bet ween the Communities and their
* Maastricht Uni versity and European Uni versity Institute (F lorence).
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