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GLOSSARY

Supranational institutions definition

Published by a LexisNexis EU Law expert

What does Supranational institutions mean?

A term associated with the institutional framework created by the Treaties of Paris (ECSC) and Rome (EURATOM and EEC) and further redefined by each amendment to the Treaties.

The adjective supranational means that the institutions or agreements, as the case may be, are placed at a higher level than the national legal systems of the member states and are not governed or influenced by them in any way. The above-mentioned institutions, even though comprising national representatives, operate outside the national legal sphere. The member states that signed the 1950’s Treaties conferred – sovereign – powers to the Communities they created, those powers were transferred and cannot, by principle, be recalled (difference with international law where States can denounce agreements and not be bound by them anymore). Please note that the Treaty of Lisbon contains a provision that recognizes the right of the Member States to leave the Union but that only means that the State can decide to leave the Union, not recall powers at will (see art 50 TEU). The original Communities required some bodies to run them

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Overview of the EU legal system

Introduction to the EU legal systemThe EU legal system is sui generis—there is no other legal system it can be compared to, though it draws elements from many. The key to understanding how it works is to avoid trying to subsume it into (or compare it to) a national system and observe its behaviour from different angles.From its inception, the EU (at the time, the EEC) was intended to grow and become more than an economic bloc, which is why the founding Member States agreed to transfer parcels of sovereignty to the newly 'supranational' institutions. Supranational as the word indicates is something placed over a national structure. The term is used to denote the opposite to intergovernmental where decisions are taken by consensus and linked to national government interests.Upon joining the EU, Member States are no longer able to adopt, independently, legislation in the areas delegated by the EU Treaties ie the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and their...

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