Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Annual Policy Strategy for 2008

The European Union has existed for over half a century. Having started as the 'Europe of the Six' in a specific industrial sector, the Union today has twenty-seven Member States and acts within almost all areas of social life. The Union's constitutional structures have evolved in parallel with this immense growth. Born as an international organisation, the Union has developed into a constitutional Union of States. This textbook analyses the constitutional law of the European Union after Lisbon in a clear and structured way. Examining the EU through a classic constitutional perspective, it explores all the central themes of the course: from the history and structure of the Union, the powers and procedures of its branches of government, to the rights and remedies of European citizens. A clear three-part structure and numerous illustrations will facilitate understanding. Critical and comprehensive, this is required reading for all students of European constitutional law.

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European Constitutional Law

Le principe de l’equilibre institutionnel a ete utilise par la Cour de justice depuis les origines de la construction europeenne afin de reguler la repartition des pouvoirs entre les institutions des Communautes europeennes puis de l’Union europeenne. Cette these vise a etablir une definition du principe en identifiant ses elements constitutifs. La determination de son champ d’application, tant materiel qu’organique, et de ses fonctions dans la jurisprudence permet d’y voir un principe general du droit s’appliquant a l’ensemble des institutions et organes de l’Union dotes d’un pouvoir de decision. Principe structurel, l’equilibre institutionnel garantit les elements fondamentaux du systeme institutionnel de l’Union europeenne, en particulier l’independance organique et la collaboration fonctionnelle des institutions. Il ne constitue pourtant pas un frein a l’evolution du systeme. Utilise dans un nombre limite d’affaires, le principe pourrait etre exploite de facon plus systematique par la Cour de justice. En tant qu’element structurant de l’organisation horizontale des pouvoirs, il donne une cle de comprehension du systeme institutionnel de l’Union et de ses evolutions. Il pourrait s’appliquer a des problematiques nouvelles issues notamment du traite de Lisbonne, telles que la delimitation entre actes legislatifs, actes delegues et actes d’execution. Apte a apprehender l’ensemble des rapports de pouvoir entre institutions, le principe de l’equilibre institutionnel, entendu dans un rapport de compatibilite avec le principe de separation des pouvoirs, pourrait constituer un fondement theorique du regime politique de l’Union europeenne.

https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01938336/document

Le principe de l'équilibre institutionnel en droit de l'Union européenne

In much of the citizenship literature it is often considered, if not simply assumed, that citizenship is integral to the character of a self-determining community and that this process, by definition, involves the exclusion of resident 'foreigners'. Dora Kostakopoulou calls this assumption into question, arguing that 'aliens' are by definition outside the bounds of the community by virtue of a circular reasoning which takes for granted the existence of bounded national communities, and that this process of collective self-definition is deeply political and historically dated. Although national citizenship has enjoyed a privileged position in both theory and practice, its remarkable elasticity has reached its limit, thereby making it more important to find an alternative model. Kostakopoulou develops a new institutional framework for anational citizenship, which can be grafted onto the existing state system, defends it against objections and proposes institutional reform based on an innovative approach to citizenship.

The Future Governance of Citizenship

Recently, the Nigerian electric utility lost its public service character following its deregulation. The electricity sector deregulation was executed despite bad consumers‘ experience in the earlier deregulated sectors on service quality, complaints handling and others. Adopting a socio-legal research method, this thesis critically examines the legal and institutional frameworks for consumers‘ protection in the Nigerian deregulated electricity sector. The thesis was motivated by the state of the extant laws and the institutional arrangements for consumer protection; the lingering regulatory failure and rising consumer exploitations in the Nigerian electricity sector. The thesis‘s objectives are to examine the frameworks; the consumer redress mechanisms; and the challenges hindering electricity consumers‘ protection and redress in Nigeria. The data was collected through the library-based approach and twenty semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from consumer protection agencies such as the Consumer Protection Council, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria; lawyers in the academia; and the heads of consumer organisations. The thesis employed the interpretive doctrinal technique and the thematic analysis in analysing the legal materials and the interview data. The comparative analytical approach was also employed because comparison is useful in legal research. Guided by international standards and global best practices, the thesis found that the frameworks are deficient and limited in many aspects. It lacks provisions on consumer rights and remedies; its product-focused with less emphasis on services; and lacks competition law that are critical for consumer protection in deregulated environments. The thesis found that while regular courts are expensive and time consuming, the frameworks lack ideal institutional arrangements such as small claims court and consumer ombudsman. The thesis also found that consumer protection in Nigeria faces several challenges with lack of consumer awareness and underfunding of agencies being the prominent challenges. For the benefit of the consumers and industry, the thesis recommends comprehensive frameworks that integrate competition, consumer rights and remedies provisions. The thesis further recommends improvement to the legal aid scheme, the establishment of ideal consumer redress forums and efficient regulatory agencies for more effective consumer protection

An examination of the legal and institutional frameworks for consumer protection in Nigeria: A case study of the deregulated electricity sector

european citizens were the subject of one of the three fundamental questions of the laeken Declaration, which led up to the 2004 iGc: how to bring citizens ‘closer to the european design and european institutions’?1 on this basis, one would have expected the constitutional treaty to contain modifications to the provisions on eu citizenship, but at first glance these changes were not very spectacular as one Dutch commentator stated, they were merely ‘cosmetic’2 The iGc mandate for the treaty of lisbon was to draw up a reform treaty with a view to enhancing the efficiency and democratic legitimacy of the enlarged union, as well as the coherence of its external action The mandate explicitly required that the constitutional concept so central to the 2004 iGc was to be dropped3 The innovations resulting from the 2004 iGc with respect to the content of the amendments to the existing treaties were, however, to be integrated into the reform treaty as a consequence, some of the changes with respect to european union citizenship, presumably those that expressed the constitutional idea, have been abandoned in the reform treaty although apparently cosmetic on the surface, it is submitted here that the changes made to the citizenship provisions support a new direction in eu citizenship: an evolution from a complementary towards a more independent citizenship below, the treaty of lisbon modifications will be dealt with under three headings This division draws upon the three dimensions of citizenship – the political, the legal and the psychological

European Union citizenship in the Treaty of Lisbon: any change at all?

Where in the past the orientation of the internal market was always on economic growth through removing trade barriers, the 21st century vision seems to be more impact driven, guided by consumers’ and citizens’ needs, not just from an economic perspective but also in terms of satisfaction of citizenship norms and values such as solidarity, inclusion and sustainability. The re-orientation also reflects on the role of the consumer and the citizen: they should be more active through participation in both the design and the enforcement of economic regulation. A parallel reflection of the re-orientation can be found in the EU ‘empowerment’ discourse linked to the consumer and citizenship concepts, as deployed by the Europe 2020 Strategy. The basic question that feeds this paper is what kind of social and economic governance model is behind the new empowerment tools and strategies? The paper is an initial attempt to explore this new consumer citizen centered governance model and its effects on law making and law enforcement. Putting citizens and consumers in the driving seat differs from the traditional way of decision-making through elected representatives and the traditional perception of consumers and citizens as passive receivers of rights and benefits.

http://acelg.uva.nl/binaries/content/assets/subsites/amsterdam-centre-for-european-law-and-governance/map-1/acelg-wp-2012-03-cseres-schrauwen.pdf

Empowering consumer-citizens: changing rights or merely discourse?

The increasing mobility of athletes prompts a reconsideration of the presumed connection between allegiance, identity and nationality. Olympic citizenship challenges traditional understandings of community membership by calling into question the privileged status of birthright citizenship and by bringing forth a different, more fluid and changeable notion of belonging. By juxtaposing the ‘old’ world of nations competing via ‘their’ athletes, as momentary representatives of the nation, for glory, medals, dominance and prestige to the increasing mobility sportspersons engaging in the pursuit of athletic excellence and creative self-expression, we argue that neither the enactment of tighter rules to prevent ‘citizenship shopping’ nor the transformation of the Olympic Games into athletes’ Olympics are desirable reforms. Instead, we propose a participatory growth model which would allow athletes to choose the country they intend to represent following their enmeshment into a localised web of socioeconomic interactions and a flexible framework of citizenship. This cannot but have wider implications for the Olympic Charter and for politics in general.

Olympic Citizenship and the (Un)Specialness of the National Vest: Rethinking the Links between Sport and Citizenship Law

The increasing mobility of athletes prompts a reconsideration of the presumed connection between allegiance, identity and nationality. Olympic citizenship challenges traditional understandings of community membership by calling into question the privileged status of birthright citizenship and by bringing forth a different, more fluid and changeable notion of belonging. By juxtaposing the ‘old’ world of nations competing via ‘their’ athletes, as momentary representatives of the nation, for glory, medals, dominance and prestige, to the increasing mobility of sportspersons engaging in the pursuit of athletic excellence and creative self-expression, we argue that neither the enactment of tighter rules to prevent ‘citizenship shopping’ nor the transformation of the Olympic Games into athletes' Olympics are desirable reforms. Instead, we propose a participatory growth model which would allow athletes to choose the country they intend to represent following their enmeshment into a localised web of socio-economic interactions and a flexible framework of citizenship. This cannot but have wider implications for the Olympic Charter and for politics in general.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S1744552314000081

Olympic citizenship and the (un)specialness of the national vest: rethinking the links between sport and citizenship law

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Annette Schrauwen

Papers

European Union citizenship in the Treaty of Lisbon: any change at all?

Empowering consumer-citizens: changing rights or merely discourse?

Olympic Citizenship and the (Un)Specialness of the National Vest: Rethinking the Links between Sport and Citizenship Law

Olympic citizenship and the (un)specialness of the national vest: rethinking the links between sport and citizenship law

Direct Effect. Rethinking a Classic of EC Legal Doctrine