Declarations
Wordings that are attached to a Treaty but that are not themselves legally binding. They may help with the interpretation of legally binding articles.Notes
- When all Member States agree, declarations are a "common political position".
- Declarations made by just one Member State (unilateral declarations) will normally highlight areas of disagreement (i.e. other Member States refused to agree). If the other countries had agreed to a unilateral declaration it would have become a common declaration.
- Protocols are legally binding additions to Treaty articles.
- Opt-out declarations (derogations) are always interpreted in a narrow way.
- Earlier on a lot of secret declarations were adopted in relation to EU legislation. On the basis of these, laws could basically be changed even though the declarations are not legally binding and not applicable by the European Court of Justice.
