Member state competence
Member state competence
The right of the member states to legislate on their own.
Basically, the EU only has the power to legislate when such power is clearly conferred upon it by the Treaties. Topics not mentioned as common tasks in the European treaties therefore automatically remain under the power (competence) of the member states.
However, the EU Court has been able to employ novel interpretation to increase EU integration by legalising EU decisions in areas that were member states' competence prior to the Court's new interpretation.
Civil servants attached to the Danish government have not been able to find a single example of a national legal area which cannot be touched or influenced by the Lisbon Treaty.
30 June 2009 the German Constitutional Court approved the Lisbon Treaty in principle but insisted on national sovereignty and a living democracy for key political areas, see German Constitutional Court case.
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See also Competences, Charter, Legal activism and Discrimination.
