Abstract
The process of European integration leads to a competition of power centres (Bárány in Notions of good law. Eurokódex, Bratislava, 2007) and to a certain degree of multi-level governance. The European Union has to some extent become a rival to nation states, i.e. to state power. EU is being described as a specific entity ‘developing from a network of treaties’, surpassing in some areas its Member States and as such thus violating external aspects of their sovereignty (Klokočka in Constitutional systems of European states. Linde, Praha, 2006). At the same time, the European Union is a normative centre.
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Notes
- 1.
Above-mentioned figure refers to Mr. Michel Gaudet, Director General of the European Commission’s Legal Service and reputed author of the European Commission opinion in Van Gen den Loos case (Stein 2005).
- 2.
Van Gend en Loos, 26/62, ECLI:EU:C:1963:1.
- 3.
The transfer of nation state competences under the umbrella of common governance has been a constant process ever since the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (1951), it was expressed also for example in the opening of cooperation in foreign and security policy and home affairs as established by the Maastricht Treaty (1992) or it is present in the contemporary endeavours to form a fiscal union (2012). It is actually irrelevant whether the transfer involves a supranational or intergovernmental method or their hybrid forms. Either way, the nation states are left with less autonomy in decision-making, which limits their material sovereignty.
- 4.
The issue of divisibility of sovereignty appears every time where there is the need to defend the existence of new social structures different from traditional nation states, and it plays no role whether these are protectorates, semi-sovereign states, federation Member States, etc. (Oppenheim 1924).
- 5.
The most relevant decisions which will be widely referred hereafter in this volume are: Sugar Quotas III, Pl.ÚS 50/04, ECLI:CZ:US:2006:Pl.US.50.04; European Arrest Warrant, Pl. ÚS 66/04, ECLI:CZ:US:2006:Pl.US.66.04; Treaty of Lisbon I, Pl. ÚS 19/08, ECLI:CZ:US:2008:Pl.US.19.08.1; Treaty of Lisbon II, Pl. ÚS 29/09, ECLI:CZ:US:2009:Pl.US.29.09.3; Slovak Pensions XVII, PL. ÚS 5/12, ECLI:CZ:US:2012:Pl.US.5.12.1.
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Hamuľák, O. (2016). Introduction. In: National Sovereignty in the European Union. SpringerBriefs in Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45351-4_1
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