EU Constitutional Law on ExcellentWiki - Legal Encyclopedia

The EU Treaties as Constitutional Framework: TEU and TFEU

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Treaties of the European Union — the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) — constitute the constitutional foundation of the EU legal order. As amended most recently by the Treaty of Lisbon (2007, in force 2009), the Treaties establish the Union’s objectives, institutions, legal instruments, and competences, while also setting forth the fundamental values that underpin the European project. The Court of Justice has characterised the Treaties as a “constitutional charter” (Opinion 1/91), reflecting their fundamental character as the supreme source of EU law, superior to all secondary legislation and binding on all Member States and institutions.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is the primary instrument for the protection of fundamental rights within the EU legal order. Proclaimed in 2000 and given binding legal effect by the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009, the Charter consolidates the fundamental rights applicable at EU level into a single, codified document. Article 6(1) TEU provides that the Charter has the same legal value as the Treaties, making it a source of primary EU law. The Charter represents the culmination of decades of development from the CJEU’s general principles of law to a written constitutional catalogue of rights, reflecting the Union’s commitment to placing the individual at the heart of its legal order.

The Principle of Conferral under Article 5 TEU

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The principle of conferral is the foundational constitutional principle defining the limits of European Union competence. Article 5(2) TEU provides that the Union shall act only within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States in the Treaties to attain the objectives set out therein. Competences not conferred upon the Union in the Treaties remain with the Member States. The principle establishes that the EU is a union of limited attributed powers, in contrast to the plenary legislative competence of sovereign states. Together with subsidiarity and proportionality, conferred power is one of the three horizontal principles governing the exercise of EU competence.