The control exercised by the court of justice in luxembourg on international agreements to which the European Union is a party

• Author: Roxana-Mariana Popescu
• Position: Associate Professor, PhD, Faculty of Law, 'Nicolae Titulescu' University of Bucharest (e-mail: rmpopescu@yahoo.com).
• Pages: 93-102

LESIJ NO. XXII, VOL. 2/2015

THE CONTROL EXERCISED BY THE COURT OF

JUSTICE IN LUXEMBOURG ON INTERNATIONAL

AGREEMENTS TO WHICH THE EUROPEAN UNION IS

A PARTY

Roxana-Mariana POPESCU*

Abstract:

The European Union as subject of international law can conclude external agreements, under a

procedure which is the object of art. 218 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union

(TFEU). Regarding the legal force of such agreements, the Court of Justice of the European Union

ruled that they were part of the EU legal order. In addition, pursuant to provisions of art. 216 para.

(2) TFEU, these agreements „link Union institutions and their Member States”. However, it should be

noted that the competence of the Court of Justice in Luxembourg reflects als o its ability to rule, at the

request of a Member State, the European Parliament, the Council or the Commission on the

compatibility of an international agreement with constitutive treaties, whether prior to the entry into

force of an international agreement or later. Considering this aspect, in the contents of our study, we

shall highlight, by using the specialized doctrine and case law in the field, the role that the Court of

Justice of EU has in the field of control over international agreements. This an alysis will consider the

control aimed at formal validity (compliance with the procedure of adoption), on the one hand, and the

control on the substance (compliance of the agreement with EU primary law).

Keywords: European Union, international agreement, Court of Justice of the EU,

„constitutional” review, a posteriori control.

1. General aspects*

Through this study, we propose an

analysis o f CJEU competences on the

control of international agree ments

1

to

which the EU is a party. To achieve this

goal, we shall conduct a thorough study of

the French, English and Romanian

doctrines, an important place being reserved

to historical jurisprudence, but also to

recent jurisprudence of the Court of Justice

of the European Union. In this research, we

shall resort to a range of research methods,

* Associate Professor, PhD, Faculty of Law, “Nicolae Titulescu” University of Bucharest (e-mail:

rmpopescu@yahoo.com).

1

For details regarding international agreements to which the EU is a party, see Augustin Fuerea, Manualul Uniunii

Europene, ediţia a V-a, Fifth edition, revised and enlarged after the Treaty of Lisbon (2007/2009), Universul Juridic

Publishing House, Bucharest, 2011, p. 173-175.

specifically: the logical method, the

comparative method, the historical method

and the quantitative methods. T hus, in

analyzing the CJEU jurisdiction in

international agreements to which the EU is

a party, we shall use, in particular the

historical met hod, but also the logical

method in the approach to capture structural

and dynamic aspects from historical and

evolutionary perspective. In deciphering

considerations and grounds of regulations

and goals pursued by the solutions proposed

by the court in Luxembourg, we shall use,

predominantly, the logical method for