Document Type

Article

Publication Title

New Europe Law Review

Volume

1

Publication Date

1992

Keywords

Supranational character, central Europe, eastern Europe, Maastrict Treaty, SEA, European Free Trade Association, EFTA, European Economic Area, EEA

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the federal character of the European Community with particular reference to its relation to the new democracies of central and eastern Europe. This article consists of five parts. In Part I, the Court of Justice's constitutional doctrines describing the supranational character of the Community will be presented. Parts II and III will outline and analyze the Community's scope of action and its institutional structure, both as originally conceived and as modified by its history, notably by the SEA. Part IV will review and analyze the most important changes affecting the Community's scope and structure that would occur if, as presently expected, the Maastrict Treaty is ratified. Part V, the longest portion of the article, concentrates on the issues posed in the "widening" of the Community, both with regard to the east and central European states and with respect to the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) states. Part V will describe the present trade and aid relations between the Community and eastern Europe, the impact of the new European Economic Area (EEA), and then reflect on the issues involved in the admission of EFTA and east European states to the Community. (Readers who already well understand the present constitutional structure of the Community may prefer to glance only briefly at Parts I to III, concentrating on the more novel material provided in Parts IV and V.)

Included in

European Law Commons

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