The Division of Competences between the EU and the Member States - Reflections on the Past, the Present and the Future

The issue of competence division is of fundamental importance as it reflects the 'power bargain' struck between the Member States and their Union, determining the limits of the authority of the EU as well as the limits of the authority of the Member States. It defines the nature of the EU as a polity, as well as the identity of the Member States. After over six years since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, it is high time to take stock of whether the reforms that were adopted to make the Union's system of division of competences between the EU Member States clearer, more coherent, and better at containing European integration, have been successful. This book asks whether 'the competence problem' has finally been solved. Given the fundamental importance of this question, this publication will be of interest to a wide audience, from constitutional and substantive EU law scholars to practitioners in the EU institutions and EU legal practice more generally.

Part I: General Reflections 1. The Division of Competences between the EU and the Member States: Reflections on the Past, the Present and the Future Sacha Garben and Inge Govaere 2. The Competence Divide of the Lisbon Treaty Six Years After Christiaan Timmermans 3. Classifying EU Competences: German Constitutional Lessons? Robert Schütze Part II: Areas of Complementary, Shared and Exclusive EU Competence 4. Exclusive Member State Competences-Is There Such a Thing? Bruno De Witte 5. The Competence to Create an Internal Market: Conceptual Poverty and Unbalanced Interests Gareth Davies 6. Monetary Policy: An Exclusive Competence Only in Name? Michael Waibel 7. The EU's Exclusive Competence in Competition Law Pablo Ibáñez Colomo 8. EU External Competence-Rationales for Exclusivity Marise Cremona 9. Competence, Human Rights, and Asylum: What Price Mutual Recognition? Takis Tridimas Part III: Practical Perspectives 10. The Exclusive Competences of the European Union: Some Random Jottings Kieran Bradley 11. The Lisbon Treaty's Competence Arrangement Viewed from European Commission Practice Karen Banks 12. The Lisbon Treaty's Competence Arrangement Viewed by the European Parliament María José Martínez Iglesias 13. The Institutional Politics of Objective Choice: Competence as a Framework for Argumentation Päivi Leino Part IV: Critical Refl ections on Legitimacy and Proposals for Reform 14. Integration through Soft Law: No Competence Needed? Juridical and Bio-Power in the Realm of Soft Law Mark Dawson 15. Refining the Division of Competences in the EU: National Discretion in EU Legislation Ton van den Brink 16. The Shifting Powers of the European Parliament: Democratic Legitimacy and the Competences of the European Union Gregorio Garzón Clariana 17. De-constitutionalisation of European Law: The Re-empowerment of Democratic Political Choice Fritz W Scharpf 18. Restating the Problem of Competence Creep, Tackling Harmonisation by Stealth and Reinstating the Legislator Sacha Garben