Web-Companion Essential EU Law in Text: Suggested solutions to the exercises
Please find hereinafter the suggested solutions to the 64 exercises contained in the book "Tobler/Beglinger, Essential EU Law in Text, 5th edition, HVG-ORAC 2020, ISBN 978-963-258-490-4". To give you an idea how the exercises in the book are phrased, they have been added for the first three instances. Any comments or feedback are welcome.Enforcement – Exercise 1
Suggested solution:
The term “enforcement” refers to the elements and mechanisms in EU law that are meant to ensure that this law is actually respected, i.e. put into practice. Such elements can be found on different levels of EU law. In particular, secondary law may contain specific provisions concerning enforcement (e.g. in the context of EU social law) or there may even be specific directives on such issues (e.g. in the context of criminal sanctions in EU environmental law). In addition, the TFEU contains provisions on court procedures and on arguments that can be used before the courts. Further elements have been developed through the Court of Justice’s case law.
Five particularly important elements are: 1) the doctrine of direct effect as developed by the ECJ starting with van Gend en Loos, i.e. that individuals may rely on EU law that grants them rights where the national law of the Member States does not do so; 2) the action for annulment, i.e. review of the legality of an EU act by the ECJ (Art. 263 TFEU); 3) the action for damages against either the EU (Art. 268 TFEU) or a Member State (case law beginning with Francovich); 4) the preliminary ruling procedure (Art. 263 TFEU); 5) the enforcement procedure (Art. 258 TFEU).
[Relevant Charts: Chapter 12, in particular Charts 12/1-12/2]
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