Page 203 - Секретаријат за законодавство

The Treaties were developed and adopted by the Member States, so that
it is very important for all of us to know the content of these documents
as well as of the political and legal foundations relating to all decisions
of the institutions that are related to all spheres of our lives. The mean-
ing of those documents lies in the fact that the entire European Union
functioning is limited to their content. No measure or activity taken by
the institutions may go beyond what is necessary to achieve (by legal
means) the objectives established in the Treaties. The individual is in
the core of the EU legal arrangements, having direct impact on his/her
everyday life, cornering rights and imposing obligations.

Provisions of the Treaties may produce direct effect. This results from
the legal character of the European Union:

“… the Community constitutes a new legal order of international law for
the beneÞt of which the states have limited their sovereign rights, albeit
within limited Þelds, and the subjects of which comprise not only Mem-
ber States but also their nationals. Independently of the legislation of
Member States, Community law therefore not only imposes obligations
on individuals but is also intended to confer upon them rights which be-
come part of their legal heritage. These rights arise not only where they
are expressly granted by the Treaty, but also by reason of obligations
which the Treaty imposes in a clearly deÞned way upon individuals…”. 7

The consequence of the direct effect is that individuals may invoke
provisions of primary legislation in proceedings before national courts
or in administrative proceedings provided that:

- the provision of primary legislation contains “clear and uncon-
ditional” obligation to act or to refrain from action;
- the obligation “is not qualiÞed by any reservation on the part of
states which would make its implementation conditional upon
a positive legislative measure enacted under national law”;
- “The very nature of this prohibition makes it ideally adapted to
produce direct effects in the legal relationship between Mem-
ber States and their subjects”;

7 Van Gend en Loos v. Nederlandse Administratie der Belastingen (Case 26/62)
[1963] ECR 1, [1963] CMLR 105.

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