Brief considerations on the european legislative procedures, with particular reference to passerelle clauses

• Author: Mihaela Patraus - Darius-Dennis Patraus
• Position: Faculty of Law, Department of Law University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania - Faculty of Law Cluj-Napoca Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca
• Pages: 7-15

AGORA International Journal of Juridical Sciences, http://univagora.ro/jour/index.php/aijjs

ISSN 1843-570X, E-ISSN 2067-7677

No. 1 (2017), pp. 7-15

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BRIEF CONSIDERATIONS ON THE EUROPEAN LEGISLATIVE

PROCEDURES, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO PASSERELLE

CLAUSES

M. PĂTRĂUȘ, D. D. PĂTRĂUȘ

Mihaela Pătrăuș

Faculty of Law, Department of Law

University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania

*Correspondence: Mihaela Pătrăuș, University of Oradea, General Magheru St., Oradea,

Romania

E-mail: mihaelapatraus@yahoo.com

Darius-Dennis Pătrăuș

Faculty of Law Cluj-Napoca

Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca

*Correspondence: Mihaela Pătrăuș, University of Oradea, General Magheru St., Oradea,

Romania

E-mail: darius_patraus@hotmail.com

ABSTRACT:

The Lisbon Treaty in order to strengthen the EU's capacity to decide, to act and to

ensure the legitimacy of decisions taken at the same time, reformed the decision-making

process of the EU, particularly by changing the legislative procedures in force.

Among the novelties of the Lisbon Treaty, we must mention the passerelle clauses,

which according to the ordinary legislative procedure will be generalized, under certain

conditions, in areas which were initially outside its scope.

The treaty nominates two types of passerelle clauses: the general passerelle clause

which applies to all European policies and the enabling of this clause will be authorized by a

decision of the European Council, acting unanimously; the passerelle clauses specific to

certain European policies (MFF, Common Security and Defence Policy, judicial cooperation

regarding the family rights- this specific clause is the only one explaining which national

parliaments keep their right to oppose; cooperation is strengthened in the areas governed by

unanimity or by a special legislative procedure, social affairs, environmental ).

The flexibility introduced through a significant number of passerelle clauses in the

Lisbon Treaty allows adjustment of the EU quickly and efficiently, depending on punctual

developments, without neglecting the guarantees on the sovereignty of member states.

KEYWORDS: LISBON TREATY, PASSERELLE CLAUSES, THE GENERAL PASSERELLE

CLAUSE, THE PASSERELLE CLAUSES SPECIFIC, UNION INSTITUTIONS.

1. OVERVIEW

The European construction is based on the EU Member States' willingness to work

together on common interests. This led to the belief that in some areas the expected results

can be achieved only at European level through common policies developed and adopted by

the institutions of the EU.

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1

M. Profiroiu, I. Popescu – European Politics, Economic Publishing House, Bucharest, 2003 , p. 13-14.