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Purves, Robert --- "Europe: The Architecture and Content of EU Insurance Regulation" [2012] ELECD 178; in Burling, Julian; Lazarus, Kevin (eds), "Research Handbook on International Insurance Law and Regulation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Insurance Law and Regulation

Editor(s): Burling, Julian; Lazarus, Kevin

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849807883

Section: Chapter 24

Section Title: Europe: The Architecture and Content of EU Insurance Regulation

Author(s): Purves, Robert

Number of pages: 35

Extract:

24 Europe: the architecture and content of EU
insurance regulation
Robert Purves



1. THE EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK

1.1 The Legal Basis of the EU

The European Union (`the EU' or `the Union') is a trans-national entity with independent
legal personality.1 It exists as a result of a series of international treaties, between the 27
sovereign European Member States. The founding treaties of the EU have been re-cast
several times, most recently by the Treaty of Lisbon, which came into force on 1 December
2009. The Treaty of Lisbon amended and re-named the existing treaties so that the
following documents (each of which has equal legal status) now form the legally binding
basis of the EU:2

+ the Treaty on European Union (`the TEU'), formerly the Maastricht Treaty;
+ the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (`the TFEU'), formerly the
Treaty of Rome; and
+ the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

1.2 The Competence of the EU

Under the `principle of conferral' the EU `shall act only within the limits of the
competences conferred upon it by the Member States in the Treaties to attain the
objectives set out therein. Competences not conferred upon the Union in the Treaties
remain with the Member States'.3
The EU's use of the powers conferred on it is governed4 by the `principle of subsidi-
arity' and the `principle of proportionality'. The principle of proportionality is familiar to
every public lawyer. It requires that `the content ...