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Guastaferro, Barbara --- "The European Union as a Staatenverbund? The Endorsement of the Principle of Conferral in the Treaty of Lisbon" [2012] ELECD 516; in Trybus, Martin; Rubini, Luca (eds), "The Treaty of Lisbon and the Future of European Law and Policy" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: The Treaty of Lisbon and the Future of European Law and Policy

Editor(s): Trybus, Martin; Rubini, Luca

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857932556

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: The European Union as a Staatenverbund? The Endorsement of the Principle of Conferral in the Treaty of Lisbon

Author(s): Guastaferro, Barbara

Number of pages: 16

Extract:

6. The European Union as a
Staatenverbund? The endorsement of
the principle of conferral in the
Treaty of Lisbon
Barbara Guastaferro

1. INTRODUCTION
This chapter argues that the Treaty of Lisbon, while endowing the Euro-
pean Union (EU) with new competencies, has by the same token `endorsed'
the principle of conferral. Many of the provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon,
indeed, seem to reinforce that principle and to yield to some Member
States' demand to retain the Kompetenz-Kompetenz within the European
legal order. Even the wording of the Treaties seems to constantly express
the fear that the EU may transgress the boundaries of the powers conferred
on it by Member States. Following this line of reasoning, the present
chapter will first outline the principal causes of the creeping competence
drift within the EU legal order and then analyse the main remedies
provided by the Treaty of Lisbon.


2. THE PRINCIPLE OF CONFERRAL WITHIN THE
EU LEGAL ORDER
The principle of conferral (or principle of allocated or attributed powers)
stipulates that `every action by the Union is based on a general or specific
Treaty provision empowering the Union ­ expressly or implicitly ­ to act'.1
In this vein, the rules concerning the allocation of powers within the EU


1
Lenaerts, K. and M. Desormer (2002), `Bricks for a Constitutional Treaty of
the European Union: Values, Objectives and Means', European Law Review, 27,
385.

117
118 The Treaty of Lisbon and the future of European law and policy

legal order2 are consistent ...