EU: Economic crisis management V

What has been said about the spirit of solidarity and distinct mention of energy in the context of severe difficulties in the supply of products in Article 122 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)?

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United Kingdom

Professor Steve Peers covered the Treaty of Lisbon in a number of Statewatch Analyses. ‘EU Reform Treaty Analysis no. 3.4: Revised text of Part Three, Titles VII to XVII of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC): Other internal EC policies’ (Version 2, 24 October 2007) includes the current Title VII Economic and monetary policy.

Peers presented Article 100 TFEU (ToL), to be renumbered Article 122 TFEU in the consolidated version, and highlighted the changes, with the following comment (page 7):

“The new wording in paragraph 1 has been inserted in accordance with the mandate for the Reform Treaty.”

The analysis 3.4 and other useful Statewatch analyses are available through:

http://www.statewatch.org/euconstitution.htm


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The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) offers a convenient source of brief annotations on Lisbon Treaty amendments in ‘A comparative table of the current EC and EU treaties as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon’ (Command Paper 7311, published 21 January 2008). It offers the following comment on Article 122 TFEU, Article 100 TFEU (ToL) in the original Lisbon Treaty (page 12):

“Draws on Article 100 TEC. The references to solidarity and energy are new.”


The FCO comparative table is available at:

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm73/7311/7311.asp

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The UK House of Commons Library Research Paper 07/86 ‘The Treaty of Lisbon: amendments to the Treaty establishing the European Community’ (published 6 December 2007) discussed ‘H. Economic and Monetary Policy’ on pages 61 to 64.

Article 100 TFEU (ToL) was given the following explanation, on page 62:

“Lisbon Article 100 adds to both the present Article and Constitution Article III-180 an explicit emphasis on difficulties with energy supply in Council solidarity measures.”

The Library Research Paper 07/86 is available at:

http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2007/rp07-086.pdf

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The House of Lords European Union Committee report ‘The Treaty of Lisbon: an impact assessment, Volume I: Report’ (HL Paper 62-I, published 13 March 2008) dealt with energy on pages 220─221.

The report mentioned the new Title on energy and added the following remark (page 220):

“9.28. A further reference to energy is made in the amended Article 122 of the TFEU which allows the Council to enact measures in “a spirit of solidarity” if severe difficulties of supply arise, particularly within the energy sector.”

On the following page the report presented a few assessments by witnesses under the subheading Solidarity, although the Committee’s own conclusion on the energy provisions as a whole was cautious:

“9.33. The new provisions in the Lisbon Treaty may raise the profile of the issue of energy but they do not constitute a major innovation. However the extension of QMV may be seen as significant.”

The impact assessment report is accessible at:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldselect/ldeucom/62/62.pdf


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The following part is going to present additional legislative materials on Article 122 TFEU.


Ralf Grahn