Module Title European Union Law
Word Count 4,000 (2,000 each part)
Part A – Answer ONE question
1. ‘The EU is ruled by an army of bureaucrats who dream up new legislation and run day to day business.’ Discuss this statement from the Daily Mail in relation to the EU institutions, their roles and the legislative process.
2. Member state liability has contributed to the protection of individual rights and the effective application of EU law. Discuss.
3. The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) possesses the capacity to alter the constitutional ‘rules of the game’ under which the Member States and the national courts interact. Discuss.
4. Regulating the activities of big tech companies like Facebook and Google or platform businesses such as Uber is best done at an EU level rather than by Member States at national level. Discuss this statement particularly in relation the subsidiarity principle in EU legislation and its effectiveness.
Part B – Answer ONE question
1) Germany enacts a new (fictitious) law, German Food Standard Act 2021. Accordingly, products containing chocolate cannot be sold under the name “Chocolate” if they contain plant fats other than cocoa butter. Otherwise the product has to be labelled as chocolate substitute. The French chocolate producer Chocolat (C) produces a chocolate bar which is popular with French consumers. This chocolate bar contains small amounts of palm oil.
C would like to import his product into Germany under the name chocolate. However, the German authorities tell C that according to the German Food Standard Act 2021, he is not allowed to sell his product under the name “chocolate”.
Disappointed about the German law, C decides to transport his chocolate bars to Italy, crossing Germany and Austria. In Austria, C’s lorries are stopped by environmental protestors who are peacefully holding a lawful demonstration against environmental pollution of Austria’s countryside. This causes a delay of 30 hours. As a result, C suffers damage of Euro 10,000.
Can you advise C on his rights under EU law?
2) Patrick, an Irish national has been offered a part-time position in Italy. He will be working 20 hours per week as an IT expert in Milan. He plans to move to Milan with his wife Delina (an Iranian national) and their youngest children, twins Rosie (18) and Calum (18), who are both Irish citizens. The twins would like to start studying at university but have been told that only Italian nationals can enrol at a University course. Delina would also like her mother Meryam (also an Iranian national) to move with them as she is dependent on Delina, financially and in terms of care.
The Italian authorities have told the family that Rosie (18) will not be allowed entry into Italy because she had been arrested in Rome for a minor drug offence the last time the family visited Italy.
Advise the family on their rights under EU law.
