The European competences and policies

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Following key information on the EU, the European construction and the European institutions…

Step 4 to better understand the EU: The European competences and policies

Competences

The competences of the EU are assigned by the Member States through the treaties. The European institutions (the “institutional triangle” formed by the European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament) implement the EU policies thanks to legislative acts (regulations, directives, decisions, etc.).

The EU has competence in some specific areas which are organised in three different categories:

• Exclusive competences: Only the EU can act in the following areas:
• customs, competition, currency, fishery and international agreements;
• Shared competences: Member States remain competent if the EU doesn’t act in these fields:
• internal market, social policy, cohesion, agriculture, environment, consumers, transports, energy, research, development and humanitarian aid;
• Supporting competences: The EU intervenes only to support Member States which remain competent in these areas:
• health, industry, culture, tourism, education and training, youth, sport, civil protection, administrative cooperation.

When the EU intervenes, three main principles have to be respected:

• Principle of conferral: Member States assign competences to the EU;
• Principle of subsidiarity: The EU can act in shared competences only when its action is considered more efficient than that of Member States;
• Principle of proportionality: Means used by the EU to reach an objective should be for that limited purpose.

Strategies and policies

Specific objectives and strategies are set up at EU level. The EU – through its Member States – must uniformly reach target figures during a given period.

From 2010 to 2020, EUROPE 2020 strategy for a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth is a benchmark for policies to be delivered. A Common Strategic Framework (CSF) was also set up for European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) of the 2014-2020 period and includes 11 key objectives.