72
Ingolf Pernice
Deuxième séance de travail — Les retombées
Community legal system, compliance with which the Court ensures
under Article 19(1) TEU. That exclusive jurisdiction of the Court is
confirmed by Article 344 TFEU and applies to agreements concluded
within the competences of the Union (
55
).
—— The powers of a court established by an international treaty to which
the EU is a contracting party may not in any way restrict the powers of
national courts and the ECJ to determine, in a dialogue under Article
267 TFEU the interpretation and application of provisions of European
law (
56
).
—— International law may not affect the jurisdiction the Court has to re-
view the validity of Community measures in the light of fundamental
rights (
57
).
The mere fact that the EU will be bound, as a contracting party, to the
human rights guaranteed in the ECHR is not in conflict with any of these
principles. Nor can the power of the ECtHR to review measures taken by the
European Union and to judge upon their compliance with these human rights
be understood as undermining the powers of the institutions of the Union.
Article 6(3) TEU clearly states that the fundamental rights as guaranteed by
the ECHR constitute general principles of the Union’s law, thus, they are bind-
ing upon the institutions in any event. This is confirmed by Articles 52(3) and
53 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (ChFR) regarding the interpretation
and the level of protection provided by the ECHR.
Even if fundamental rights are understood as ‘negative norms of com-
petence’, so limiting or even denying powers the institutions are generally
conferred to, with regard to the sphere if individual rights and freedoms (
58
),
the accession to the Convention by the European Union would not add any
(
55
) ECJ Case C-459/03
MOX plant
[2006] ECR I-4635, paragraphs 123 et seq.
(
56
) ECJ Opinion 1/09
European and Community Patents Court
, paragraphs 65-89.
(
57
) ECJ Joined Cases C-402/05 P and C-415/05 P
Kadi
[2008] ECR I-6351, paragraphs 283-285,
316 and 317. See also ECJ Opinion 1/00
ECAA
[2002] ECR I-3493, paragraphs 23-26.
(
58
) For the construction of fundamental rights as
negative Kompetenznormen
, see Konrad
Hesse,
Grundzüge des Verfassungsrechts der Bundesrepublik Deutschland,
20th ed. (CF
Müller, Heidelberg 1999) 128; see also Franz Mayer,
Die drei Dimensionen der Europäischen
Kompetenzdebatte
, 61 Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht 577,
583-84 (2001) (with more references); Ingolf Pernice,
Europäische Grundrechte-Charta und
Abgrenzung der Kompetenzen
, 12 Europäische Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht 673 (2001).
