The Impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the EU's 'Competence Creep'
![handle is hein.journals/neastlr7 and id is 13 raw text is: NORTH EAST LAW REVIEW
The Impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the EU's 'Competence Creep'
Eleanor Fox
1. Introduction
Article 2(1) of the TFEU begins by defining competences as allowing the Member State or the
European Union to 'legislate or adopt binding acts in that area', clarifying however that the
Member State can no longer act once the European Union has exercised its competence.1 The
issue of 'competence creep' stems from this as the Member States want to limit what
competences the Union may have, in areas of shared competence,2 in order to preserve the
sovereignty of national parliaments. However, competence creep occurs when the Union acts
outside of its powers and slowly expands its competences beyond what is conferred upon it by
its members. Reforms introduced by the Lisbon Treaty had the purpose of overcoming this
issue by putting into place new mechanisms of security to hold the Union accountable.
However, this paper will explore how, despite improvements arising from the introduction of
the Treaty, the competence creep does still occur and the Treaty has not been entirely successful
in eliminating the issue.
This article will first show how the Lisbon Treaty has succeeded to some extent by placing
limitations upon the flexibility clause, which was previously used frequently. However, it will
then go on to consider how, despite the heavy focus on subsidiarity, the way in which the
principle works in practice is ineffective as it contains too many flaws to be truly useful in
reducing the competence creep. Similarly, the doctrine of implied powers (a useful tool in
making Union competences work) means that a competence creep will be inevitable because
it will always lead to expanding powers. The article will therefore show how, in spite of the
efforts made, the Lisbon Treaty has only worked to a certain extent, as there still remain issues
that result in a competence creep.
1 Consolidated version of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [2012] OJ C326/47
2 ibid, art 4
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The Impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the EU's 'Competence Creep'
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