The Legal Personality of the European Union. Egmont European Affairs Publication, 2007

de Schoutheete, Philippe, and Andoura, Sami. (2007) The Legal Personality of the European Union. Egmont European Affairs Publication, 2007. [Working Paper]

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Abstract

European treaties are notorious for legal ambiguities and internal contradictions resulting from precarious compromises between opposing views. The matter of the legal personality of the European Union is a good example of this and, given its potential importance, it is worthy of some attention. There is little doubt that the European Union has implicitly acquired an international legal personality. It fulfils the conditions set by international law, in particular the International Court of Justice, for the recognition of this status. And international practice has confirmed it: a large number of states have concluded, in recent years, international agreements with the Union and accepted its representatives. In 1996, the Reflection Group preparing the Amsterdam negotiations said that the Union “did not exist” on the international scene. That would no longer be true today. The Union is a recognised actor in its own right.

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