ACQUIS COMMUNAUTAIRE

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ACQUIS COMMUNAUTAIRE
Shefki Zeqiri, Legal Department, MAFRD
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What is the acquis communautaire?

• The acquis includes
• the content, principles and political objectives
  of the Treaties on which the EU is founded
• the legislation and decisions adopted pursuant to
  the Treaties, and the case law of the Court of
  Justice
• other acts, legally binding or not, adopted
  within the EU framework, such as
  inter-institutional agreements, resolutions,
  statements, recommendations and guidelines
• joint actions, common positions, declarations,
  conclusions and other acts within the framework
  of the common foreign and security policy
• joint actions, joint positions, conventions
  signed, resolutions, statements and other acts
  agreed within the framework of justice and home
  affairs and
• international agreements concluded by the
  Communities, the Communities jointly with their
  Member States, the Union, and those concluded by
  the Member States among themselves with regard to
  Union activities.

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Is the acquis communautaire static?

• No, the acquis is constantly evolving!!!

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Legal Documents of EU

• Primary Legislation (Treaties such as Treaty
  establishing European Communities, Accession
  Treaties, Amending Treaties)
• Secondary Legislation (Regulations, Directives
  and Decisions)
• Case Law (Decisions of the Court of Justice and
  the Court of First Instance)

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Secondary Legislation(Legal Basis Art. 249 of
TEC) - Characteristics

• Regulations
• Binding upon all Members States
• Directly applicable
• Measures of general application
• Directives
• Might be addressed to certain Member States
• Binding only as to the objectives to be achieved
• Transposed into national acts
• Decisions
• Binding in their entirety to whom they are
  addressed
• Individual acts

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Examples of the acquis relevant to MAFRD

• Regulations
• Council Regulation (EC) No 1290/2005 on the
  financing of the common agricultural policy
• Regulations (EC) Nos. 852/2004, 853/2004 and
  854/2004 of the European Parliament and of the
  Council on the Hygiene of Foodstuffs etc.
• Directives
• Council Directive 91/676/EEC of 12 December 1991
  concerning the protection of waters against
  pollution caused by nitrates from agricultural
  sources, (the so-called nitrate directive)
• Directive 2000/13 of the European Parliament and
  of the Council on the Labeling, Presentation and
  Advertising of Foodstuffs
• Decisions
• Council Decision on the principles, priorities,
  conditions contained in the Accession Partnership
  with Croatia

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MAFRD Progress in 2008 (1)

• Reviewed current situation of MAFRD legislation
• Prepared Legal Gap Analysis regarding
  approximation of legislation
• Developed a Manual on Legal Impact Assessment
• Demonstrated the Use of Tables of Concordance
• Developed concept documents for the 2009
  legislative programme (covering Laws on Organic
  Agriculture, Irrigation, Agriculture Land
  Consolidation and growth/manufacture of tobacco)
• Developed guidelines for change of land use
  procedures

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MAFRD Progress in 2008 (2)

• Primary legislation (4 out of 8 Laws have been
  submitted to the Assembly)
• Draft Law on Agriculture and Rural Development
• Draft of new Law on Organic Production
• Amendment to the Law on Forests
• Law on Biocides
• Secondary legislation (32 AIs in total, of which
  the following are examples)
• Administrative Instruction on Valuation of the
  Damages caused by Natural Disasters and other
  Disasters
• Administrative Instruction on Feed Additives for
  Animals
• Administrative Instruction on the Animal
  Insemination
• Administrative Instruction on Phytosanitary
  Measures
• Administrative Instruction on defining regions of
  fishing
• Administrative Instruction on official controls,
  inspection and certification of organic
  production
• Administrative Instruction on packaging, storage
  and transport of organic production

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Next Steps

• Build capacity of existing staff, and recruit
  additional qualified staff, to approximate//harmon
  ise the legislation
• Extend basic legal techniques to the technical
  departments of MAFRD
• Approximate/harmonize existing legislation with
  the Chapter 11 acquis
• Implement the Chapter 11 acquis
• Implement Governments strategy for translating
  the acquis (which may include signing an MOU with
  Albania to share translation of the acquis)
• Adopt (later in the accession process) that
  section of the National Programme for the
  Adoption of the Acquis (NPAA) that relates to
  agriculture and rural development