As for the first, the Community institutions have exclusive powers to shape the Community’s trade relations with third countries.

This means that, in discussions with the United States about, for instance, the import into Europe of genetically modified food products, the European commissioner for trade (currently Pascal Lamy) will be directly in touch with the United States trade representative (currently Robert Zoellick). Representatives of the European Community therefore also sit at the World Trade Organization in Geneva—together with representatives of the Member States sitting in their national capacities for matters for which the Communityhas no exclusive competence.9

However, when foreign policy matters falling under the second pillar are to be discussed between the United States and the Union, the U.S. president and secretary of state will deal directly with the political leaders of the Member States, particularly with those sitting on the UN Security Council, as recent events have made abundantly clear. That is so, even though the Union has the competence to define and implement a common foreign and security policy (Article 11 EU) and may conclude international agreements with one or more third states or with international organizations (Article 24 EU).

However, any such action requires unanimity on the part of all of the Member States, each one therefore possessing the power of veto. The same applies with respect to police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, more particularly in view of combating organized crime and terrorism (Article 38 EU). I will return to the differences between pillars when discussing the institutions and their competences.

Completely separate from the European Union (including the European Community), there is another supranational European organization, called the Council of Europe, of which forty-five European states are now members, including all of the twenty-five EU Member States, as well as Russia and Turkey.

The organization, based in Strasbourg,10 was founded in 1949.11 It concerns itself with all political, economic and social matters of European interest, and thus has a wider field of activity than the European Union. However, it does not have any power to make laws, and it can only propose non-binding resolutions and draft conventions for ratification by the participating states.

The organization has a Committee of Ministers and a Parliamentary Assembly with advisory powers that is made up of delegates from the national parliaments. The most prominent institution of the organization is the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). That court applies the provisions of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) of November 4, 1950.12 It supervises the contracting states’ compliance with the provisions of the Convention and annexed protocols, and can render judgments against a state holding that it has violated a Convention right. Cases can be brought before the court by a contracting state, but also by a private party or non-governmental organization

 

9 See further P. Craig and G. de Búrca, EU Law, Text, Cases and Materials, 3d ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 128.

10 Strasbourg also occasionally houses the European Union’s Parliament, whose main meeting place is, however, in Brussels, which also houses the Council and the Commission. The Community courts and the Court of Auditors have their seats in Luxembourg. The European Central Bank is located in Frankfurt.

11 The organization was established as a result of the European Congress of the Hague (May 7–10, 1948) chaired by Winston Churchill, who on September 19, 1946, in Zürich, had pronounced the famous words, “If we are to form a United States of Europe . . . we must begin now.” On this immediate postwar history, see N. Davies, Europe: A History (London: Pimlico, 1996), 1064–67.

12 For a short description, see M. Dixon, Textbook on International Law, 4th ed. (London: Blackstone Press, 2000, reprinted 2002), 337–40.