The principle of attributed powers

The EC Treaty is founded on a system of attributed powers. The essential feature of such a system is that the Community can only act when it has been expressly given the power to do so by a provision of the Treaty. Without the existence of a legal basis establishing its power to act in a particular field, no Community action in that field is possible.

With regard to the specific question of the existence of one or several legal bases for Community action in the environmental field, a distinction can usefully be drawn between two distinct phases. The first phase covers the period prior to the amendments made to the Treaty by the Single European Act (SEA). Although this period was characterized by the absence of a proper legal basis in the Treaty for Community environmental action, a brief examination of this period will provide us with the necessary background for a better understanding of the important modifications brought about successively by the SEA and the Treaty on European Union (TEU). The second phase covers the period, from July 1987 onwards, following the entry into force of the SEA. In this second phase, distinctions will also be drawn between the period following the entry into force of the SEA but preceding the entry into force of the TEU and the period, from November 1993 onwards, following the entry into force of the TEU.