OSVRT NA 'EVOLUCIJU DRUGOG I TREĆEG STUBA SARADNJE' EVROPSKE UNIJE
REVIEW OF ′THE EVOLUTION OF THE SECOND AND THE THIRD PILLAR COOPERATION′ IN THE EU

Summary/Abstract: With this brief overview, we have tried to indicate that the second and third pillar of cooperation are undergoing the most dynamic changes in the context of constant changes in the legal system. Almost after every meeting of European Council, i.e., at least once a year, there are new reforms in practice. Seen from the point of view of the coherence of the overall EU legal system, there is a trend towards approaching the methods in the second and third pillar of cooperation the procedures of the first pillar of cooperation. However, for now one cannot speak of equalization between the first, second and third pillar. If the third pillar of cooperation is analysed more closely, it can even be concluded that it is a specific legal system, which is somewhere halfway between the EC procedures and classic intergovernmental cooperation. Thus, regardless of the various proclamations about simplifying the system, the EU is becoming an increasingly complex organization ('Schengen', the possibility of 'flexibility', exceptions from Chapter IV regarding the jurisdiction of the Court, etc.). It can be said that it is an objective trend, caused by the objective size and complexity of the organization. It remains to be seen to what extent this trend will be deepened or continued in the future changes prepared by the Conference on the Future of Europe, as well as in the framework of the EU enlargement procedure.

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