Despite the criticisms often levelled at the Community institutions Essay

Despite the criticisms often levelled at the Community institutions and their powers to legislate, it should be remembered that ultimate power still lies with t - Essay Example The legal scheme said to be designed by the Treaty at the outset has been assessed as having shortfalls in its objective of ensuring that the EC law be properly applied by the Member States. Article 169 procedures as a legal instrument in fighting against all the failures to fulfill obligations accordingly is not appropriate. This implies the need to create additional means to enforce and supervise the EC law (Gil Ibà ¡Ãƒ ±ez, 1997). To date, the Community and its underlying legal order can only hold on if that legal order is safeguarded and complied with and the Community law directly applied, with its primacy over national law (ABC of community law, 2004). For all its imperfections, however, the European Community legal order is said to have greatly helped in solving the political, economic and social problems of the Member States (ABC of community law, 2004). But there is yet the tag and pull when it comes to location of power in most aspects. Different institutions cooperate and govern the European Union and the most important of these are the Council, the Commission, the European Parliament and the Court of Justice. (EU Law, n.d.). With its own set of legislation, the European Community also has the laws of its member states. EC Law is concerned with treaties, regulations, and decisions of the European Court of Justice (Ibid). Made within the part of the European Union called the European Communities (EC), the EC Law is only the legislation that is applicable, hence called EC law. Based on the Treaties, it is the fundamental rules of the EU serving as agreements between the Member States. EC law comprises four different fields, namely primary law (the Treaties and the accession treaties of the new Member States), secondary law (all existing legal acts accepted by institutions of the European Union), international agreements between the European Union and