The European Union and the Benes-decrees

Abstract

The European Union has grown from an economic community to a form of cooperation between individual Member States in which Community law, the European Union has the right to operate in the Member States and the EU institutions. All of this has a major impact on the lives of EU citizens, with particular reference to citizenship of the Union. My presentation presents the possibilities and obstacles to EU rules through the example of the Beneš Decrees and highlights the new way of enforcing national interests. To date, the decree based on the principle of collective guilt is part of the Slovak legal system. My research is about revealing the effects of declarations today and the new approach that focuses on declarations in the center of political debate rather than on the consistent enforcement of the primacy of EU law in the Member States. A comprehensive examination of Slovak administrative and judicial practice may change the statement made by the European Commission, which was considered generally valid at EU level, that declarations are now only historical documents.