A READING OF THE EU CONSTITUTIONAL LEGAL SYSTEM THROUGH THE META-PRINCIPLE OF EFFECTIVENESS

The most important logic underlying the functioning of the EU legal system can be summed up in the formula “what is needed to make the EU function”. In legal terms this logic translates into the principle of effective- ness, under which EU law exercises its internal exibility and transforms national legal systems according to what it is deemed necessary for its own functioning, i.e. what is necessary to achieve its purposes. The major claim made by the article is that the principle of effectiveness can be considered as a meta-principle, determining the existence and application of most of the other general principles of EU law.