While officially learned in many aspects of the American Constitution, I don’t claim to understand Europe’s. Who does? All right, who does that you believe? In any case, it’s all a little bit too recent for my professional tastes. But this article from the Telegraph blog is informative:
The very first line of the Treaty of Rome, signed 50 years ago this month, commits its signatories to “ever closer union”. These three words are the seeds from which the sprawling leylandii of EU laws have sprouted.
Successive Commissioners and Euro-judges have interpreted the phrase to mean that, whenever the EU legislates in a new area, its authority in that area is guaranteed in perpetuity. Political scientists call it “the doctrine of the occupied field”. Brussels lawyers call it “the acquis communautaire”. Call it what you will, it explains why the EU has been transformed from an international association into a state, wherein 84 per cent of the laws in the member nations now come from Brussels.
In other words: if Europe legislates in an area even once without running into opposition, it gets to govern in that area. Interesting.