Recognition by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) that EU law provisions have direct effect and EU law has primacy over internal law of the Member States has laid the foundation for justification by the CJEU of the concept of European Union law as a new (autonomous) legal order and entailed their consolidation as the fundamental principles in the system of EU law. The principle of direct effect, along with the principle of supremacy of EU law, is manifested through the possibility available to individuals and legal entities to refer to EU law and seek its enforcement through national courts of the Member States. In its practice, the EU Court of Justice repeatedly focused on the issue of direct effect of association agreements entered into by EU with third countries, and also multilateral agreements and partnership and cooperation agreements. An essential feature of the principle of direct effect of EU law is its differentiated nature: it has an extensive but not a comprehensive application. Recognition that a particular EU law provision has direct effect depends, firstly, on its content, and secondly, on the source in which it is enshrined. The approaches in the European law doctrine originating from the court practice have been called the “double test”: firstly, a provision of a treaty is analyzed to verify whether it contains a comprehensible, clear and unconditional obligation, and after that it is checked whether such a conclusion may not be canceled following an examination of the subject matter and purpose of the treaty within which such a provision should be interpreted. However, approaches regarding direct effect established by the EU Court of Justice have been changed significantly where recognition of direct effect of international multilateral treaties was concerned.

The development of contractual relations between the EU and Ukraine raises the need for taking into account the specifics of implementing the provisions of international treaties in the EU legal order. In the broad sense, this issue covers the principles of interaction between international law and EU law (including the classical discussion on monism and dualism in international law). But in a narrower sense, we are talking about direct effect of provisions of international treaties, which are entered into by the European Union, within legal orders of the EU and its Member States. This is the main focus of the study. Besides, the author analyzes the development of the EU Court of Justice case law with regard to direct effect of international treaties entered into by the EU with other entities of international law. The article also highlights the issue of direct effect of provisions of the Association Agreement with Ukraine within the framework of the EU legal order.

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Edited books

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