... important consequences for national sovereignty. As said by J. Steiner in EC Law, 4.ed., 1994, pg. 26: "If a provision of EC law is directly effective, domestic courts must not only apply it, but, following the principle of primacy of EC law must do so in priority over any conflicting provisions of national law". By virtue of direct applicability and direct effect, EU can introduce legislation that automatically forms part of English law, and that can create individual rights which the English courts must enforce raises the issue of sovereignty. It is suggested that if EU objectives are to be achieved, EU law must prevail over inconsistent national law (Costa v ENEL [1964]) members states have, therefore, made a permanent transfer of some of their sovereign rights to the EU (Costa), in cases of conflict, national courts must give priority to EU law and dis-apply inconsistent national law (Minister of Finance v Simmenthal ...

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