Is the European Union a State?

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Is the European Union a State?

The European Union in 2001 has evolved in to a hybrid organisation of inter-governmental and supranational characteristics.  It will be shown in this essay that at this present time that the EU is a much more of an inter-governmental agency that derives its power from its nation states and any characteristics of a state are superficial.  How long it may stay this way will depend on enlargement and future treaties.  In this essay we shall examine how far the EU has assumed the characteristics of a state.  We shall first define what characterises a state.  Once this has been done the definitions will be applied to the present functions of each of the institutions of the EU, which will show that while the EU has began to assume a number of characteristics of a state they, are overshadowed by the control exerted by national governments of member states

As stated in our introduction we shall first define what characterises a state.  Below we shall see two definitions of a state:

“The state is a political association that exercises sovereign jurisdiction within defined territorial borders.  In contrast to government, which is merely one of the parts, the state encompasses all public bodies and exercises impersonal authority on the basis of assumption that it represents the permanent interests of society rather than the partisan sympathies of any group of politicians”. (Heywood, 1997:98).  

“All states, traditional and modern, share some general characteristics.  A state exists where there is a political apparatus  (governmental institutions such as court, parliament or congress, plus civil service officials) ruling over a given territory, whose authority is backed by a legal system and by the capacity to use force to implement its policies”. (Giddens 1993:309)

To paraphrase Heywood " The EU is a very difficult political organisation to categorise.  “In strict terms, it is no longer a confederation of independent states, the sovereignty of member states was enshrined in the so-called "Luxembourg compromise" of 1966.  However as a result of the SEA and the TEA the practice of qualified majority voting was increased, narrowing the scope for national veto.  The result is a political body that has both inter-governmental and supranational features.".(Heywood,1997:157).  This can be seen it the functions of the Council of Minister and the European Courts of Justice. The above definition from Giddens appears to sum up the functions of the institutions.  The EU has a Civil Service in the form of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Courts of Justice both of whom are backed by European Law.  Where the EU does not match this description is that it is unable to use force to implement policy.  Heywood's definition that the state "state exercises sovereign jurisdiction" does not define the EU as at present, as it only has a limited jurisdiction over the member states.  

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When the characteristics of a state are mentioned it is really supranational powers and the loss of national sovereignty that are being spoken or written about.  To what extent do the institutions of the EU have a supranational function and what effect do the have on the national sovereignty of the member states?  

The first institution that shall be examined is the Commission.  The commission functions as the “Civil Service” of the EU.  It role is to not only propose legislation but also to implement legislation.  This legislation must be approved by the European parliament through co-decision ...

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This is a very good essay which goes into a lot of institutional detail and presents a strong argument. A little more critical engagement with the authors cited, and with counter arguments, would make this even better.