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.

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?

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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 procedures and finally by the Council of Ministers. Both these institutions will be discussed below. It is also the guardian of the treaties, manages the European budget, which in reality is delegated to agencies working in the member states, and represents the European Union in various trade and co-operation negotiation. It can be seen here that the commission has a supranational role in it negotiations and as guardian of the treaties but as all proposed legislation must be approved by the Council of Ministers this provides an inter-governmental check on its supranational role.

The Council of Ministers is the most influential institution of the European Union. “It is a body with the characteristics of both a supranational and inter-governmental organisation, deciding some matter by QMV, and others by unanimity”(Serving the European Union, 2ed,1999:9). In practice however it is mainly inter-governmental because the members of the council are national government ministers and therefore decisions tend to be made on national interests and although QMV can be used in practice unanimity is still used This will have to change and due to enlargement more extensive use will be made of QMV, though issues such as taxation and foreign policy will still require unanimity.

The European Parliament (EP) is the most democratic of all the institutions of the EU as the citizens of the member states directly elect it. It has 3 main functions; it has legislative power, power over the budget and supervision of the executive. The first function that of legislative power and in this role its function is four fold. It has its long held consultative role, co-operation procedure, co-decision procedure and parliamentary assent for important international agreements such as the accession of new member states. The parliament is also required to approve the budget and also monitor the expenditure. The third and final function is scrutiny of the executive i.e. the Commission and the Council and in certain circumstance it will force the Commission to resign as it did in 1999. Most of the powers of the parliament are superficial and again the real power is still held with the Council of Ministers.

The European Council (EU Summits) is firmly an inter-governmental institution that meets twice a year and will normally consist of the heads of government of the member states, accompanied by their foreign ministers. The European Council meets to discuss the over all direction of the EU and give direction to the Commission. The European Council should not be mistaken for inter governmental conferences that meet to discuss and sign treaty proposal such as at Maastricht and Nice. The next inter-governmental conference will be held in 2004 in a venue yet to be decided.

The most supranational institutions of the EU are the European Courts of Justice. The ECJ is the final arbiter of all questions falling within the scope of the Union’s treaties and in some cases can over turn domestic legislation and legal rulings. This is because of the supremacy, while not explicitly mentioned in the treaties, it is clearly excepted, of European law over national law, but only within the treaties. “the ECJ has no power to overturn decisions of British courts. It helps UK courts apply community law by answering questions referred to it by British judges”(Europe Today,1997:6). This means that the ECJ is in some ways restricted as to its jurisdiction and therefore does not completely cover the definition of a states’ jurisdiction.

Economic And Monetary Union has created much debate especially in the United Kingdom about whether the EU is attempting to be a state. It is said that a common economic policy along with a common currency will make the EU a state. At the present time due to member states, such as the UK and Denmark opting out and creating what has been termed a two speed Europe this again shows that Europe has still some way to go before becoming a state.

There a number of other issues that has stopped the EU from assuming to many characteristics of a state. The EU has no common military forces nor does it have a common police force. Criminal law and penal codes still lie within national jurisdiction. Most citizens of the EU have little or no loyalty to the EU. Lastly and probably one of the most important reasons for the EU assuming little of the characteristics of a state is that any member state can at any time leave the Union and the nothing can be done to stop them

In conclusion we have shown that while the EU does indeed have some of the characteristics of a state. Due to the influence that the intergovernmental institutions such as the Council of Minister and the EU Summits have in the legislation and direction process of the EU these characteristics are superficial. It can be seen in our argument that the institutions such as the Commission, the EP have limited remits and when it come to the real decisions of the EU it is an inter-governmental process as opposed to supranational. The ECJ and Economic and Monetary Union appear to be the most effective characteristics of a state but a limited remit and a 2 speed Europe effect these. The issues of defence; policing and the ability to secede from the union only reinforces the argument that the EU has not yet assumed many characteristics of a state and that control of the EU is still inter-governmental.

Bibliography

Rhodes, M; Heywood, P; Wright eds, 1997, Developments in West European Politics, London & Basingstoke, McMillan

Heywood, P. 1997, Politics, London & Basingstoke, McMillan

Nugent, N. 1999, The Government and Politics of the European Union 4th ed, London & Basingstoke, London & Basingstoke

Urwin, DW. 1997, A Political History of Western Europe since 1945 5th ed, London & New York, Longman

Hauge, R; Harrop, M; & Breslin, S, 1992, Comparative Government and Politics 3rd ed, London & Basingstoke, MacMillan

Giddens A (1993), Sociology, Cambridge, Polity Press

European Union Publications

Serving the European Union 2nded, 1999: Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities

Dr Klaus-Dieter Boracht, 2000, The ABC of Community Law, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities

Europe Today, 1997, Euopean Commission, Cliffe Enterprise

Web sites

www.eu2001.se/eu2001/main

Teacher Reviews

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Grace Thomas

24th of Apr 2012

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.

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