What is EU? [II]

(..continued)

As I was previously saying, there are lively debated regarding the type of political organization the EU is, one of the reasons being that the EU is in constant transition. It is a highly complex, multi-faceted organization and in many respects the EU is unique, it is not of any (established) type: EU is a sui generis organization – the only one of its kind.

The EU is lacking some of the essential features which are necessary for a complete system of governance and which characterize Nation States. The EU is not a State; it derives its authority from its Member States.

The most important key characteristics of a State are:
1. territoriality - the state is geographically based and bound
2. sovereignty – the state stands above all other associations and groups within its geographical area and its jurisdiction extends to the whole population of the area
3. legitimacy – the authority of the state is widely recognized, both internally and externally
4. monopoly of governance – the institutions of the stat monopolize public decision-making and enforcement

These four feature do not all need to be present in a pure form for a state to exist, but they do need to feature prominently and to constitute the essential foundation of the system. With the EU, all four above mentioned features are present. Nevertheless, with the exception of territoriality, they are only partly and limited present.

1. Territoriality:
Geographically, the continent of Europe is more or less a distinct entity, forming a peninsula with its extensive sea-coasts in the North, the West and the South. As far as a land frontier in the East is concerned, the Ural Mountains form natural landmarks separating Europe from Asia, but one has to admit that it is not always obvious to decide, on purely geographical grounds, exactly where the limits are. Anyway, European Union’s territory does not coincide with the geographical continent of Europe, but it has its boundaries clearly established.

2. Sovereignty
EU does enjoy some sovereignty – as proven by the primacy of EU law and the fact that EU jurisdiction applies to the whole EU population- but the reach of that sovereignty is confined to the policy areas where the EU’s remit is established. Since sovereignty may be defined as the self-sufficient source of political power, from which all specific political powers are derived, we may say that a Nation State enjoys sovereignty and power as a matter of right, over all fields of government except for those which are specifically removed. Very clearly, the EU does not have such “independent sovereignty”. On the contrary, the EU is governed by the principle of the attribution of powers, which is enshrined in the EC Treaty : “The Community shall act within the limits of the powers conferred upon it by this Treaty and of the objectives assigned to it therein”. This means that, in contrast to Nation States, which are sovereign by definition, the EU has no power, except for those powers which have been specifically attributed to it by the Treaties. Each time the EU acts, it must do so on the basis of a specific Treaty provision which gives it the corresponding power.

3. Legitimacy
The EU does command legitimacy , but surveys show that its internal authority is somewhat thinly based, whilst its external authority is generally weak beyond the Common Commercial Policy. The EU does not derive its authority directly from its citizens but rather from its Member States (this is why I constantly say that we need referendum in all important European matters - at least for Treaties).

4. Monopoly of governance
As for monopoly of governance, although the EU has the power to regulate many sectors of the economy, far from being is such a position of dominance, the EU monopolizes governance in only a very few policy areas, and even then it is highly dependent on the Member States for policy enforcement. In addition, the EU citizenship is still limited developed. EU does not actually have control over all persons and things, as a Nation State has. It has to rely on the Member States to use the administrative and coercive machinery which is at their disposal alone, in order to ensure the proper application of EU law.

After having reviewed these different features of a State, one can reach the conclusion: the EU is not a State, but does display some of the traditional characteristics of a state, and the continuing development of the integration process inevitably means that these characteristics will strengthen (see Constitution , Reform Treaty etc.).
However the concept of the traditional statehood is braking down in the modern world, most particularly under the pressures of international interdependence and globalization. So, for example, no modern state can now be regarded as being fully sovereign in a de facto sense, and the EU Member States cannot even claim that they are fully sovereign in a de jure sense, because its Member States have not retained their full sovereignty and complete freedom to act; they have accepted to give up or to share some of their powers to the EU.

(to be continued)