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The political structure of theEuropean Union (EU) is similar to aconfederation, where many policy areas arefederalised into commoninstitutions capable of making law; the competences to controlforeign policy,defence policy, or the majority ofdirect taxation policies are mostly reserved for the twenty-seven state governments (the Union does limit the level of variation allowed forVAT). These areas are primarily under the control of theEU's member states although a certain amount of structured co-operation and coordination takes place in these areas. For the EU to take substantial actions in these areas, all Member States must give their consent.Union laws that override State laws are more numerous than in historical confederations; however, the EU is legally restricted from making law outside its remit or where it is no more appropriate to do so at a state or local level (subsidiarity) when acting outside its exclusive competences. The principle of subsidiarity does not apply to areas of exclusive competence.
The common institutions mix theintergovernmental andsupranational (similar to federal) aspects of the EU. TheEU treaties declare the Union to be based onrepresentative democracy, and direct elections take place in theEuropean Parliament. The Parliament, together with theCouncil, form the legislative arm of the EU. The council is composed of state governments, thus representing the intergovernmental nature of the EU. Laws are proposed by theEuropean Commission which is appointed by and accountable to the Parliament and Council although it has very few executive powers.
Although direct elections take place every five years, there are no cohesive political parties in the national sense. Instead, there are alliances of ideologically associated parties who sit and vote together in Parliament. The two largest parties are theEuropean People's Party (centre-right, mostlyChristian Democrat) and theParty of European Socialists (centre-left, mostlySocial Democrat) with the former forming the largest group in Parliament since 1999. As well as there being left and right dividing lines in European politics, there are also divides between those for and againstEuropean integration (Pro-Europeanism andEuroscepticism) which shapes the continually changing nature of the EU which adopts successive reforming treaties. The latter was a significant political force in theUnited Kingdom in the decades and years beforeleaving the Union, and some member states are less integrated than others due to legalopt-outs.
- The functioning of the Union shall be founded on representative democracy.
- Citizens are directly represented at Union level in the European Parliament. Member States are represented in the European Council by their Heads of State or Government and in the Council by their governments, themselves democratically accountable either to their national Parliaments, or to their citizens.
- Every citizen shall have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union. Decisions shall be taken as openly and as closely as possible to the citizen.
- Political parties at European level contribute to forming European political awareness and to expressing the will of citizens of the Union.
The democraticlegitimation of the European Union rests on the Treaty System. The move toward unification first arose in theKellogg-Briand Pact in 1928, which gained adherent countries during negotiations and took on a theme of integration for the achievement of peace between the Great Powers.[1] After the Second World War, European society sought to end conflict permanently between states, seeing the rivalry between France and Germany as the most worrying example. In the spirit of the Marshall Plan[how?], those two states signed theTreaty of Paris in 1951, establishing the European Coal and Steel Community. Since then, the Treaty of Paris, which focused on price setting and competition for purposes of a common market, has been superseded. The legal basis for the European Community now rests on two treaties: theTreaty of Rome of 1958; and theTreaty of Maastricht of 1992. The various additions and modifications of treaties has led to a patchwork of policy and planning, which contributes to the unwieldiness of the EU. The pastiche of treaties, and not a single actualising charter of government, form the constitutional basis of the European Union. This ambiguity is what critics call a primary cause of "democratic deficit."
The EU itself is alegal personality and a set of governing institutions empowered by the treaties. However sovereignty is not invested in those institutions, it ispooled with ultimate sovereignty resting with the state governments. Yet in those areas where the EU has been granted competences, it does have the power to pass binding and direct laws upon its members.
The competences of the European Union stem from the original Coal and Steel Community, which had as its goal an integrated market. The original competences were regulatory in nature, restricted to matters of maintaining a healthy business environment. Rulings were confined to laws covering trade, currency, and competition. Increases in the number of EU competences result from a process known as functional spillover. Functional spillover resulted in, first, the integration of banking and insurance industries to manage finance and investment. The size of the bureaucracies increased, requiring modifications to the treaty system as the scope of competences integrated more and more functions. While member states hold their sovereignty inviolate, they remain within a system to which they have delegated the tasks of managing the marketplace. These tasks have expanded to include the competences of free movement of persons, employment, transportation, and environmental regulation.
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TheOrdinary Legislative Procedure (OLP) is the formal, main legislative procedure. In OLP, the European Parliament (EP) and the Council act in much the same way as a bicameral congress, such as the British Upper and Lower Houses or the American Congress. The co-decision rule in Maastricht, and the subsequentLisbon Treaty, ultimately gave the EP and the Council equal weight and formalised OLP as the main legislative procedure. It also gives the EP veto power. The two legislative powers of the OLP are directives and regulations. A directive requires the member states to pass the new law individually, a process called "transposition." The difference in the timing of completing transposition is the "democratic deficit." A regulation acts on all the member states at once and is effective immediately.
The other legislation option is the Special Legislative Procedure (SLP). The SLP consists of the passing of laws proposed by member states, the Central Bank or Investment Bank, or the Court of Justice. Judicial activism—the interpretation of the spirit of law rather than the letter of law—is handled by the SLP. The procedure is discussed either in the EP with consultation with the council, or in the council with participation of the EP. In other words, the consultative role stops short of the equal weight given to both the EP and the council. While provided for in the treaties, the SLP is not as formal as the OLP, relying less on the hierarchical structure. This lends more credence to Kleine's argument of the contrariness of the EU's agenda-setting procedure.[3]
In the OLP, there are four types of rulings: Regulations, Directives, Decisions, and Recommendations. Decision-making is shared by the European Parliament and the council, which are equally weighted. Regulations are binding on all member states effective immediately. Directives are binding on all member states, but the implementation is left up to the national courts in a process called transposition. However, since member states set their own timelines for transposition, there is a democratic deficit between states. Decisions are binding on non-state litigants to whom they are addressed.[4]Recommendations are intended to guide legal judgments and are non-binding, similar to opinions.
In the SLP, the council is the sole ruling body. The European Parliament is involved strictly in a consultative role and can be ignored.
There are twenty-sevenmember states who have conferred powers upon the EU institutions (other countries aretied to the EU in other ways). In exchange for conferring competences, EU states are assigned votes in theCouncil,seats in Parliament and aEuropean Commissioner among other things. The internal government of member states vary between presidential systems, monarchies, federations, andmicrostates however all members must respect theCopenhagen criteria of being democratic, respecting human rights and having afree market economy. Members joined over time, starting withthe original six in 1958 andmore members joining in the near future.
Some member states are outside certain areas of the EU, for example theeurozone is composed of only 20 of the 27 members and theSchengen Agreement currently includes only 25 of the EU members. However, the majority of these are in the process of joining these blocs. A number of countries outside the EU are involved in certain EU activities such as the euro, Schengen, single market or defence.[5][6][7]
The primary institutions of the European Union are theEuropean Commission, theCouncil of the European Union (Council), theEuropean Council and theEuropean Parliament.
Theordinary legislative procedure, applies to nearly all EU policy areas. Under the procedure, the Commission presents a proposal to Parliament and the council. They then send amendments to the Council which can either adopt the text with those amendments or send back a "common position". That proposal may either be approved or further amendments may be tabled by the Parliament. If the Council does not approve those, then a "Conciliation Committee" is formed. The committee is composed of the Council members plus an equal number of MEPs who seek to agree a common position. Once a position is agreed, it has to be approved by Parliament again by anabsolute majority.[8][9] There are other special procedures used in sensitive areas which reduce the power of Parliament.
TheEuropean Parliament shares thelegislative and budgetary authority of the Union with the council. Its 720members are elected every five years byuniversal suffrage and sit according topolitical allegiance. It represents allEuropean Citizens in the EU's legislative process, in contrast to the council, which represents the Member States. Despite forming one of thetwo legislative chambers of the Union, it has weaker powers than the Council in some limited areas, and does not havelegislative initiative. It does, however, have powers over the Commission which the Council does not.[10] The powers of the Parliament have increased substantially over the years, and in nearly all areas it now has equal power to the council.
TheEuropean Council is the group ofheads of state orgovernment of the EUmember states. It meets four times a year to define the Union's policy agenda and give impetus to integration. ThePresident of the European Council is the person responsible for chairing and driving forward the work of the institution, which has been described as the highest political body of the European Union.[11]
TheCouncil of the European Union (informally known as the Council of Ministers or just the council) is a body holding legislative and some limited executive powers and is thus the main decision-making body of the Union. ItsPresidency rotates between thestates every six months. The council is composed of twenty-seven nationalministers (one per state). However, the Council meets in various forms depending upon the topic. For example, if agriculture is being discussed, the council will be composed of each national minister for agriculture. They represent their governments and are accountable to their national political systems. Votes are taken either by majority or unanimity with votes allocated according to population.[12]
TheEuropean Commission is composed of one appointee from each state, currently twenty-seven, but is designed to be independent of national interests. The body is responsible for drafting alllaw of the European Union and has a monopoly overlegislative initiative. It also deals with the day-to-day running of the Union and has a duty to uphold the law andtreaties (in this role it is known as the "Guardian of the Treaties").[13]
The commission is led by aPresident who is nominated by the council (in practice theEuropean Council) and approved by Parliament. The remaining twenty-seven Commissioners are nominated by member-states, in consultation with the President, and has their portfolios assigned by the President. The Council then adopts this list of nominee-Commissioners. The council's adoption of the commission is not an area which requires the decision to be unanimous, their acceptance is arrived at according to the rules forqualified majority voting. The European Parliament then interviews and casts its vote upon the Commissioners. The interviews of individual nominees are conducted separately, in contrast to Parliament's vote of approval which must be cast on the commission as a whole without the ability to accept or reject individual Commissioners. Once approval has been obtained from the Parliament the Commissioners can take office.[14] The current president isUrsula von der Leyen (EPP); she was elected in 2019.[13]
Direct elections take place to the European Parliament every five years. The Council and European Council is composed of nationally elected or appointed officials and thus are accountable according to national procedures. The commission also is not directly elected although future appointments of the President must take into account of results of Parliament's elections.
Parliament's elections are held byuniversal suffrage ofEU citizens according to national restrictions (such as age and criminal convictions).Proportional representation is used in allparliamentary constituencies.[15]Members of the European Parliament cannot also be elected nationally and are elected innational or sub-national constituencies. The first such election wasin 1979, and the latest election wasin 2024. The turnout was steadily falling in every EU election since 1979, until 2019, where it increased 8pp from 42.6% to 50.7%, and then again in 2024 by 0.39 pp to 51.05%[16]
As of 2024, Bulgaria'sGERB, Croatia'sHDZ, Cyprus’DISY, Germany'sCDU/CSU, Hungary'sFidesz, Malta'sLabour Party and Sweden’sSwedish Social Democratic have won seats in every EU election.
Political parties across member states organise themselves with like-minded parties intoEuropean political parties. Most national parties are now members of a European political party. European parties behave and operate to a certain extent like national parties, receive public funding from the European Union, and put forward manifestos during the campaigns for the European elections.
European parties are horizontally present in all the main institutions – Council, Commission, Parliament – but are most active through theirpolitical groups of the European Parliament. At the beginning of every parliamentary term, European parties organise themselves, including with non-member national parties or independent candidates, to form a political group. No European party has ever held a majority in the European Parliament, however this does not have a great impact, as European parties or groups do not form a government; however, pro-European political parties usually agree among themselves to elect thePresident of the European Parliament.[17][18][19]
The EU's chief diplomat, sometimes dubbed itsforeign minister, is theHigh Representative,Kaja Kallas.The foreign policy of the European Union is characterised as being:[20]
TheFinancial Perspective for 2007–2013 was defined in 2005 when EU members agreed to fix the common budget to 1.045% of the European GDP.[21] UK Prime MinisterTony Blair agreed to review theBritish rebate, negotiated byMargaret Thatcher in 1984. Former French presidentJacques Chirac declared this increase in the budget will permit Europe to "finance common policies" such as theCommon Agricultural Policy or theResearch and Technological Development Policy. France's demand to lower theVAT in catering was refused.[22] Controversial issues during budget debates include the British rebate, France's benefits from the Common Agricultural Policy, Germany and the Netherlands' large contributions to the EU budget, reform of theEuropean Regional Development Funds, and the question of whether theEuropean Parliament should continue to meet both inBrussels andStrasbourg.
TheTreaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (TCE), commonly referred to as the European Constitution, is an internationaltreaty intended to create a constitution for the European Union. The constitution was rejected by France and the Netherlands, where referendums were held[23] causing other countries to postpone or halt theirratification procedures. Late in 2009, a newReform Treaty was ratified by all member states of the European Union, and took effect on 1 December 2009.
Enlargement of the Union's membership is a major political issue, with division over how far the bloc should expand. While some see it as a major policy instrument aiding the Union's development, some fear over-stretch and dilution of the Union.[24][25]
"Counter-nationalistic shearing stress" is the term coined by one commentator for the theoretical tendency of certain regions of larger countries of the EU to wish to become fully independent members within the wider context of the European Union's "bigger umbrella". If the Union is to become "ever closer", it follows that regions with their own distinctive histories and identities within the existing member nations may see little reason to have a layer of "insulation" between themselves and the EU. The surprisingly close vote onScottish Independence in September 2014 may be seen in this context. Others have suggested that regions of Germany could be candidates for "Euro-Balkanisation", particularly given Germany's commitment to the EU project and to a more nuanced, mature view of the notion of national allegiance.
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91–100% 81–90% 71–80% | 61–70% 51–60% |
Publictrust in the European Union in 2024 according toEurobarometer:[27]
| Country | Tend to trust[27] in % | Tend to not trust[27] in % |
|---|---|---|
 Austria | 46 | 46 |
 Belgium | 53 | 43 |
 Bulgaria | 52 | 34 |
 Croatia | 57 | 37 |
 Cyprus | 40 | 53 |
 Czechia | 43 | 49 |
 Denmark | 69 | 26 |
 Estonia | 51 | 31 |
 Finland | 62 | 22 |
 France | 34 | 54 |
 Germany | 47 | 44 |
 Greece | 45 | 52 |
 Hungary | 53 | 41 |
 Ireland | 56 | 30 |
 Italy | 50 | 42 |
 Latvia | 50 | 32 |
 Lithuania | 68 | 20 |
 Luxembourg | 56 | 32 |
 Malta | 51 | 34 |
 Netherlands | 60 | 37 |
 Poland | 52 | 36 |
 Portugal | 68 | 24 |
 Romania | 58 | 34 |
 Slovakia | 51 | 39 |
 Slovenia | 39 | 55 |
 Spain | 50 | 41 |
 Sweden | 63 | 28 |
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