Meeting the Objectives of the EU: What They Are, What They Entail for Member Nations, and Why They Are Difficult to Attain Without Absolute Supremacy
That it would be difficult for the European Union (EU) to meet its objectives effectively without the principle of supremacy is true enough, but what are the objectives that the EU desires to meet? Can what is good for Croatia be equally good or even relevant to nations like UK, France or Spain? If supremacy is important, who is supreme? In modern times, behind federalist powers always lurks a deeper state (Scott, 2007). Identifying the deeper state then becomes necessary in understanding the EU's objectives. However, if the objectives of the EU are to preserve the sovereignty and dignity of its member states, the principle of supremacy may not be the best option, as the Treaty of Lisbon appears to recognize. This paper will discuss the claim that without the principle of supremacy the EU could not survive and show how the conflict between what is good for individual nations and what is good for the "Union," or the deeper state, are at times directly opposed.
The Treaty of Lisbon, prepared in 2007 and ratified in 2009, has also been known as the Reform Treaty. It at first appears to be a concession to the different character and needs of the EU states. This is suggested by the fact that one of the most important changes to the European constitution was a change in voting procedure in 45 policy areas, from unanimity to qualified majority. Rather than all or nothing, there is now only a need for a majority, meaning that no one state can block a vote with its dissent. However, the "qualified majority" is a deceptive term, which alludes to a "double majority." The Treaty of Lisbon also extended the term of the President of the European Council and strengthened and solidified the European Parliament. These actions have a more binding effect on the EU and point in the direction of supremacy in action. So while the Treaty also supplied states the legal means to quit the Union, the overall structural reforms of the Treaty clearly suggest a greater desire for centralization, as Bonde (2008) indicated. Thus, the Treaty gives the impression of granting concessions to individual nations' rights, but in effect it consolidates power at a federal level.
What can be seen, therefore, from the Treaty of Lisbon is a tug-of-war between national interests and the deep state interests of a centralized Union. The objectives of the two do sometimes overlap, but not in every case, as Ireland's rejection of the Treaty in 2008, which held ratification up for a year. Ireland was ultimately "brought to heel" so to speak in a "dramatic U-turn" of voting constituencies (McDonald, 2009). The U-turn was so dramatic that anti-Lisbon leader Richard Greene appealed to the UK's David Cameron to do something to stop "the drive towards an EU superstate" (McDonald, 2009).
Indeed, debate has flared up in the British Parliament concerning the EU's new powers, with some members recommending withdrawal from the Union altogether (Lords debates case for UK's membership of EU, 2014). Withdrawal, of course, could be a death blow to the Union, as secession is an action which can quickly become a trend, if history is to judge (Foote, 1974).
Still, to understand the EU, its consolidation of power, the role of the member nations, and the objectives of national interests vs. European Union interests, it is necessary to look more deeply into the complex structure of the "deep state" that exists behind the EU.
The EU developed out of a merger of the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community in the 1950s in the countries of Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and Netherlands. Following WW2, these "Inner Six" countries heeded the Schuman Declaration which proposed the industrial and economic organization of European powers under a supranational community, with the avoidance of war and division being the impetus for the call. As the post-War world was being "carved up" by strategists and magnates, this uber-fascist merger of business and state powers served as the foundation for the modern EU. The control of the coal and steel industries eventually gave rise to control of the finance industry, which today bears an overwhelming force on European affairs (as can be seen by the IMF's "loan" to Ukraine in the past year) (Escobar, 2014). But these controls had their beginnings prior to WW2. The modern industrialized world has been nothing...
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