EU Federalism

8 Pages 1991 Words

easing overtly federal principles, the criteria for a fully fledged, USA-style federalism are far from being met. It is concluded that a ‘federal Europe’ means something unique in world history, incomparable in totality to any other institutions. It is a combination of federalism and confederalism that presents an enigma of contradiction, yet stability and progression.
Most observers have recognised that the modern notion of ‘federalism’ came about following the 1787 Philadelphia Convention that established the United States of America, a federal state, from the previous confederation of States. The essence of confederation is the sovereignty of the member states. Like the pre-1787 American states, those in a confederation typically submit authority on issues affecting the collective as a whole to a confederal level of governance. Lister suggests fifteen characteristics of confederation, which set out this idea more fully. The essence is that a confederation is made up of states rather than individuals, generally established with a specific reason for being such as economic necessity or a military/security requirement. Sovereignty, in this system, remains in the hands of the member states and is only partially pooled with other members in specific areas. In contrast to this, federalism, in the sense that it emerged in the American Constitution creating the USA, is made up of individuals rather than states. The highest authority is the federal one and the existence of separate ‘states’ is to ensure effective government on the principle that the closer to the people decisions are made, the better they are (this is known in modern, European parlance as subsidiarity.) Some have suggested this distinction is inadequate and certainly, it is rather simplistic with the two ideas having much more in common, than the distinction suggests. Sidgewic...