Creation and Operation of the European Union - Essay Example

The idea that informed the process of European integration was to establish an institutional framework of shared sovereignty within the EU economy. The eventual aim of the integration process is to foster economic integration which will ultimately form a framework for political integration at a later stage. European integration is informed by the regional integration theory whose greatest proponent was Stanley Hoffman (Cini, 2006, p. 19). According to Hoffman, regional integration theory asserts that national governments (which are sovereign) should control the speed and level of integration in the region that they exist in.

This is evident in the European Union integration where the national governments are playing an active role in controlling the speed and level of European integration. Hoffman argues that this theory requires any amplification of power at “supranational” to be a result of member states’ direct decisions. European integration was formed on the basis of regional integration theory which believes that integration which is driven by national governments is based on the economic and political issues that affect individual member states at a given period of time (Wiener and Diez, 2009, p. 33).

Although when the European Union was formed the idea was to make it operate under the concept of integration, the European Union is currently operating under the concept of intergovernmentalism. According to Nugent (2006, p. 17), integovernmentalism is defined as the arrangements where national governments in conditions and situations can control and cooperate with each other on issues that are of common interest. He goes further and states that the existence of control usually allows the member states to make decisions on the nature and extent of the cooperation between them without undermining directly their sovereignty. From this definition it can be deduced, therefore, that inter-governmental is a concept that treats national governments as primary actors in the process of integration.

The proponents of inter-governmental see the integration terms and the rules that guide the process, as well as its institutions as a reflection of the relative bargaining power of different national governments who “pool” its efficiency and effectiveness without abnegating their sovereignty (Sweet and Sandholts, 2007, p. 298). Based on the concept of intergovernmental, the European Union has assigned the implementation and monitoring of intergovernmental agreements responsibilities to international courts and secretariats as a way of locking each national government into integration commitment.

This aspect is informed by the logic that through international courts and secretariats, national governments will be made to be the promulgators, initiators, mediators, promoters, and legislators of broadening and deepening of the European integration (Cini, 2006, p. 89).