What Makes the European Union Different From Other International Organizations - Essay Example

?The European Union is often referred to as an international organisation sui generis (of its own kind). What makes the European Union actually different from other international organisations? As an international organization encompassing political, legal and economic integration, the EU is sui generis in that it is different from other international organisations.1 It is commonly argued that when the EU is compared to other international organizations such as the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, it stands apart both institutionally and constitutionally.2 From a purely legal perspective, international organizations are usually distinguished from one another on the basis that they are either intergovernmental organizations or supranational organizations. An international organization is defined as a “body that promotes voluntary cooperation and coordination between or among its members”.3 The EU promotes coordination and cooperation among its members, but this coordination and cooperation is found in binding treaties. Therefore the EU is primarily regarded as a supranational organization since it requires the transfer of some measure of sovereignty to the organs of the EU. Moreover, many decisions made by the EU are enforceable irrespective of member state cooperation and coordination.4 For example, in Cassis de Dijon the European Court of Justice ruled that a member state could not impose qualitative restrictions on goods from another member state.5 Moreover, in Kramer, it was held that where the EC had competence in a policy area, the member state could not act on its own accord.6 Thus the ECJ has ruled against the exercise of state sovereignty in giving force to the idea of a supranational EU. It has also been argued however, that the EU is nothing more than an example of regional integration since much of the political and economic integration networks within the EU, like all other regional organizations, depend on Member States’ voluntary compliance.7 In this paper it is argued, that although the EU may share some similarities with regional and international organizations, it is substantively different and can best be described as a supranational organization and is the only one of its kind. The most important differences between the EU and other international organizations is the concept of shared sovereignty. From its inception, with the implementation of the Treaty of Rome 1957, the founding of the European Economic Community which only constituted 6 states, was an agreement in which each of the states “agreed to limit, but not totally transfer national sovereignty” in terms of “economic policy to a set of common institutions”.8 By virtue of the Treaty of Rome 1957, Member States agreed to common economic policies and the removal of trade barriers.9 While this alone would have made the founding arm of the EU similar to the World Trade Organization, the Treaty of Rome went farther requiring the establishment of a European Bank, policies for increasing employment and an amalgamation of transport and agricultural policies.10 In addition, sovereignty was transferred from among the Member States in terms of keeping with the common market principles to a Council of Europe, a Commission and a Court of Justice.11 With more states joining the Community, the Treaty of the European Union 1993 was signed in 1992 and is also known as the Maastricht Treaty which “absorbed the former” Community.12 The new Treaty (which has been amended to further clarify the functioning of the EU, by the Treaty of Lisbon 2007) went beyond economic union and added a pillar of political and legal union among the Member States.13 The Maastricht Treaty established a European Parliament and a Court of Auditors which expanded on the institutions developed by the Treaty of Rome 1957.14 In addition, the Maastricht Treaty established citizenship of all citizens of Member States.15 This aspect of citizenship not only cedes some measure of sovereignty to the EU, but also sets the EU apart from any other international organization on another level. As Bellamy and Warleigh note, “no other international organization has citizens of its own”.16 Moreover, no other international organization is structured to permit “ordinary people” a “direct” or “mediated relationship with” it and its institutions.17 Even so, the German Constitutional Court, in interpreting European Union citizenship admitted that the EU attempts to compensate for the “considerable degree of excessive federalization” by improving the rights of citizens to participate.18 However, the German Constitutional Court held that even with the amendments by the Treaty of Lisbon, there is no decision-making body within the EU the genuinely represents the will of the majority of citizenship in the EU.19 Citizens’ representation within the EU comes from their respective elected national members of Parliament.20 Regardless, the effect of the EU treaties and the new economic, political and legal order confers upon citizens of the Union the right to enforce their Community rights under EU law. It was established by the European Court of Justice in Van Gend en Loos v Netherlands, and Costa, that Community law is supreme over national laws of the various Member States. The effect of the supremacy of Community law is that a new legal order was established in which Member States have ceded, albeit, voluntarily, their sovereignty.21 Martinez argues that international organizations such as the United Nations tend to require that member states cede some measure of sovereignty but usually for a limited and common purpose.22 The EU goes beyond requiring Member States to cede sovereignty for limited and common purposes. The EU has established a legal, economic and political order in which Member States are essentially required to recognize the EU’s authority over national laws and public international law.23 This is highly unusual and further distinguishes the EU as an international organization from other international organizations. For the most part, when an international treaty is accepted as binding on the laws of any country, it will not reign supreme over that member state’s Constitution which is regarded as the supreme law of the land.24 Bibliography Textbooks Bellamy, R. and Warleigh, A. ‘Introduction: The Puzzle of EU Citizenship.’ In Bellamy, R. and Warleigh, (Eds.). Citizenship and Governance in the European Union, (London, UK: Continuum, 2001) Ch. 1. Duncan, W. R.; Jancar-Webster, B. and Switky, B. World Politics in the 21st Century. (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009). Martinez, M.M.M. National Sovereignty and International Organizations. (The Hague, The Netherlands: Kluwer Law International, 1996). Martinico, G. and Pollicino, O. The Interaction Between Europe’s Legal Systems: Judicial Dialogue and the Creation of Supranational Laws, (Cheltenham, Glos., UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2012). McCormick, J. The European Union: Politics and Policies. (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999). Journal Articles Besselink, LF.M. ‘National and Constitutional Identity Before and After Lisbon.’ (November 2010) 6(3) Utrecht Law Review, 36-49. Kokott, J. and Sobotta, C. ‘The Kadi Case – Constitutional Core Values and International Law – Finding the Balance?’ (2012) 23 (4) The European Journal of International Law, 1015-1024. Lickova, M. ‘European Exceptionalism in International Law.’ (2008) 19(3) European Journal of International Law, 463-490. Schmidt, V. A. ‘The European Union: Democratic Legitimacy in a Regional State?’ (December 2004) 42(5) JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 976-997. Wells, S. B. and Wells, Jr., S. F. ‘Share Sovereignty in the European Union: Germany’s Economic Governance.’ (Spring/Summer 2008) Yale Journal of International Affairs, 30-43. Wessel, R.A. ‘The Dynamics of the European Union Legal Order: An Increasingly Coherent Framework of Action and Interpretation.’ (2009) 5 European Constitutional Law Review, 117-142. Miscellaneous Papers Hlavac, M. ‘Less Than a State, More Than an International Organization: The Sui Generis Nature of the European Union.’ (December 2010) MPRA Munich Personal RePEc Archive, Paper No. 27179, 1-17. Treaties Treaty of Lisbon 2007. Treaty of Rome 1957. Treaty of the European Union, 1993. Cases 2 BvE 2/08 Gauweiler v Treaty of Lisbon, Judgment of 30 June 2009 In Chalmers, D.; Davies, G. and Monti, G. European Union Law: Cases and Materials, (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 2nd Edition) 44, para. 290. Cassis de Dijon [1979] Case 120/78. Kramer Case C-3/76 [1976] ECR 1279. Van Gend en Loos v Netherlands Case 26/62 (1963) ECR 1. Read More