The European Union Mechanism - Essay Example

The European Union Mechanism Introduction European Union is regarded a collection of European countries that have come together in a formal association for the sole purpose of co-operating and working hand in hand to achieve a common goal of political, social and above all economic sustenance and growth. By 2003, there were 15 member states at the European Union although an additional 12 countries had applied for their incorporation into the Union by the year 2005. As formal association, the European Union is mandated by its member countries to develop policies that touch on the various issues of the member states. The policies developed at the European Union are developed by a complex structure incorporated in the European Union mechanism. Among the main goals and objectives of the European Union when it was first instituted was focused on economic stability and growth. In summary, the European Union’s concept was founded on three crucial economic theories. The three economic theories are; the free market, comparative advantage and economies of scale. Although the European Union is attributed to many economical responsibilities within its member states, it has also faced numerous social and economic challenges that continue to emerge from the member states. For instance, the high rate of unemployment in some of its member states has raised eyebrows on the equal and genuine contribution of the European Union among the numerous member states. Although the businesses in the European Union member states have been recording high profit margins, the same cannot be said of the GDP whose growth has been slow. Federalism approach  In order to comprehend and understand as why dialogue among the European Union member states sensitive policies is not taking place, one has to check at the various phases of the European Union integration operation. The European Union integration has evolved in different periods. Despite the numerous periods of evolving undergone by the European Union, there are two approaches to integration that were revealed clearly during the post-war period. The two approaches were the intergovermentalist and the federalist. Federalism according to majority of the academics is regarded as the appropriate solution to the conflicting European nations. The federalist approach is regarded as the strategy of achieving a common purpose. The current European federalism idea traces its roots to the unclear vision of a United Europe. This ambiguity vision had two perspectives. In the first perspective integration was regarded as a federal project as well as an institution that responded to particular issues that faced Europe in its post-war period. The second perspective was comprised of European integration that comprised of a combination of federal elements that lowered and confederal elements that solidifies the national sovereignty. In Europe, the federal project is undermined by the emphasis on institutional establishment as well as the neglect to participate in active and creative support of the citizens in the European Union. The recent constitutional of European Union in 2005, the divisions that sit deep in the Union and the multilevel governance theories are regarded as signs of federalism. Proponents of the treaty advocated for the European Federation while opponents of the treaty were rooted to the idea of confederation of Europe that is established member states that are sovereign. The shift from treaty federalism to constitution federalism according to Ward is bound to give rise to resistance and heated debate over the precise intension and objective of European integration. After a downfall of constitutional treaty, the Lisbon treaty was negotiated which reflected the older model version of treaty federalism. However, the Lisbon treaty is regarded as a representation of federal relations in the European Union that is bound to have a huge impact on the future confederal system of Europe (Ward, 2009, p. 281). In the germination and development of political ideas aimed at building of Europe, federalism is attributed as a detailed idea that holds a particular vision of a European reality that is evolving. In order for this vision to transform to reality, the Western Europe post-war period needs to be revised. This is because there is a high possibility of converting the federal idea that incorporates reality into practical action. Over the years, the federal idea has been portrayed by critics and opponents as something that is recognizable and at the same time hopeless. According to Burgess, federalism continues to irritate well-learned observers of the transforming European Union because the focus of these observers on the federal idea is primarily focused on the European Union rather than the broader picture of national context. In addition, these critics tend to argue out that, nations like Germany, Switzerland and United States federal experience is part and parcel of a complicated historical process that entails state building. However the critics fail to understand that when the federal idea is transposed to the European Union level, the nightmare scenarios involved will require imagination to understand as this will be the price to pay for development of Europe (Burgess, 2000, p. xi). The research on federalism of Anglo-American tradition that was conducted recently revealed a federal thought that still exists and it is not known to majority of the scholars. This federal thought is regarded as a source European federalism, which differs from the liberal enlightenment and it is situated in the covenant theory. The research brought into existence traditions incorporated in federalism. Inter – governmental approach In the European Union, the incorporation of intergovernmental system indicates that the critical actors would be the national government. The government’s mandate of sending representatives to the European Union is regarded as legitimization of the voters indirectly as the voters elect their national government who in return appoint the European level representatives. Other International organizations also make use of this system as the national government is regarded as the representative of the voters and therefore, it means that they held the responsibility of representing them on the international level. While some scholars argue that the intergovernmental approach is the best system to be incorporated in the European level, majority of the scholars tend to disagree as they argue out that the complex decision making power possessed by the European Union rules it out from this system. The use of the intergovernmental system is not advisable choice of system in the European Union as the national governments involved are not able to manipulate the decisions made at the European Union level. In addition, this limited acting ability is experienced by the national governments as the European law is regarded to be superior to the state law. On implementation of the European Union law, it is close to impossibility for the national member states to redeem their previous positions in terms of influence. At this point, the influence held by the European Union rises and becomes a critical factor in the years to come. For instance, the influence held by the European Union surpasses that of other international organizations as it is attributed to reach at the ground levels of citizens. The decisions made at the European Union may in turn not reflect the positions of the national governments who are representing the voters in their respective countries. In summation, the intergovernmental approach system has many disadvantages in the sense that it is not supposed to be one of the major topics of discussions in the European Union politics. In addition to this, the citizens deserve a higher rank representation when regarding the ever-increasing influence of the EU in the day-to-day activities (Schmidt, 2007, p. 5). The intergovernmental approach is regarded as a realistic approach. This kind of system was present in the post-war era. In 1948, the intergovernmental system was regarded as a world system, which incorporated main actors who stopped at nothing in order to make sure the goals or strategies set are achieved. While considering in a realistic perspective the interaction between states that is composed of conflicting international surroundings, the main issue is that it is central in despite the shift in power. Criticisms have emerged on the realistic approach as evolution is taking place the possibility of characterizing states in terms of unitary actors is not possible. In his 1966 critique of the intergovernmental neo-functional approach, Stanely Hoffman developed a number of elements realistic approach. The emphasis was focused on the crucial role played by international environment and the national government in an adversarial system of the world. It was in his argument that Hoffman indicated that the logic of diversity which is different from the initiative of achieve complete harmonization, prevails and at the same time it sets the extent of spillover as expected by the neo-functionalists (Apap, 2002, p. 60 &61). Council minster QMV + V In the European Union law the council of ministers have the mandate of adopting directives. In the adopting of the directives, the member states involved are bounded by this decision. Not only are the member states bounded by the decision of adopting the directives, but also emanation of the states such as the local authority and the NHS Trusts are also bound by the directives. This therefore indicates that the employee is at liberty to go to court and sue their employer’s in case of a breach of the directive even by an article. The private employers are also bound by the directive but in an indirect manner and it is a requirement that the directive should be incorporated to the legislation of each and every member states within the timescale set aside. In the European Union, voting is regarded as important as the actual voting process in a democratic state. The process of making decisions is illustrates the importance of the decision made. In the voting system incorporated in the European Union, is depended on various factors. The various institutions of the European Union are equipped with various methods. For instance, the European Council uses consensus to make its decisions. The ECL, EP and the commission mainly uses the voting process but which is based on the majority divisions. The Council of Ministers is where all attention needs to be directed, as it is this council that can be used to influence directly the European Union on daily basis, and above all, the Council of Ministers has the final word in regards to legislation in the European Union. Unanimity voting that is normally exercised in the UN Security council is also used in the Council of Ministers but in this case, the situations are limited, upon which the voting can be used. For instance the Unanimity voting is applied in cases where there is to a decision to be made regarding incorporation of a new member into the Union and other areas such as security policy and taxation issues. Each member state of the European Union is responsible of veto power in case the unanimity vote is used. On discovering the slow progress in passing of crucial legislations when the Veto power is used, the European Union resolved to the use of simple majority the comprised to over 50 percent of the member states (Duncun, 2009, p. 191). Qualified majority voting (QMV) is another voting rule that is commonly used by the European Union. This rule is associated by the Council of Ministers in the European Union. This voting rule indicates that the larger member states countries have more votes as compared to their smaller counterparts’ member states. In 2004 the European Union expanded and larger countries such as France, Italy, United Kingdom and Germany are regarded to have attained 29 votes each while smaller countries like Sweden and Austria have ten votes each and lastly the tiny country of Malta is attributed to 3 votes. This therefore indicates that, a majority pass of legislation needs to be over 255 votes out of a possible 354 votes. This kind of voting system does not indicate a true Union within the member state of the European Union, as some countries are considered superior while others are inferior. Matters that do not require unanimous votes are often decided by the QMV. Issues that involve the health and safety of workers as well as the safety of products, are normally decided by the QMV where each member is designated votes according to its population. The Council of Ministers is entitled to make recommendations. Despite the fact that the recommendations have a huge impact the fact remains that the recommendations are not legal binding (Aw et al, 2007, p. 331). Single European market Numerous treaties as well as amendments had been decided upon and passed. In 1980s, there were attempts to revive the 1960s excitements and the different head of governments in the EC met in Luxembourg and came up with different amendments to be incorporated in the Rome treaty, which incorporated the Single European Act (SEM). The signatories of this act that came into effect in July 1, 1987, had pledged to help establish a single market, which meant an internal market that was free among the member states. According to the Act a single market is defined as an area free from internal frontiers where the provisions of treaty ensures that the movement of persons, services, goods and capital is free. By inter alia the act seeks to ensure the movement of goods is not affected by technical barriers, subsidy policies, and national restrictions. The Single European Act (SEA) is one of the major commitments that gave rise to the fulfillment of single market (Cruz, 1999, p. 144) Two objectives were considered upon completion of SEM by January 1, 1993. The first objective was removal of artificial barriers in order to stimulate and enhance trade within EC. The second objective was internalization and restructuring of firms within the member states in order to uplift their status in the world market in terms of competition. Among the suggested means of carrying out the objectives was eliminating barriers such customs control between member states, bringing down the non-tariff constraints e.g. the regulations and standards meant for the services and goods, and attaining equal prices of goods and services as a result of various indirect taxes rates. Competition policy Among the numerous policies in the European Union, the competition policy is one of the least understood policies. The policy has drawn a lot of attention with economist and lawyers dominating its discussions. The public has not fallen short of this debate as the policy has been observed at the political and administrative perspective. Lack of multidisciplinary renders the policy hard to comprehend despite its high level of fascination in the European-level domain. The two main objectives of the European Union competitive policy are maintaining and promoting of competition within the markets in EU and European integration promotion through market integration or other objectives that contribute to the policy. Despite the fact that these two policies are intertwined and go hand in hand, they may one time or the other lead to conflict thereby making the competition a more contentious as well as political issue. The perception that competition is healthy for economic growth is regarded as an act of faith especially in countries where the economy is founded on the principles of free market. According to Cini and McGowan, competition is regarded as a struggle for superiority. The logical explanation of the EU competition policy includes the transnational companies and as well as the internal market. In order to comprehend the internal market context the European competition policy has to be focused on an economic perspective that justify the integration process. One of the critical assumptions of the European Union project is that there are benefits attained in potential net efficiency gains, which will attribute to establishment of customs union. The removal of public barriers in the competition policy is bound to be replaced by private barriers. These private barriers are bound to affect fewer economically founded member states of the European Union as the firms involved in these nations will not adapt to the environmental changes (Cini and McGowan, 1998, p. 11). Social policy and social dumping In the numerous member states of the European Union, social dumping still remains of the main threat to the member countries. The main reason for this is indicated to lay at the bottom of the European Union social policy tools which are attributed to distract the effective use of social protection measures that are established at the European level. The failure of the Union to substantiate the nations that lie within the boundaries of social protection is said to be the reason of the threat of social dumping (Blanpain, p. 70). According to Shaw there has been an existence of social dumping in little amounts in the North- south of the European Union. The southern EU states are said to be reluctant to exploit their social policy as a competitive tool. The dangers of social dumping are well illustrated by the evidence in Germany that indicates that companies are considering relocation as a way of attaining the needed changes in the working premises. Despite the fact that there is lack of evidence pertaining to a race at the bottom, the perception of social dumping still remains eminent (Shaw, 2000, p. 63). Euro On establishment of the European Union, focus was turned on replacing the member states currency with euro. The founding members of the EU were also members of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Each and every member state of the European Union has the chance of changing its currency and the only thing that was needed was application of permission to do so. In adopting the Euro the member states will be reaping benefits while at the same time if not properly monitored the process could result to economic volatility. In majority of the member states the aim of achieving income levels and economic features that are similar to euro-areas is the driving force to the adaptation of euro (Schadler and International Monetary fund, 2005, p. 1934) Current crises The crisis in Greece that unfolded with violent activities and brutality on the streets of Athens were contributed by the previous two years that coincided with the collapse of American investment bank and the freezing of the financial markets. In reaction to this government across the world had increased their deficits in the budgets so as to maintain the stability of the economies. By 2010, the fears of great depression were replaced by the fear of the accumulation of sovereign debts and the possibility of their payments. In this period, the capital markets were not interested in Greeks’ bonds and their neighbors in the euro-zone were not interested in their predicaments. With the appeals for international help, the European Union answered to their call and provided a rescue package of 146 billion dollars. In light of this, the Greek government 30 billion euro of budget cuts is attained. This amounted to 13 percent of the country’s GDP (Lynn, 2011, p. 4). Ireland also was caught in the same predicament as the Greek government; it resulted to the same rescue plan of the European Union. The rescue plan was to counter the deficits, the skyrocketing interest rates, and the poor credit ratings. In comparison to Greece, Ireland had billions of debts with the European banks, which had the likelihood of defaulting (Botsiou and Klapsis, 2011, p. 78). In time of crisis the European Union involves itself with the rescue plans of its member states while the responsibility of non-Eurozone nations is left for the IMF (.European business environment economic and monetary union part 4, n.d, p. 40) Conclusion Rapid progress and success has been achieved in the integration process of the European countries. Since its inception, the European Union has incorporated more and more members thus raising the number of member states. The Single European Market has enhanced the role of the EC. In times of crisis the European Union is regarded to extend its helping hand to the member states only and as far as the non-Eurozone countries are concerned, the European Union opt to leave the crisis to the IMF. The rescue package offered to Greece and Ireland is evidence of its rescue plan to its member states. Reference List Apap, J., 2002. The rights of immigrant workers in the European Union: an evaluation of the Eu public policy process and the legal status pf labour immigrants from the Maghreb countries in the new receiving states. MA: Kluwer Law International. Aw, C. T. et al., 2007. Pocket consultant: occupational health. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. Blanpain, R., 2006. Freedom of services in the European Union: labour and social security law. Hague: Kluwer Law International. Botsiou, E. K. and Klapsis, A., 2011. The Konstantinos Karamanlis Institute for Democracy Yearbook 2011: The Global Economic crisis and the case of Greece. Berlin: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Burgess, M., 2000. Federalism and European union: the building of Europe, 1950-2000. NY: Routledge. Cini, M. and McGowan, L. 1998. Competition policy in the European Union. NY: PALGRAVE MACMILLAN. Cruz D. P., 1999. Comparative law in a changing world. London: Cavendish Publishing Limited. Duncun, R., 2009. World Politics in the 21st Century. MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. European business environment economic and monetary union part-(Attachments) Knop, K., 1995. Rethinking federalism: citizens, markets, and governments in a changing world. UBC Press. Lynn, M., 2011. Bust: Greece, the Euro and the Sovereign Debt Crisis. NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Schadler, S. and International Monetary Fund. 2005. Adopting the euro in central Europe: challenges of the next step in European Integration. Washington D.C: International Monetary Fund, Publication Services. Schmidt, D., 2007. Does an Enlargement of the European Union Inhibit the Party Establishment of European party system? Case study of Turkey. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag. Shaw, J., 2000. Social law and policy in an evolving European Union. NE: Hart Publishing. Ward, A. and Ward, L., 2009. The Ashgate research companion to federalism. VT: Ashgate Publishing Company. Read More