Federal Systems and European Union - Essay Example

How Federal is the European Union Empirical and Conceptual Issues Introduction: Federalism refers to a group of members governed by a representative head and in which the system of government is divided between a central authority and constituent units. In a federal system of government or federation, the power to govern is shared between national and regional governments. A strong federal government is centralized with concerns for human rights and democracy and the European Union has been considered as a federal type of government with a centralized control although this discussion will examine how far the EU can be considered as a federal system of government and what are the related empirical or conceptual issues. Federalism and EU: Defining federalism, Auer (2005) states that federalism consists of a specific combination of autonomy or self rule, superposition or limited rule and participation or shared rule so that two independent levels of government could coexist and work simultaneously for the citizens1. Thus autonomy, limited rule and shared rule in which centralized governance is importance could all be important features of federalism. Distribution of powers between political units, defining these constituent units and providing a scheme or approach towards resolution of conflicts are some of the functions of federal constitutions. Auer argues that EU performs all these functions and could be considered in legal terms as having a multinational federal type of system. As the EU is primarily focused in bringing out a balance of power between European nations albeit through a centralized EU control network, the system of governance and politics is highly federal or at least meant to be so2. However we may ask whether the plan or blueprint of having an EU federal system has really worked and whether EU federalism is a reality in any way or simply a theoretical term. These are issues that have to be understood on the basis of political, social and economic factors and changes within the EU. The subject of federalism is important in the context of the European Union and its politics and economy and federalism also relates to peace within a region. Drinkwater (2005) shows how Harold Nicholson emphasized on the need to banish war and bring about enduring global peace. Nicholson explored the routes to a united Europe and world government advocating federal union and functionalism. Drinkwater suggests that Nicholson gave a new meaning to idealism and realism through his liberal realism and used a new approach to solve sociopolitical problems. Thus liberal realism could be considered as a way towards federalism as the need to find peace and banish war would be in the spirit of working together in a centralized unified manner and federalism in the European Union would be especially important to bring peace and cooperation in the region3. The value of federalism thus relates to large longer term political agendas of peace and unification and not just short term social goals of having trust among members or improving the structure of power sharing between nations. Elaborating on issues of trust and accountability, Follesdal (2005) suggest that the Constitutional Treaty for Europe or CTE has helped in strengthening the federalism of European political order, especially for the future and multiple forms of balancing and changes in the CTE have actually helped in improvements of the political scenario within Europe. The treaty of Europe is thus geared towards creating a European political order that would have federal features to enhance trust aspects among European citizens4. Thus the true advantage of such a treaty would be to increase the trust factor among Europeans by creating a more congenial political order. With the increased federal features and emphasis on federalism in the new political order, the central changes are related to increased emphasis on human rights, issues related to national and European parliament and political parties and seeking greater transparency of operations within the parties. Transparency and accountability would be an essential feature of federalism although Follesdal argues that gains in trustworthiness can lead to losses in promoting European interests. The institutions that want to show its support and loyalty towards individual member states and the union have to develop ample amount of trust towards other EU member states and individuals as well. However it is a broad and elaborate question if we try to understand the impact that EU could have or have already has on the other member states in terms of institutional structures or sociopolitical changes. EU institutional structures have been compared with national institutional structures and EU's comparative effects on unitary, regionalized and federal member states have been studied by Schimdt (2006). EU's impact on national executives, parliaments, courts and sub national authorities is important and Schimdt (2006) examined EU's effects on four countries namely France, Belgium, Britain and Italy. Schimdt suggests that Europeanization has been quite disruptive for the unitary structures of France although Britain has had a difficult time accepting the EU related changes although with better compliance than France5. When compared with Germany and Italy, Europeanization has been the least disruptive for Germany's federal structures despite the disruption and changes in France, as Germany already had a completely federal structure and EU blended in with these changes. However Europeanization has been reinforcing and helpful for regionalized structures of Italy although Germany has complied better than France and Italy has not been able to comply at all with the EU structures or with the Europeanization despite no disruption in its political structures. Thus with the changes of EU and reinforcement of federalism, Britain and Germany have complied better than France and Italy although France and Britain had to go through disruptive changes to the political systems with the advent and federal system of the European Union6. The disruption and changes within member states and general compliance issues with the federal system of government bring out the difficult or challenging side of EU governance and decision making process. As a federal system the European Union would have to deal with many issues such as distribution of competencies, political accountability justifying institutional structure and complex decision making processes (Christin et al, 2005). These issues are not completely clear for EU citizens and the evidence is also not present7. So the question of federalism remains unclear at least from the perspective of EU citizens and their rights and necessities although federalism may work on a political and constitutional level. The economic impact of EU and Europeanization would also be as important as political or social impact. The implementation of Stability and Growth pact had several problems that triggered recommendations for improvement and economic reform within the EU (McKay, 2005). These recommendations are understood in the context of federal theory and try to establish a link between policy choices that are economically and politically sustainable8. The self-sustainability of federal system tends to apply to the European monetary union and the general policies as well and McKay suggests that imposing fiscal discipline through alternative means could have many problems (McKay, 2005). McKay states that political sustainability and stability may not always be in accordance with what theorists and economic analysts recommend. Thus there are economic problems within the EU that have to be dealt with more practically and McKay suggests that problems with federal level fiscal discipline should be controlled at member state policy levels so that individual member states are able to control and monitor fiscal problems and decisions rather than any kind of federalization or centralization of the system. This shows that despite the need to move towards more federal system of governance and the introduction of the Euro and unified currency and general focus on a unified, centralized system of governance within the EU, there are certain aspects within political and economic perspectives that may have to be solved that member state policy levels. Fischer (2006) traces the development of the European Union from a 6 member community to a 25 member state union through numerous enlargements and competencies along with changes in structure and operations. However as Fischer points out the EU is not guided by a simple international treaty and nor is it a federal union. Fischer argues that EU has moved between the two extremes of being some sort of treaty bound structure representing 25 signatories and being a real federal union and has shown a 'fear of federalism' (Fischer, 2006). Thus according to Fischer, EU is not and not even close to a federal union although it may try to vacillate in its agenda as such. The article by Fischer takes up an EU perspective and asks why the European Union has fulfilled some of its promises and potential in certain ways and yet fallen short of some others. There is a reported tension and conflicts between member states and this in many cases is not according to institutional directions or plan9. There is also a suggested unhealthy competition between member states according to Fischer that reveals a divided rather than unified Europe. Fischer asks why there is such hostility and competition among European nations, why citizens of the EU have poor appreciation of community roles and what contributes to Europe's gross domestic product or GDP and what dominates EU budget and economic agenda. Fischer also asks whether the Euro can become more acceptable and stronger than the dollar and whether it will be able to finally harmonize and unify the financial markets within Europe10. The enlargement of Europe is a also a debatable issue, it could improve or even threaten the future of the European community and member states in general. The article also asks whether a common security and foreign policy can ever work for the entire European Union and how effective is the idea of a unified European Union with a common political and social structure. Fischer's skepticism against a unified European Union could be justified as whether the EU is federal in any way or simple a conglomeration of diverse countries that have nothing in common and will eventually fall apart will remain a question that needs to be explored. Conclusion: At the moment what could be considered as affecting the policies and structures of the EU are the political and social systems and integration of the units as all member states seem to be geared towards the concept of a federal union. Thus federalism is a possibility for the EU and although some optimistic critics would consider that the EU already has a federal system of government or was at least meant to have a federal system of governance, when the member states joined the union, some others would deny that EU is anywhere close to federalism. In fact like Fischer many would consider EU as having an inherent fear of federalism as countries would want to retain their sovereignty, superiority and engage in competition. Despite this, there are some positive changes that suggest a move towards federalism such as a unified currency and a unified political system of governance. If the EU can overcome some of the economic and sociopolitical obstacles of working in a unified manner, a federal system of government will be completely likely and EU can be considered as moving very close to federalism. The articles discussed here are varied in their opinions and viewpoints on whether EU already has a federal system of government or whether it is completely opposite. So it can be said that although EU is meant to have a unified federal government with power distributed among centralized and regional governments, the inherent competition, differences among members, disruption in political and social structures as already discussed and the need for change to adjust to the EU agenda may have prevented federalism to take shape completely within the EU. The EU being vast and having 25 member states with their own histories and differences, the complete unification of EU and change to a completely federal system of government will be a difficult yet not impossible goal to achieve and might take many years and concerted efforts of all member states alike. Bibliography Auer, Andreas (2005) The constitutional scheme of federalism Journal of European Public Policy, Volume 12,Number 3, pp. 419-431(13) Christin, Thomas;Hug, Simon;Schulz, Tobias (2005) Federalism in the European Union: The view from below (if there is such a thing)1 Journal of European Public Policy, Volume 12,Number 3, pp. 488-508(21) Drinkwater, Derek (2005) Federalism and Peace Sir Harold Nicolson and International Relations, pp. 161-203(43) Fischer, Thomas C. (2006) An American Looks at the European Union European Law Journal, Volume 12,Number 2, pp. 226-278(53) Follesdal, Andreas (2005) Towards a stable finalit with federal features The balancing acts of the Constitutional Treaty for Europe1 Journal of European Public Policy, Volume 12,Number 3, pp. 572-589(18) Mckay, David (2005) Economic logic or political logic Economic theory, federal theory and EMU1 Journal of European Public Policy, Volume 12,Number 3, pp. 528-544(17) Norman, Wayne (2006) Federal Constitutionalism I: Options for Federal Design Negotiating Nationalism, pp. 95-139(45) Schneider, Friedrich (2005) Is a Federal European Constitution for an Enlarged European Union Necessary Some Preliminary Suggestions using Public Choice Analysis Swiss Political Science Review, Volume 11,Number 4, pp. 203-225(23) Schmidt, Vivien A. (2006) The European Union and National Institutions Democracy in Europe, pp. 46-102(57) Vrousalis, Nicholas (2006) The Strains of Commitment: A Federal System Needs a Common Fiscal Policy Journal of European Integration, Volume 28,Number 2, pp. 181-192(12) Hopkins: Devolution in Context: Regional, Federal and Devolved Government in the European Union Modern Law Review, Volume 68,Number 1, 2005 , pp. 156-158(3) Read More