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Magazine / History / European Identity / Analysis | 22/03/2007
The EU: between legitimacy and effectiveness
by Gerd Strohmeier
What is the EU? State, Superstate, Federal State, Confederation of States, Union of States- the list of labels is extensive. Not so the range of terms that do it a minimum of justice, according to the author.
Since Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union, the EU has had 27 member states with about five hundred million inhabitants and stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea. While the EU[1] first grew by just nine members over a period of more than fifty years, it subsequently integrated more than ten new member states within less than 15 years.
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The responsibilities of the EU have expanded similarly. While after the signing of the Treaties of Rome the areas where the EU was active remained relatively clear-cut for nearly three decades, they were considerably extended and deepened in half that time based on four revisions of the Treaties. One question becomes increasingly unclear and simultaneously ever more important in this context – the question of what the EU is.
State, super-state, federation, a confederation of states,[2] a union of states – the list of labels is long; however the range of terms that do the Union a modicum of justice is limited. Instead of finding an answer to the question of what the EU is, it is easier to describe what it is not. It is not a state and therefore not a super-state or federation. The present structure of supranational and international cooperation, which is indefinable and unique, exists in the grey area between two extremes – a confederation of states and a union of states[3]. After all, the EU is "a voluntary association of sovereign states”[4] that have partially surrendered their sovereignty or sovereign rights to the EU. This shows that political power is no longer the monopoly of a state and that authority is no longer the monopoly of national governments. The EU exercises authority[5] without being a state.[6] This raises the following questions: First, how does the EU exert this authority and secondly, where does the Union derive its legitimacy from to exert this authority? So the real question is about the efficiency[7] and legitimacy[8] of the EU.
[1] To simplify matters, I will refer to the EU only and not, for instance, to the EC or EEC throughout this text.
[2] Cf. Werner Weidenfeld: Die europäische Verfassung verstehen, Bonn 2006, p. 14.
[3] Cf. BVerfGE 89, 155.
[4] W. Weidenfeld, (footnote 2), p. 14.
[5] For instance, it is able to take binding decisions in certain areas for the member states and therefore the citizens of the EU.
[6] Cf. Christoph Gusy: Demokratiedefizite postnationaler Gesellschaften unter Berücksichtigung der EU, in: Zeitschrift für Politik, 45 (1998) 3, p. 267-281, here p. 267.
[7] Efficiency can be defined as "the ability of those in power to reach goals and enforce rules while protecting the principles of the rule of law and providing guarantees." Claus Offe: Gibt es eine europäische Gesellschaft? Kann es sie geben?, in: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, (2001) 4, p. 423-435, here p. 434.
[8] Legitimicy can be understood as "granting the power to legislate according to fair processes and to a constitutionally limited extent and all addressees of the law affected by such legislation being involved in its realisation." C. Offe, ibid., p. 434.
PD Dr. phil., born in 1975; private lecturer at the University of Passau, Department of Philosophy, 94030 Passau, Germany.
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Translation
Janina Gatzky/Sam Waltz
Original in German
First published in Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 10/2007
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