Comment: The European Union. (1999, 20 Marks)
The European Union is a union of 27 states that have pooled sovereignty, in Robert O. Keohane and Stanley Hoffmann’s phrase, across trade, money, law and increasingly security. It was created by the Maastricht Treaty (1992) on the foundations of the European Communities of the 1950s. Scholars call it sui generis: more than an international organisation, less than a federation.
Evolution
| Stage | Landmark |
|---|---|
| 1951 | Treaty of Paris: European Coal and Steel Community of six |
| 1957 | Treaties of Rome: EEC customs union, Euratom |
| 1986 | Single European Act: single market, majority voting |
| 1992 | Maastricht: the Union, three pillars, citizenship, monetary union |
| 1999–2002 | Euro launched, then in circulation |
| 2004–07 | Eastern enlargement |
| 2009 | Lisbon: legal personality, binding Charter of Rights |
| 2020 | Brexit, the first exit |
How it works
- Supranational organs: the Commission proposes law and guards the treaties. The Court of Justice made Union law directly effective and supreme (Van Gend en Loos, 1963; Costa v ENEL, 1964). The European Central Bank runs the euro.
- Intergovernmental organs: the European Council sets direction by consensus. The Council legislates with Parliament by qualified majority: 55% of states representing 65% of the population.
- Democratic organ: the European Parliament, directly elected since 1979, has 720 members after 2024.
- Theory: Ernst B. Haas saw spill-over; Andrew Moravcsik‘s liberal intergovernmentalism sees bargains among national governments. The record supports a mix of both.
Significance
- Peace and democracy: Franco-German reconciliation; democratic anchoring of Southern and Eastern Europe through the Copenhagen criteria.
- Economic weight: a single market of about 450 million people, GDP of about €18.8 trillion (2025), and a euro area of 21 since January 2026.
- Global rule-maker: the “Brussels effect” (Anu Bradford) spreads its data, competition and AI standards. Ian Manners‘s “normative power Europe” stresses influence through norms rather than force.
- Redistribution: cohesion funds and NextGenerationEU‘s common borrowing (2020) have no parallel elsewhere.
Limits and strains
- Democratic deficit: Andreas Føllesdal and Simon Hix argue that voters cannot contest the direction of EU policy. Giandomenico Majone and Moravcsik reply that a regulatory body is legitimised by results and national accountability.
- Crises: the eurozone crisis exposed a currency without a fiscal union. The 2015 migration crisis broke the Dublin system. Brexit proved integration reversible. Hungary and Poland tested the rule of law until their governments changed (2023, 2026).
- Foreign and defence policy remain intergovernmental and dependent on NATO. Under Donald Trump’s pressure the Union launched ReArm Europe (2025). Where unanimity failed it worked around it: the €90 billion Ukraine loan (December 2025) went ahead by enhanced cooperation without Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia.
- Enlargement has resumed: Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova advanced on 14 July 2026, testing absorption capacity.
The EU and India
A strategic partner since 2004, the Union is one of India’s largest trading partners and investors. The FTA concluded on 27 January 2026 (signature expected by end-2026), with security and mobility pacts, moves the relationship beyond trade; S. Jaishankar‘s The India Way (2020) had urged India to cultivate Europe. Frictions remain over the carbon border mechanism (CBAM) and deforestation rules. For India the EU is a model admired but not imitated: South Asian rivalry rules out pooled sovereignty.
Conclusion
The European Union is the most advanced experiment in sovereignty-sharing the state system has produced. It is a regulatory superpower and an incomplete political union. It advances through crises, what Erik Jones, R. Daniel Kelemen and Sophie Meunier call “failing forward”. The present test is whether it can match federal ambitions with the capacity to act as a single strategic power.