How important are member states in the European Union?

Résumé du document

The 'system of the European Union (EU)', rests primarily on individual nation states. The first European intergovernmental cooperation was started in 1951 by six states. EU now has 25 members and one may assume that the importance of the member state is not what it used to be due to new influences. We observe a shift in policies through time, since the creation of the EU. In the 60s, national identities and state sovereignty were still very present (especially because of de Gaulle's way of thinking about Europe) but in the current scenario, the EU has a say in many domains of thought that were considered purely national concerns, before the implementation of such a monetary policy. The Question that arises, is if the EU has now emerged as a super state and if it member states retain any importance. The importance of a member state is a combination of the influence of 'all its political actors and institutions'. When discussing the weight of member states', one must, consider the national government, the parliaments, as they have a role in legitimating EU decisions by translating them into national law, and the sub-national authorities such as the regions, as they now have the power to by-pass their national governments.

Extraits

[...] As groups gain more influence, they also become more organised and thus are more efficient in their influence. The Commission has tried to centralise and organise this increasing influence first by creating the CONECCS list but also by creating a website to promote access of all groups. Plus it has issued several papers to promote the 'civil dialogue' on the same basis as the social dialogue such as the White Paper on EU Governance in 2001, the Minimum Requirements for a Code of Conduct between the Commission and Special Interest Groups or The Commission and Non-Governmental Organizations: Building a Stronger Partnership . [...]

[...] How important are member states in the European Union? The 'system [of the European Union rests primarily on nation states': in 1951, the first European intergovernmental cooperation was started by six states. But the EU has now 25 members and one could think that the importance of the member state is not what it used to be due to the new influences: we can observe a shift through time since the creation of the EU. In the 60s, national identities and state sovereignty were still very present (especially because of de Gaulle's way of thinking Europe) but nowadays the EU has a say in many domains thought of as purely national before such as monetary policy. [...]

[...] National governments have a key role in understanding the importance of member states because they are the major link between domestic and European policies: they support pressure to implement European decisions or to upload their national policies from both sides. As A. Héritier has said, 'member states seek to shape the European policy-making according to their own interest and institutional traditions' . Since the limits of European institutions' powers are not clearly defined, the power is usually shared between national governments and the European institutions. Therefore national governments have different points of access and different institutions they can influence. [...]

[...] So the Commission, although a supranational power, is not independent from member states and acts mainly as an 'agent and facilitator' for national governments' will. It is in the Council of Ministers (CoM) and in the Council of Europe that the member states have a key importance as it is the meeting of national governments and consequently bears national labels. As one of the main deciding body, its role is crucial for the EU, especially under pillar two and three of the treaty of the EU because it has 'room for independent manoeuvre' . [...]

[...] Each of the three major European institutions has a special need of expertise as they are situated in different positions in the decision-making process: the CoM asks lobbying groups for information about 'national and domestic interests' while the European Parliament seeks information on the 'needs and interest in the EU internal market' and on voters' preferences in order to asses the legislative drafts of the Commission. It is however the Commission that consults the most the interest groups as it 'needs to identify common European interests' . Facing this need, interest groups entered the breach to gain more influence over European decisions. [...]