The European Union Essay

Interest groups maintain the capacity to speak for citizens who have these other main priorities ensuring that their opinions and interest are represented within the European Union. This utility goes a long way towards reducing the democratic deficit of the Union. Although the public may not have time or energy to direct their interests to their representatives, so long as they know that there is a group or organization representing their interests in Brussels, they may be more inclined to view the Union as democratic.

The European parliament – the EU citizens elect a Member of Parliament, which Leads to subsequent legislation.

The ‘standard version’ of the democratic deficit formulated by Weiler, consisting of the increased role of the executive Commission in matters of legislation, the weakness of the European Parliament (hereafter the EP), the lack of ‘European’ elections, EU distance to public scrutiny and voters, and finally ‘policy drifting’ by the executive non-compliant to voter interests, has and continues to be a major target of criticism within the field of European Union (the EU) law. The matter is of utmost importance

Originating from the Greek terms demos, meaning ‘people’ and kratos, meaning ‘rule,’ democracy essentially means to ‘rule by the people’ (Hague and Harrop, 2013, p. 43).

The European Commission has the power to draft, execute and regulate EU laws. Each member is equally represented- totalling to twenty seven commissioners, who serve a five year term. The European Commission is the bureaucratic arm working to promote EU interests. In many ways it is supranational; as it has the power of initiation, implementation, management of finance and external relations. Margaret Thatcher’s famous statement addressing the EU spotlights the supranational intentions of the European Commission, ‘The President of the Commission, Mr Delors, said at a press conference the other day that he wanted…. the Commission to be the... No! No! No!’7 Eurosceptics further dislike the institution as it is too big, expensive, has too little public accountability, and an undemocratic process of appointment as no elections are

This essay will summarize the Lisbon Treaty and the governmental and democratic consequences it will have on the EU decision making. It intends to state that Europe has the wish to change and actively tries to do so and partly succeeding, but failing to do so entirely. The treaty has been a victory for Europe over the euro skeptics, but unfortunately will not be able to push Europe much further to the place it

Compared to many national and sub-national legislatures, the European Parliament has a relatively low profile. In the past, some scholars of the European Union judged it to be less important than other governing institutions of the Union. However, since the mid 1980’s the European Parliament has undergone many substantial changes, probably more than any other major European Union body. The Parliament’s

Are member states or EU institutions the most powerful players in EU policy making? (400 words)

The European Union has greatly evolved over the decades since it has begun into a well-evolved quasi-state of over 28 countries, and over five hundred million citizens. The European Union has been regarded as a method to bring democratic stability and economic prosperity to less developed democracies in East and Central Europe. Although the European Union has a mandate to bring all of these standards, the European Union lacks these basic standards for their overall institution. This structural problem has given the European Union its own ‘democratic deficit’. The rise of the democratic deficit has arisen from many undemocratic characteristics of EU institutions, and a lack of a demos or a lack of a single socio cultural European identity. In order for a political body to remain legitimate, it must have the trust and support of the citizens it governs, and make changes for the continuation of its future. In other words, if the European Union does not take action to combat its democratic deficit, the future of the European Unions institution will be at risk. Another serious issue is the European Union has seen democratic backsliding of many Eastern European countries. This paper will discuss the major issues that the Democratic Deficit has caused for the European Union, and what possible reforms can be done to help fix the democratic deficit.

Furthermore, the existence of ‘comitology committees’ which contribute to the drafting, editing and enacting of European Union laws further detach the citizens of the EU from the decision-making, leaving a large portion of European processes to be organised by unelected committee members. The delegation of authority to expert committees, whilst being more efficient, distances the citizen from the European Union, making the institution much less democratic.

The decline in public support first emerged in the ratification process of The Maastricht Treaty, and has continued in the present due to changing geopolitical relations, issues with the Euro, and other cultural, social, and bureaucratic concerns that have irrevocably become apparent to member state citizens (Hix & Høyland, 2011, p. 109). Finally, the public is holding the EU accountable for the decisions made for their homes.

There is a consensus on the positive effect of European integration on at least one aspect of national politics, one being the strengthening of the executive power. This is due to the fact that the executive has direct access to European policy-making and policy-makers in the Council, in the European institutions and other Member States

The European Union (EU) is not a typical international organization. The mix of intergovernmental and supranational institutions makes the EU a unique, distinctive political, and economic system. As Europe has spiraled from one crisis to the next, difficult discussions haves arisen about how much more power should be delegated to Brussels. Even though the EU advocates for “ever closer union”, through increased integration, states are becoming hesitant to relinquish power to the EU. This is due to the fact that state sovereignty has become threatened; it is being compromised by a combination of the lack of effective democratic institutions and the loss of states have lost control of law-making to legislation power to EU institutions. Euroenthuthiasts argue that state sovereignty is enhanced, not threatened, by reallocating power to EU institutions. However, Eurosceptics dispute that too much control has seceded to the EU making is a threat to state sovereignty. My position aligns with Eurosceptics, for the EU has weakened state sovereignty do to increased centralization of power in EU institutions that lack legitimacy. The European Project has obtained a copious amount of jurisdiction from states and eroded a basic fundamental freedom of the modern state- sovereignty. Since the EU has with goals to deepen and widen integration it’s clear that forfeiting state sovereignty will only intensify. My essay will start with a brief history of the European Union and a short

The aim of this essay is to provide a framework for uncovering the current state of the EU. Firstly, it is important to briefly summarise how the sovereign debt crisis manifested inherent structural flaws within the European Union. From this point it will be argued that the debt crisis can be used as a platform for deeper integration in that the inherent design features that plagued the Union can now be recognised and perhaps transformed. Secondly, it will be argued that the debt crisis has exacerbated the division between the creditor countries of Northern Europe and the debtor countries of southern Europe. A climate of ‘us and them’ has certainly manifested across Europe, which raises concern to nationally elected representatives of the

The purpose of this research is to discover the main challenges facing the EU in the near future, by showing the economic and legal problems that the EU will face. These problems include how migration, bailouts and terrorism affect the EU economically. Furthermore it will look at anti-EU sentiments around Europe, which has appeared to spread across rapidly, due to Euro Crises. Moreover, the Legal problems that the EU will face, such as: the process of obtaining EU citizenship enabling migration and cultural clashes, whilst also looking at the statute that enables free movement of goods and people, resulting in mass immigration and the European Convention on Human Rights. This paper will evaluate EU principles that affect the UK constitution, such as the European Convention on Human Rights, the Costa v ENEL (1964) CMLR 425 case being evidence proving that the EU will face challenges concerning its law being more superior than national law, Van Gend en loos (1963) ECR 1. Where a similar principle was set and the “two-speed Europe”, which, is the idea that different member states should integrate at different levels, as it is believed that the more member states in the EU the harder it is to find a consensus amongst difficult agendas, making the EU law very inconsistent. It will be related it back to the question of ‘what are the main challenges facing the EU in the near future?’