The EU: A union of independent and interdependent democracies
To bring 28 sovereign independent countries together into a democratic, free and voluntary association of sovereign independent states is no easy task. It was not easy for the founding 6 members who signed the Treaty of Rome back in 1957. It has inevitably got harder as the number of member states increases. However it remains one of the most amazing achievements anywhere in the world of the post Second World War era.
In Britain, where we have no written constitution and all rule is based on the principle of the Queen in Parliament being sovereign, it can be difficult for us to understand a construct based on a written constitution or Treaty where interpretation of the Treaty is the responsibility of a supreme court.
By contrast for most of the democratic world including the USA, that is normal. Most foreigners find it difficult to believe that in the UK, Parliament can pass any law it chooses. They are astonished to learn members of the upper chamber are appointed for life by the Government of the day (that is if they are not hereditary aristocrats or bishops). Even more astonishing for them is to discover that final authorisation of, or assent to, our laws is granted in the name of a hereditary monarch, who bases her claim to the throne on being a descendant of the Electress Sophia of Hanover. For us, all that is normal, although we might find it difficult to explain or justify in logical terms. For most non-Brits, particularly Americans, the British system of government seems very strange, albeit delightfully quaint but I doubt they consider it very democratic. The Dutchman I sat next to in the European Parliament said of the British system what we all know in our hearts, “it is funny but it works”. What I think we have to be wary of assuming is that just because it works for us, this British way of doing things is normal or indeed the only system of democracy.
When the founding fathers of the European Community sought to establish a democratic constitution back in the late 1950s, we should not be too surprised that they looked to the USA as a model of democracy.
In the USA, the President is elected by the people via a somewhat complex electoral college that is a mix of weighting by population but also by individual states. The President can then appoint his government, subject to the advice and consent of the senate. He very rarely appoints Congressmen as his ministers and they would immediately have to resign as such were they to join the administration. This is not so dissimilar to the procedure for appointing European Commissioners.
Each member state nominates its Commissioner who then needs approval from the European Parliament and is required to serve the whole Union rather than his or her home state. The Commission has a staff of approximately 35,000, which, incidentally, is much the same as the number of people on the Hampshire County Council payroll. Following the Treaty of Maastricht, the European Parliament gained the power to dismiss the Commission and actually exercised this power in the enforced resignation of Jacques Santer and his Commission in 1999.
Rather like the American President, who has power to propose laws, the Commission proposes legislation but then needs the consent of the European Parliament and also the Council of Ministers; just as the President needs to get his proposals through Congress. The European Parliament represents the people of Europe. Its composition broadly reflects the population of the member states. The Parliament has gradually developed from a mere nominated and consultative assembly into a fully fledged elected legislature, with the power to approve and dismiss the Commission. No single member state has a majority in the Parliament, nor does any political party. British Conservatives were probably at their most influential when they were allied to the EPP (predominantly Christian Democrats) just as Labour works well with European Socialists.
In Britain, we are used to one Party having a majority and the Leader of that Party being Prime Minister. However, as we saw from 2010 to 2015, even in Britain, we occasionally have to form coalition governments. That is the accepted norm in much of the world. Also, as we currently see in the USA, the President need not have a majority in either of the Houses of Congress.
In the EU, member states have their say via the Council of Ministers, which is composed of one Minister per member state and represents the nation states regardless of population. This is rather like the US Senate, where all states are equal regardless of size. Some laws require unanimity in the Council of Ministers, such as Treaty changes and accepting new members, whilst some can be passed by a majority. Whether unanimity or majority vote is required, is determined by the Treaties, which member states have voluntarily agreed to on joining the EU.
Whether laws are constitutional and precisely what they mean, is subject to rulings of the European Court of Justice which is composed of one judge per member state. Again, it is a difficult for Brits to comprehend such powers being vested in a court but that is the norm in other democracies such as the USA. As there will inevitably be disputes over interpretation of the treaties, it is difficult to see what other body could or should perform this role. What is important is to distinguish between the European Court of Justice based in Luxembourg and the European Court of Human Rights based, confusingly, in Strasbourg. That latter Court may be located next door to the European Parliament but is not part of the EU institution. British Euro sceptics are often just as angry, if not more so, with rulings of the Court of Human Rights, as they are with the Court of Justice, for example on rights of prisoners, but even outside the EU they would find Britain still accountable to the Strasbourg Court. The days when an individual state can just ignore other countries and international norms are in the past, unless one wants to go down the route of North Korea.
What Europe does lack is an elected President. The newly created post of President of the European Council of Ministers, currently Donald Tusk, who succeeded the Belgian Herman Van Rumpay, is anything but President of Europe. No one seems to want to go down that route.
The EU is not a state and was never intended to be one, notwithstanding the frequently misunderstood words in the Treaty of Rome of “Ever Closer Union”. To elect by popular vote a single President would certainly be a step too far and I cannot see any member state accepting such a proposal, be it tiny Malta or Estonia or large Germany, France or Britain.
The EU is a unique and amazing union of independent states that recognise in a complex, difficult and at times a dangerous world, more is achieved by working co-operatively with our democratic neighbours than pretending we would get by better on our own. We could get by, of course, but would it be better?
Roy Perry
Cllr Perry is Leader Hampshire County Council, he served as an MEP 1994-2004 (Wight and Hampshire South and later South East England)
