Principles of Politics

Introduction The European Union remains one of the most controversial political projects in the modern world. It is usually portrayed as a symbol of European unity: the triumph of voluntarily shared sovereignty over excessive nationalism, ideological division and imperial ambition.1 Herman Van Rompuy2 once said that: “The age of the nation state is over and the idea that countries can stand alone is an ‘illusion’ and a ‘lie”3. One of the most Eurosceptic politicians, Nigel Farage, the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party claims the opposite, i.e. that European Union is a “bureaucratic monster” and is a fraud on all European nations, and hence should be abolished. 4 The opinions about European Union, and its influence on national policy, are then very divided. In many states the euroscepticism is caused exactly by the fear of limiting national sovereignty, in others it is caused by the enlargement process and fear of losing influence on EU for the sake of smaller countries.5 How do we then define “national sovereignty”? By most basic terms, it is the ability of the nation to exercise independent political power on the given territory. European Union is a multinational political and economic union which developed over the last 65 years. Although it started just as a European Coal and Steel Community6, it developed into a 27 states-big political entity that has competency in over 30 policy areas.7 In strictly absolute terms, there is then no doubt that European Union undermines sovereignty of the member states, since so many policies are negotiated and implemented arbitrarily. However, such an approach omits the very important issue of the nature and degree of restrictions imposed by European Union on the nations states. The aim of this essay is to evaluate the nature and degree to which EU undermines national sovereignty. The work will include analysis of the Lisbon treaty that established the modern order of affairs. Then, the extent of