Ins Romero Parra

The EU resembles a superstate rather than an international

organisation. Discuss.
The European Union is well-known as an economical and political union
of 27 European nations, which was created by treaty and put into effect in 1993
for the purpose of working gradually toward an economic and political
unification of Europe by means of a unified monetary policy, standardized laws
of commerce and trade, etc. However, it is difficult to determine the role of the
EU in the international community.
This essay aims to give an answer to this question. For this reason, the
essay will analyze two visions of the European Union: as an international
organisation and as a superstate. In order to resolve this question, we need to
know the arguments of both visions and finally form a judgment and then try to
define the EU.
Firstly, an international organization is, by definition, an organization with
an international membership, scope, or presence. In common usage, the term is
usually reserved for intergovernmental organizations like the United Nations,
the Council of Europe or the World Trade Organization, whose members are
sovereign states or other IGOs. On the whole, the international organizations
are based on multilateral treaties between at least two sovereign nation-states.
The formation of an initially fairly loose bond among the participants is generally
fortified by the development of more or less stringent institutional structures and
organs to pursue certain more or less clearly defined common aims in the
international arena. Only a few existed before 1850; several thousand were
active in the early 21st century. Some are intergovernmental (e.g., theUnited
Nations), and some are nongovernmental (e.g., Amnesty International). Some
have multiple worldwide or regional purposes (e.g., the European Union), and
some have single purposes (e.g., the World Intellectual Property Organization).
One effect of their proliferation is a stronger sense of interdependence among
states, which in turn has stimulated recognition of the need for cooperation to
address international and global problems. There is no single classification of
international organizations, but the most important is the classification
depending on the degree of cooperation that offers these international
organizations.
On the one hand, most organizations are based in mere cooperation, and
the decision-making mechanisms usually require unanimity of the members. On
the other hand, there are organizations with competencies in the core of State,
for example the European Union, although only in the first pillar where the
decisions are taken by majority, thus promoting the development of international
law and the acquis communautaire that call, while the other two pillars decisions
if they are taken unanimously.
Secondly, there is a vision of the EU as a superstate. This vision includes
two theories: the multilevel governance theory, and the functionalism. The

idealistic trend, believe that the most democratic and just way to prevent war
and promote prosperity in Europe was to create a European superstate with full
federal powers. Some authors, like Marks, Hooghe and Blank in them 1996
article, exposed that in their view, European Union policy is produced by a
complex web of interconnected institutions at the supranational, national and
subnational levels of government comprising a system of multilevel
governance, a system in which the national goverments play an important role,
but their sovereignty has eroded, almost imperceptibly, despite their best
intentions. About this model, Cafruny & Lankowski say that according to this
multilevel governance model, decisionmaking is shared by actors at different
levels rather than monopolized by state executives. (Cafruny & Lankowski,
1997)
However, nowadays the tendency to identify federalism with a great leap
to a federation with military and coercive power impedes practical thought about
the prospects for taking further steps in a federal direction, whether in the form
of a system of majority voting to complete the international market, developing
the EMS in the direction of monetary union, an increase in the powers of the
European Parliament, or a package of such reforms that could deserve to be
called European Union. Such thought would be helped by systematic study of
the specific steps that could be taken and of the condition that favor or impede
them.
On the other hand, the functionalism is another important theory based in
building cooperation among countries through the integration of one or more
highly important economic function is shared by all of them. David Easton
(1957) and Gabriel Almond (1956) were the first authors to develop formal
frameworks for defining and analysing political systems. Their essential
characterizations of democratic political systems consist of the following four
elements:
1. There is a stable and clearly-defined set of institutions for collective decisionmaking and rules governing relations between and within these institutions.
2. Citizens and social groups seek to achieve their political desires through the
political system, either directly or through intermediary organizations like
interest groups and political parties.
3. Collective decisions in the political system have a significant impact on the
distribution of economic reources and the allocation of social and political
values across the whole system.
4. There is a continuous interaction between these political outputs, new
demands on the system, new decisions, and so on
The European Union possesses all these elements. First, the level of
institutional stability and complexity in the European Union is for greater than in
any order international regime. Second, the groups with the most powerful and
institutionalized position in the European Union system are the governments of
the European Union member states, and the political parties that make up all

these governments. Third, European Union decisions are highly significant and
are felt throughout the EU. Finally, the political process of the European Union
politcal life in Europe.
The European Union political system is highly descentralized and
atomized, is based on the voluntary vommitment of the member states and its
citizens, and relies on sub-organizations to administer coercion and other forms
of state power.
The 20th Century has been the century of globalization. We
live, according to R. Mesa, in "the closed world of an international
society hermetically socialized. The development of technology and economic
globalization are the two phenomena that best demonstrate the reality of a
global world, and the European Union is not an exception in this process.
However, the emergence of nationalism is an evident trend in the actual world,
that impede the agreement between the members about relevant questions like
Constitutional Treaty. In fact, globalization has featured prominently in national
debates over the proposed Constitutional Treaty of the European Union, which
is an important element in the conception of Europe as a superstate.
Some see further European integration as the only way to manage and
forestall the destabilizing effects of globalization and outsourcing. Others, in
contrast, argue that the European Union facilitates and epitomizes these
effects, especially as a result of continuing enlargement towards countries that,
where integration has been promoted as a way to defend and maintain a
particular national situation, in contrast, opponents of current EU projects have
had much more success in selling the negative frame. A comparative analysis
of historical and current ratification debates in four of the original member
states (Netherlands, France, Germany, and Italy) is used to support and
illustrate the general argument.
To conclude, in my opinion the European Union is nowadays an
international organisation which make decisions about the less relevant issues;
but it has not real autonomy. The 27 member states are an integral and
powerful part of the Economic European Union, but they no longer provide the
sole interface between supranational and subnational arenas, and they share,
rather than monopolize, control over many activities that take place in their
respective territories.
The European Union could be considered a Superstate, because it has
the requirements which are necessary to this definition, but, on the other hand,
the European Union has no means to enforce their will, and for this reason is
not possible to consider European Union as a Superstate.
Anyhow, it is necessary to the European Union to show a cohesive image
to another countries or international organizations but this is not possible today,
because the social, economic, political and cultural differences between the
European Union member states are, actually, very significant.

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