Reshaping the European Union

Name: Reshaping the European Union
Brand: Nomos
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Klaus Weber Henning Ottmann(Author)

Nomos (Publisher)

1st Edition

Published on 19. February 2018

469 pages

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978-3-8452-8720-1 (ISBN)

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Cover
Introduction
I. History of the European Union
1. Origins of the European Community
1.1 Ideas on a United Europe
1.2 National Interests
1.3 Influence of the USA
1.4 Cold War
2. Foundation of the European Community
2.1 European Coal and Steel Community Treaty
2.2 European Defence Community
2.3 Evolution of the European Economic Community Treaty
2.4 European Economic Community Treaty
3. Development after the European Economic CommunityTreaty
3.1 European Economic Community and De Gaulle
3.2 Two Important Decisions of the European Court of Justice
3.3 Deepening and Enlargement of the European Community
4. The Dynamic of the 1980 s
5. Euro and Eurozone Crisis
6. Political Events after 1985
7. Further Development of the European Union
8. Comment
9. Conclusion
II. Basic Issues
1. The Constitutive Treaties
2. Verfasstheit of the European Union
2.1 Arguments pro Constitution
2.2 Arguments contra Constitution
2.3 Discussion
3. The European Union as International Organization
4. Supranationality of the European Union
5. Three Intriguing Theories
5.1 Intergovernmentalism
5.2 Supranationalism
5.3 Constructivism
5.4 Comment
6. Sovereignty
7. Constitutional Pluralism
7.1 Discussion
8. Legitimacy
9. Accountability
10. Purposes and Goals
11. Conclusion
III. Structure and Functioning of the European Union
1. General Remarks on European Union Institutions
2. European Commission
2.1 Tasks of the Commission
2.2 Composition of the Commission
2.3 Structure of and Voting within the Commission
2.4 Network between European Union and Member States
2.5 Agencies
2.6 State of the Union Address
2.7 Comment
3. European Council
3.1 Shared Executive Power
3.2 President of the European Council
3.3 General Affairs Council
3.4 Comment
4. Council
4.1 Composition of the Council
4.2 Decision-making in the Council
4.3 Council Configurations
4.4 Presidency of the Council
4.5 Assisting Committees
4.6 Intergovernmental Conference
4.7 Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
4.8 Comment
5. European Parliament
5.1 Composition of the European Parliament
5.2 Political Groups in the European Parliament
5.3 Parliamentary Organs
5.4 Decision-making in the European Parliament
5.4.1 Legislative Functions
5.4.2 Budgetary Functions
5.4.3 Supervisory Functions
5.4.4 Elective Functions
5.5 Comment
6. European Court of Justice
7. European Central Bank
7.1 Comment
8. Court of Auditors
9. Order of Competences
9.1 Union Competences
9.2 Principle of Conferral
9.3 Subsidiarity and Proportionality
9.4 Enhanced Cooperation
9.5 Comment
10. Summary
11. Conclusion
IV. The European Court of Justice - a Controversial Institution?
1. Jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice
1.1 Basic Considerations
1.2 Legal Order of the European Union
1.3 Direct Effect
1.4 Regulations
1.5 Directives
1.6 Supremacy of the Union law
1.7 Preliminary References
2. Debate on the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice
2.1 Supportive Opinions
2.2 Opinions of the Critics
3. Other Recent Opinions of Legal Scholars
4. Political Question Doctrine
4.1 Political Question Doctrine in the USA
4.2 Political Question Doctrine in the European Union
5. Discussion
6. Recommendations
7. Conclusion
V. Eurosystem and Eurozone Crisis
1. Basic Issues
1.1 Currency Unions
1.2 Exchange Rate Regimens
1.3 The Burden of Public Debt
1.4 Lessons from Previous Financial Crises
1.5 Sovereign versus Corporate Bankruptcy
1.6 Peculiarities of the Bank System
2. Creation of the Eurosystem
3. The Beginning of the Great Recession
4. The Eurozone Crisis
4.1 Competitive Weakness in the Eurozone
4.2 Remedies in Ireland and the Baltic States
4.3 Competition from Middle-East and Eastern Europe
4.4 Interest Rates
4.5 Fiscal Problems in the Eurozone
4.6 Private Wealth within the Eurozone
4.7 The Eurosystem in the Crisis
4.8 The Effect of Moral Hazard
5. Target Balances
6. Handling the Current Account Deficit
7. Rescue Programmes
8. Structural Reforms and Austerity
8.1 Critique on the Troika
9. The Banking Union
10. The Challenge of Fiscal Union
10.1 Fiscal Federalism
10.1.1 Fiscal Federalism in the USA
10.1.2 Fiscal Federalism in Switzerland
10.2 Disregard of the Maastricht Criteria
10.3 Does the Eurozone Need a Fiscal Union?
10.4 Fiscal Recommendations
11. Previous Suggestions for Reshaping the Eurosystem
11.1 Transfer Union, Debt Mutualisation, and Similar Proposals
11.2 Self-responsibility of Every Eurozone Country
11.3 Reconciliation of Both Standpoints
12. The Challenge of Debt
13. An Insolvency Procedure
14. Exit from the Eurozone
15. Fate of the Future Eurozone
15.1 Dissolution of the Eurozone
15.2 Price Adjustment in the Eurozone
15.3 Eurobonds and Transfer Union
16. Own Reform Proposals
17. Conclusion
VI. Defects of the Existing European Union
1. The Ambiguity of the Ever-Closer-Union Clause
2. Challenge of Diversity of the Member States
2.1 Inequality of Size and Population
2.2 Diversity of Background
2.3 Cultural and Religious Diversity
2.4 Small versus Large Member States
2.5 The Challenge of the Equality Claim
2.6 Comment
3. Defects of Democracy
Democracy has been a fundamental principle of the Western nation state. In some Western nation states, democracy has been having a long tradition. In other nation states, democracy has been introduced only recently as will be discussed in chapter VII. The EU is not a state. The question may therefore be justified whether the EU is a democratic polity or whether it is at least on the way of becoming a democratic polity. Democracy is mentioned in the preamble of the Lisbon Treaty and Articles 9 to
3.1 Equality and Citizenship
3.2 Defects of Representative Democracy
3.3 Democratic Deficit of the European Union
3.4 Defects of Parliamentary Representation
4. Defects of Popular Sovereignty
The lack of a demos of the EU corresponds to the lack of popular sovereignty. The latter is of fundamental importance in a modern democracy. The demos should be the sovereign in a polity of the Western civilization. Since the EU does not have a demos, it cannot rest on popular sovereignty. In this context, it is interesting that Jean Monnet was keen enough to deny the people the experience for creating the European Community (see Monnet 1978: 465). This attitude of a European "Saint" was not sup
5. Defects of the Separation of Powers
5.1 Defects of the Horizontal Separation of Powers
5.2 Defects of the Vertical Separation of Powers
6. Deficient Jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice
Important defects of the judiciary of the EU have been described in chapter IV and in the previous section and shall not be repeated here. Moreover, Antoine Vauchez added a couple of additional examples which demonstrated the overextension of the mandate of the ECJ (see Vauchez 2016: 1-5 and 28-29).
7. Defects of the Law-making Process in the European Union
Presently, the European Commission has the monopoly concerning the initiative of the law- making although the Commission is not an accountable institution. This is an unsatisfactory condition. Rather, democratically legitimized and accountable institutions like the national parliaments and governments and the partially democratically legitimized European Parliament should primarily receive the right to initiate law proposals. This also refers to the Council. The author suggests that the Commissi
8. Deficient Activities of the European Central Bank System
In the EU, there are presently 19 member states whose currency is the euro and ten member states having their own currency. This dichotomy is presumably not advantageous for the EU for at least two reasons. First, the monetary capacity of the Eurosystem is reduced because a couple of EU member states are not members of the Eurozone. Secondly, the fact that nine (eight) member states do not participate in the Eurosystem presumably means that they mistrust the Eurosystem.
9. Lack of Duties
In chapter II, it has been pointed out that the Lisbon Treaty lists a considerable amount of rights of the citizens of the EU but not a single obligation or duty of the citizens. The question may be allowed whether a polity can survive in the long run if the citizens of this polity have many rights, but no duties specified in the EU Treaties.
10. A Misarranged State of the Union Address
The State of the Union Address delivered by the President of the Commission was arranged between the Commission and the European Parliament in 2010. The basis for this arrangement was a framework agreement between both EU institutions mentioned. This arrangement was not foreseen in the Lisbon Treaty or in any other EU Treaty. Chapter III outlines that the State of the Union Address was an imitation of the State of the Union Congress Information by the US President according to Article 2 (3) of t
11. Conclusion
The European enthusiasts have presumably not foreseen the numerous problems which can arise with a united Europe. Yet, most if not all member states of the EU possess provisions for a united Europe in their Constitutions. But the framers of these provisions presumably did not seem to take into consideration that the united EU which they envisaged would be associated with the defects described in this chapter.
VII. European Nation State versus European Union
1. Historical Aspects
1.1 The View of the Comparative Historians
1.2 Features of the State in the Light of History
1.3 History of the European Nation State
2. Political Order and the State
2.1 Good and Bad Political Order
2.2 Nature of the State
2.3 Staatlichkeit within the European Union
3. Democracy
3.1 Democracy in the Greek Polis
3.2 Democracy and the Modern State
3.3 Types of Democracy
3.4 Preconditions of Democracy
3.5 Democratic Legitimacy
3.6 Limits of Democracy
3.7 Advantage of the Democratic State
3.8 Democracy of the EU Member States
3.9 European Union versus State Democracy
4. Parliamentarianism
4.1 The National Parliament
4.2 National Parliaments in the European Union
4.3 European Parliament
4.4 Comment
5. Popular Sovereignty
5.1 Popular Sovereignty in the Nation State
5.2 Popular Sovereignty in the European Union
5.3 Popular Sovereignty and National Constitutions
5.4 Comment
6. Separation of Powers
6.1 Separation of Powers in the State
6.2 Separation of Powers in the European Union
6.3 Comment
7. Rule of Law
7.1 European Rule of Law Tradition
7.2 Rule of Law and the Classics
7.3 Principles of the Rule of Law
7.4 Comment
7.5 Rule of Law in the European Union
8. Conclusion
VIII. Models for a Future European Union
1. A Short History of Federations
1.1 The Polis and its Federations
1.2 Empires
1.3 The Nation State
2. The Present Status of the European Union
3. Reforms and Models of the Future European Union
4. Empire and Neo-medievalism
IX. The People and the Making of the European Union Treaties
1. Public Participation and Popular Sovereignty in the European Union
As chapter I indicates, the main origins of the EU were idealistic ideas, interests of the nation states, and the American influence. Taking these origins into consideration, this subchapter deals with the question whether there was sufficient room left for the participation of the people and popular sovereignty during the foundation of the EU.
1.1 Public Participation
1.2 Popular Sovereignty
2. Public Participation and Popular Sovereignty in the USA
2.1 Public Participation
2.2 Popular Sovereignty
3. Discussion
3.1 Appropriate Public Participation
3.2 Differences between Europe and USA
3.3 Similarity of Procedures in Different Polities
3.4 Popular Sovereignty
3.5 Are the People Dangerous?
3.6 Consequences
4. Recommendations
In this subchapter, recommendations concerning the public participation in the future EU are being made. (1) The people of all EU member states should be given the possibility to discuss a future EU Treaty of the Lisbon-Treaty-type whenever such a treaty is proposed by national parliamentarians, national governments, EU institutions, or individuals. (2) In every EU member state, capable and renowned persons should be elected to become representatives of special national conventions
the special
5. Conclusion
X. Proposals for a Reshaped European Union
1. Previous Suggestions for a Future European Union
1.1 Ideas and Models for a United Europe
1.2 Nation State and Governance
1.3 Deviations from the Treaties and Agreements
1.4 Democratic Legitimacy and Accountability
1.5 Promises and Shaken Expectations
1.6 Challenges
2. General Considerations
3. Purposes of the Future European Union
4. Supranationality and Limited Supranationality
4.1 Supranationality
4.2 Limited Supranationality
5. The European Union as Unique Polity
6. Reign, Structure, and Functioning of the Future European Union
6.1 The Future European Council
6.2 The Future Council
6.3 The Future Chamber of National Parliamentarians
6.4 The Future European Parliament
6.5 The Future European Commission
6.6 The Future European Court of Justice
6.7 The Future European Central Bank
7. The Future Treaty-making
8. Law-making in the Future European Union
9. Uniformity of Law and Principles
9.1 Differentiation of Law
9.2 Uniformity of Principles and Values
10. Equality of the Member States
11. Sound Finances
12. Future Defence Policy
13. Future Foreign and Security Policy
14. Implications of the Brexit
15. The Challenge of Immigration
16. Admission of New Members
17. Future State of the Union Address
18. Conclusion
References
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