The EU as a Mixture of Supranationalism and Intergovernmentalism

The EU is a mixture of supranationalism and intergovernmentalism. The Future of Europe White Paper aptly states, “the EU is a unique project in which domestic priorities have been combined and sovereignty voluntarily pooled to better serve national and collective interests.”

In this regard, Levy (2015) makes an interesting comparison between the EU and the US, commenting that both systems are designed to facilitate beneficial collective action while retaining member state autonomy and control. However, there are striking differences in the scope of delegated authority and their representative and deliberative structures. Unlike the US, the EU is not a federal nation-state. It is a supranational organisation born of an intergovernmental contract. Although the Constitutional Treaty of 2004 could have changed this, the EU remains an intergovernmental agreement, albeit with some supranational elements. Goebel (2013) concurs that the EU was never destined to become a federal nation-state. Nevertheless, the Treaty of Maastricht and the Treaty of Lisbon, in particular, have enlarged the supranational features of the EU.

Using the 3-dimensional cube above, Ballin et al. (2020) illustrate how the EU and its member states arrive at different policy decisions. The X-axis shows how a decision could be made along the intergovernmental-supranational spectrum. However, it should be noted that variations in EU membership and variation in policy content, and possibly many other dimensions not mentioned also influence the EU structure. This explains that while the EU has generally been moving toward higher levels of supranationalism, the degrees and directions of such movements are not always uniform and are subject to a wide variety of factors.

In essence, the EU has always been a struggle between intergovernmentalism and supranationalism. Konstantinidis et al. (2019) note that the emergence of cross-border issues such as the migration crisis and climate change can lead to illegitimate/undemocratic policies at the EU level and increased populist and nationalist tendencies at the national level. As long as the EU remains an intergovernmental agreement among its member states, any fundamental changes are subject to each nation-state’s decision-making process. This is why any progress toward a federalist EU can be an arduous and slow journey.

As Wodak (2020) suggests, the COVID-19 crisis can make or break the EU, depending on how the member states decide to pool their resources for the common good of the EU. Unfortunately, even after half a year of the crisis, EU member states do not seem to have found a joint plan of action. A supranational structure that effectively addresses cross-border issues that also safeguards its citizens’ shared values and rights would be superbly lovely to have. However, it is crucial to ensure that each member state’s citizens continue to fully enjoy their political freedom in deciding how their nations and the EU should evolve. Thus, some may hope for the EU to become more supranational and even become a federalist nation-state. However, it would be impossible to forecast whether this could happen and, if so, when and how.