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How is sovereignty important to international relations
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The European Commission One of the original European institutions is the Commission. Though it was one of the originals, the institution has tremendously changed from what it used to be when the European integration first began. The Commission is a supranational body responsible for legislation proposals and policy implementation. It continues to work toward a more democratic European Union every day with the new legislations and laws that it passes. In this paper I will establish why I believe the EU Commission to be a supranational body, it’s relevance to the European Union and some of the strengths and weaknesses of the institution for the citizens of the European Union. …show more content…
There are 28 members for each state and one is chosen as the president. In this type of a political union powers are negotiated and delegated by the government of the member states. Firstly, the president is proposed to the European Parliament by the Council depending on eligibility. The European Parliament then elects the president based on qualified majority voting. After the president is elected, he proposes his chosen 27 commissioners, based on proposals from the member states. The president and the council then have to agree on who the other 27 commissioners will be and get approval from the European Parliament. One of the distinguishing features which makes the European Commission a supranational body is that it combines all of the 28 member states into one state. The commission recognizes all of the separate member states and governments however it does act a sovereign power itself. The Commission proposes its own legislations and policies and works toward implementation of those legislations in the member states. The European Commission is based on treaties amongst the states that benefit from these treaties and thus there is trust and cooperation among them. Before I discuss why I think that the Commission is important for the European Union and for democracy I will define what a democracy is. A democracy is a form of government where all citizens have equal rights and the law applies to everyone equally with the same procedures for punishment.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary Democracy is a form of government by the people; especially: rule of the majority(Webster). This is what the United States is represented as, and this is based on the United States Constitution from which the United states draws all legal powers. In Robert Dahls book How democratic Is the American Constitution? He challenges this idea by trying to appeal to his readers in a way that they may view the United States Constitution in a different light. Dahl does this by pointing out flaws that the Constitution has and, draws on facts based on the other democracies around the world that the United States is compared too. He points out how many democratic ideas and innovations have a occurred since the conception of the American Constitution yet it has only adopted some of those idea.
Most of the time, countries only let another government set rules for them when they trust the other government. If 28 countries trust another government, the government must be very trustworthy. Also, the parliament is located in Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. There are other countries that do not have part of the government in their country, which means that the countries are uniting together. The European Union also has a common currency, called the Euro.
Democracy is the structure of government still used today in many countries.The definition of democracy is a system of government where people who rule directly are freely elected representatives.In addition, democracy comes from the Greek word demokratia. Demo meaning people and kratia meaning power of rule. For instance, here is an example, Great Britain has a democratic government since elected officials and laws are voted on by the people and also the representatives they elect. Therefore Athens exemplifies a democratic government. “Athenians would meet and vote on a simple question …. is anyone becoming a threat to democracy? If a simple majority voted yes,then they dispersed and reassembled two months later,
Before that can be established, I think a definition of democracy should be stated so that it may be called upon later in this essay. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, democracy is stated as "the principle of social equality and respect for the individual within a community" .
For this reason, the Commission is referred as the “guardian of the Treaties” or “watchdog” of the EU. Moreover, the decisions made by the Parliament and the Council must be made on the basis of the proposals given by the Commission.
However, this should not necessarily disqualify the EU from being treated as a democratically legitimate body. Andrew Moravcsik believes concern about the EU’s ‘democratic deficit’ to be misplaced. Judged against existing democracies, rather than ideal parliamentary democracy, the EU is legitimate. Most critics overlook the relatively optimistic conclusion because they analyse the EU in ideal and isolated terms, drawing comparisons between the EU and a utopian democracy. This use of idealistic standards is leads many analysts to overlook the extent to which delegation and insulation are widespread trends in modern democracies.
There are a number of methods EU legislation is formed for instance regulations, directives and decisions are three different types of EU legislation. I am going to briefly explain these three as the way they will be enforced are different.
The European Union (EU) is fundamentally democratic and is evident through its institutions, however, the current democratic electoral structure is of great concern. The EU is a new type of political system, often referred to as a sui generis, implying its uniqueness as there exists and a non comparable political body. The EU can neither regarded as a ‘state’ nor as an ‘international institution’ as it combines supranational as well as intergovernmental characteristics (Hix, 1999, p7). In this regard it has developed its own understandings of what democracy is. It is evident that the development of and spread of democracy is a central concept and foundation to all politics within the EU, and remains focuses on makings its governing institutions “more transparent and democracy”. The recent Eurozone crisis, it’s associated anti-crisis measures and the recent enlargement of EU have however re-invigorated debate about the EUs democratic legitimacy. At the heart of the debate are discussions not about whether the EU is an all-encompassing democratic institution but rather what are ‘democratic deficits’ or the democratic shortcomings that exist within this powerful economic and political union. Underpinning these divisions as Schmitter argues, are different understandings of what democracy is in the modern context and more specifically in the unique context of the EU. This essay will argue that the EU presents a unique type of political system that is fundamentally democratic, however, there are democratic shortcomings within its procedural and institutional structure.
The EU is a union of sovereign European states who share sovereignty based on treaty. The union also possesses competences in policy sectors with exclusive jurisdiction in the area of Economic and Monetary Union while others are shared with Member States (MS), the other powers belong to MS as derived from the conferral of powers art 5(2) TEU, 2(1) TFEU art.3 & 4 TFEU additionally other powers have been offered by the decisions of the European Court for direct effect on citizens
Their main responsibility is to initiate and implement new programs, and they form a permanent executive that supervise the work of the EU, much in the way that a national cabinet operates. This power is displayed in article 211 of the Treaty Establishing the European Community, which states that, the Commission: 'Shall formulate recommendations or deliver opinions on matters dealt with in this treaty, if it expressly so provides or if the commission considers it necessary. ' The Commission is made up of a President and the College of Commissioners (the political arm), and the Direc... ... middle of paper ... ... ------------------------------------- [1] The Presidency of the Council is the driving force in the legislative and political decision-making process, organising and chairing all meetings and working out compromises to resolve any difficulties.
The European Union was formed in February 1992 with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. It consist of originally twelve members – Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, and Germany. Those twelve members originally formed the European Union until 1995 when three other countries joined the Union – Austria, Finland, and Sweden. The European Union currently is formed of twenty-five members with the ten new members – Cyprus, Malta, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia being added in 2004. In 2007 two other countries (Romania and Bulgaria) could join the European Union. European Union covers a mass majority of the Europe and the current Union membership covers a population base of nearly half a billion people. In 1992 the European Union decided to go for economic and monetary union, involving the introduction of a single European currency managed by a European Central Bank. The single currency, the euro, became a reality in January of 2002, when euro notes and coins replaced national currencies in twelve of the 15 countries of the European Union (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland). (Europa)
The enlargement of the European Union (EU) in 2004 and 2007 has been termed as the largest single expansion of the EU with a total of 12 new member states – bringing the number of members to 27 – and more than 77 million citizens joining the Commission (Murphy 2006, Neueder 2003, Ross 2011). A majority of the new member states in this enlargement are from the eastern part of the continent and were countries that had just emerged from communist economies (EC 2009, Ross 2011), although overall, the enlargement also saw new member states from very different economic, social and political compared to that of the old member states (EC 2009, Ross 2011). This enlargement was also a historical significance in European history, for it saw the reunification of Europe since the Cold War in a world of increasing globalization (EC 2009, Mulle et al. 2013, Ross 2011). For that, overall, this enlargement is considered by many to have been a great success for the EU and its citizens but it is not without its problems and challenges (EC 2009, Mulle et al. 2013, Ross 2011). This essay will thus examine the impact of the 2004/2007 enlargements from two perspectives: firstly, the impact of the enlargements on the EU as a whole, and thereafter, how the enlargements have affected the new member states that were acceded during the 2004/2007 periods. Included in the essay will be the extent of their integration into the EU and how being a part of the Commission has contributed to their development as nation states. Following that, this essay will then evaluate the overall success of the enlargement process and whether the EU or the new member states have both benefited from the accessions or whether the enlargement has only proven advantageous to one th...
EU institutions and other bodies. European Union online publications. URL = http://europa.eu/about-eu/institutions-bodies/index_en.htm (last accessed 24th november 2013)
Democracy has come to mean a principle under whose flag has most of the developed countries aced in their race for Imperialism. It has gone beyond all previous governing systems and has made room for progress and development. By offering free and fair elections, democracy has redefined human dignity and patriotism. It has also helped to improve decision-making among the citizens, and brought down the crime level. Democracy is for sure the most fitting among the other types of government, and needs to be implemented fully for effective functioning of a state.
What is democracy? Democracy a form of government in which the people freely elect representatives to govern them in a country, democracy guarantees free and fair elections, basic personal and political rights and independent court of law. There are two types of democracy, direct and indirect democracy. Direct democracy or pure democracy is where there is direct participate of the people; people make decisions for them instead of letting them representative make decision for them. Indirect democracy the decisions are made by the representative on behalf of the people that voted for them. All over the world people are having different views with regard to democracy and how it operates. “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried” ~ Winston Churchill, some have said democracy is the worst government form of government which I also think it’s! Due to the how it operates.