Chapter 1: EU Political System Introduction

Characteristics of the EU Political System

• The EU has a significant impact on the distribution of economic resources and the allocation of values across the system.
• The EU possesses characteristics of institutional stability and complexity, with continuous interaction between political outputs, new demands, and new decisions.

Institutional Structure of the EU

• The EU institutions have taken on executive, legislative, and judicial powers of government.
• The EU governments play a central role in the system, but do not have a monopoly on political demands.

Significance of EU Decisions

• EU decisions are highly significant and are felt throughout the EU, covering a wide range of areas, including market regulation, social and environmental policies, agriculture, regional and research and development spending, policing and law and order, migration policies, and international trade, foreign and defence policies.
• Primary and secondary acts of the EU are part of the law of the land in the member states, and supranational EU law is supreme over national law.

EU Political Process

• The EU political process is a permanent feature of political life in Europe, with constant interactions within and between EU institutions, national governments, and private interests.
• The real essence of EU politics lies in these interactions, rather than in periodic 'summitry'.

European Union Overview

• The EU is a remarkable achievement, resulting from a process of voluntary integration between European nation-states.
• The EU began in the 1950s with six states, growing to 15 in the 1990s, 28 in the 2000s, and may continue to grow further.
• European integration has produced a set of supranational executives, legislative, and judicial institutions with significant authority over many areas of public policy.

Challenges to the EU

• The instability of the global economy and sovereign debt levels of several member states challenge the sustainability of the Euro.
• Waves of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa challenge the sustainability of the EU's internal open border policies.

Defining the EU

• The EU can be conceptualized as a political system, characterized by a stable and clearly defined set of institutions for collective decision-making and a set of rules governing relations between and within these institutions.
• The EU is not a state, but rather a political system with its own distinct characteristics.