What Is the European Union, Anyway?

Courtesy of informnorth - the regions leading magazine for enterprise and change

Some say it's a swanky international club conferring platinum-plated benefits on its lucky members. Some say it's a budding super-state slowly sucking sovereignty out of local governments. Others say it's a herd of cats.

This much we know: The European Union is an international organisation based on the Treaty of Maastricht, which took force on November 1, 1993. The treaty was designed to enhance European economic and political integration by creating a single currency and central bank, harmonizing aspects of domestic and foreign policy, and establishing common rights for citizens of the member nations.

The high-minded plan got its start, ironically - and unbelievably - with a simple lump of coal. In the years following World War II, there was widespread sentiment that Europe needed to do something to stop fighting wars - and that France and Germany, in particular, needed to find a way to get along. This sentiment led to the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1951, which established the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).

The ECSC was essentially a free-trade zone for coal and other products, which isn't too exciting, yet it included institutions that transcended national borders: an administrative High Authority, a decision-making Council of Ministers, a legislative Common Assembly, and a judicial Court of Justice. Through a series of new treaties, starting with the Treaty of Rome in 1957, these basic structures were carried forward into the European Union.

The idea of unifying Europe is often traced back to Winston Churchill, but Britain was not an original member of the ECSC, which included only France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Britain didn't sign on until 1973, partly because it didn't trust the rest of Europe (and vice versa - France vetoed Britain's attempts to join during the 1960s) and partly because it didn't want to damage its relationship with the United States. Other nations came later, too, including Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Finland, and Sweden.

Who's in control of the EU?

That depends on whose turn it actually is. Under its current structure, the European Union is guided most prominently by the Council of Ministers, composed of one high-ranking minister from each member state's current government. The Council is headed by a president, and this office rotates every six months so that each member will have a chance to have its representative drive the EU car.

Who's in charge also depends on whom you ask. Euroskeptics often say that a different (and, they say, relatively unaccountable) body holds the real power: the European Commission. Composed of 25 commissioners appointed by the Council of Ministers for five years, the Commission is the only EU institution with the power to initiate legislation. It functions as an executive bureaucracy, too, employing some 20,000 people to administer EU policies and enforce EU law.

There's also a Parliament, composed of democratically elected delegates who, along with the Council, amend, reject, or pass legislation proposed by the Commission. Representation in Parliament is more or less proportional: the larger the nation, the more votes in Parliament it gets. But the smaller members have so far managed to hold onto more votes than their population would dictate. Each state also gets one judge on the Court of Justice. This court interprets EU law, which has supremacy over local laws and regulations when the two conflict.

A new draft constitution has proposed changes to these structures, including the creation of a Council president who would serve for 30 months, the creation of an EU foreign minister, a slimmed-down European Commission of just 15 voting members based on a system of rotation, and majority-rule voting on decisions that now require unanimous consent. Yet none of these changes is a done deal just yet and of course, all 25 EU members must approve the new constitution for it to take effect.