Understanding the European Union

I was in Germany (lovely place) this past weekend. On the eve of the US-EU summit, the local paper in Essen, the WAZ, exclaimed that there was a general ignorance about how the European Union works in the United States. Putting aside the fact that most of its so-called citizens know as little about how the EU works as many Americans do, it nevertheless has a bit of a point – there is shockingly little type dedicated to the institution that makes, by one estimate, 81% of Europe's laws.

Part of this is because the European Union itself sometimes isn't entirely sure about its role. As an example, about a month ago, the President of the European Commission (the real powers-that-be of the EU), a Portuguese man named José Manuel Barroso (spelling?) said that any negotiations on a US plan to build a ballistic missile defense system should be conducted on a bilateral level, with occasional unofficial contact with Brussels.

Fast forward to now; the Commission has decided that, well, actually, it would like a little bit more information about the plan, and would particularly welcome it coming under NATO auspices rather than bilateral agreements with Poland and Czech Republic. The head of the Social Democrats in the Czech Republic, Jiří Paroubek, has begun to meet with Social Democrats (and Greens) in Germany, Austria, and other European nations (who would be protected under this missile shield, bankrolled almost entirely by the US, and likely under NATO). In turn, left-of-center parties in the European Parliament (a talkshop masquerading as a legislative body) have injected themselves into a conversation that almost no-one planned on having, and which almost certainly has little legal standing under the current Treaty of Nice.

Part of the reason that the EU is so woefully misunderstood by Americans is because of its determination for "ever closer union." In the US Constitution, "more perfect union" never implied "ever closer." Its self-perpetuating consolidation of power is something that American policymakers will have to deal with.

European Unionists will tell you that the principle of subsidiarity is enshrined in all the treaties since the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which created the European Communities, forerunners of today's EU. Of course, the principle of subsidiarity is in the US Constitution as well, in Amendments IX and X. However, any government will always tend to seek to allocate greater powers and responsibilities to itself. The European Union, unfortunately, is simply extremely adept at doing so. During this summit, keep that in mind.