This question is still a dispute between political scientist: what is EU, international organization, regional organization, state or empire? I argue that EU is a new international political entity but surely not a state or empire. I think EU is a regional organization and custom union.
There are so many types of international actor in international politics nowadays, such as states, international organization, regional organization, individuals, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Each of them have their own characteristic and role in international stage. States, for example, control over most of international affairs in many issues: military, economy and social. States build international organization and regional organization to face problems arising from inter-state cooperation and conflict. States will set rules, norms, and responsibility of them. Meanwhile non-governmental organization will work independently against or with government in certain specific area.
EU is not easily defined as regional organization. It has many things which other regional organizations don’t have, such as parliament, currency, court, single market, etc. Hix (2005) stated that EU is a complex political system. Schmidt (2004) stated that EU is a regional state. Both of them believe that EU is going to be a state. The problem is if we refer to Montevideo Convention of Human Rights, states must have four elements to be recognized as person in front of international law: permanent population, defined territory, government and capacity to enter relation with other states. Do EU have all of them?
Who are the citizens of EU? Can we say that 27 member states’s citizens are EU’s citizens? No. All 27 member states enjoyed different treatment, such as freedom of movement and currency. Maastricht Treaty established the notion of EU citizenship but it has different meaning with national citizenship because it does not establish full and equal economic, political, civil and social rights for all individuals regardless of where they reside in the EU. Citizens of Sweden still need visa for entering Britain and Ireland meanwhile Norwegian can easily access Nordic countries without being EU’s member. 17 out of 27 EU’s member states use Euro. A Citizen of a province/region in a country is supposed to get the same treatment as others and this shows that there is no kind of EU’s citizens.
If we accept this then logically we can’t say Britain and Sweden is EU’s territory. If region A is included in state B, then population A is the citizen of B. Norway is not included in EU but they can enjoy some rights as other EU’s member states have.
Government, I assume, refer to the existence of super-body who is authorized to provide security, justice and social order. EU has no army, police or supreme court. European Court of Justice only rules on the freedom of movement and the implementation of EU’s policies. EU control most of the single market but it is not a strong justification for making EU as government.
Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), which deals about foreign policies, is a pillar which is solely under European Council. It means that EU’s member states are the main actor determining EU’s foreign policies. EU member states can also set their own foreign policies without consulting to EU as happened in Iraq’s war.
Then it makes sense if we say that EU is not a state. Zielonka (2006) stated that EU is a neo-medieval empire. The main characteristic of neo-medieval empire are:
– soft-border zones in flux
– socio-economic discrepancies persist without consistent patterns
– multiple cultural identities coexist
– disassociation between authoritative allocations, functional competencies, and territorial constituencies
– interpenetration of various types of political units and loyalties
– distinction between the European centre and periphery is most crucial, but blurred
– redistribution based on different types of solidarity between various transnational networks
– diversified types of citizenship with different sets of rights and duties
– multiplicity of various overlapping military and police institutions
– divided sovereignty along different functional and territorial lines
I think Zielonka has successfully proved that EU fits into his characteristics of neo-medieval empire. Aside from that, I argue that EU can be also seen as custom union and regional organization. We can argue the difference between regional organization and international organization but I want to emphasize the wording of region here. It makes sense when some scholars propose EU to enlarge to Turkey, Israel, Belarusia, Rusia or even Israel and Palestine. But there is no way that Indonesia and Australia becomes EU’s member. My point is here that geographical proximity is important in identifying EU.
Meanwhile, EU has authority to set common trade policies toward other states. For example, EU have common policies toward banana import tax. This is the key characteristic of custom union, the second step after free trade areas (Balassa, 1965). For 17 Euro member, EU is a monetary union, the further step after custom union. And if EU member states can integrate their fiscal and monetary union, EU will be an economic union.
Of course, more answer on the question of what is EU. But once we have set the type, it will have implication on other important aspect of EU, including its foreign policy.
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