EU

IGOinternational

EU  link () Powerbase Sourcewatch Website Wikiquote
Motto	United in diversity
Formation	23 July 1952
Type	international
Subgroups	European Parliament, European Council, Council of the European Union, European Commission, Court of Justice of the European Union, European Central Bank, European Court of Auditors, Eurojust, Europol, Schengen Information System, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, European Environment Agency, European Training Foundation, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, European Medicines Agency, Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market, Community Plant Variety Office, Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union, Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union, European Maritime Safety Agency, European Aviation Safety Agency, European Network and Information Security Agency, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, European GNSS Agency, European Railway Agency, Frontex, European Fisheries Control Agency, European Chemicals Agency, European Institute for Gender Equality, European Defence Agency, European Institute for Security Studies, European Union Satellite Centre, European Police College, European Police Office, European body for the enhancement of judicial co-operation, Fundamental Rights Agency, Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications, European Systemic Risk Board, Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, European Banking Authority, European Securities and Markets Authority, European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, European Asylum Support Office, European Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems in the area of freedom security and justice, Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation, Education Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, Executive Agency for Health and Consumers, Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency, Research Executive Agency, European Research Council Executive Agency, Euratom Supply Agency, European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy, European Institute of Innovation and Technology, European External Action Service
Sponsor of	Emerging Leaders in Environmental and Energy Policy Network,Global Disinformation Index
Membership	Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden
An international superstructure that has evolved since WW2.

The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe.

The union has a total area of 4,233,255.3 km² (1,634,469.0 sq mi) with an estimated population of about 447 million (5.8% of the world population in 2020). The EU generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around 17.1 trillion USD in 2021, constituting approximately 18 per cent of global nominal GDP.

Government

Full article: European Commission

The EU is ruled by its executive branch, the European Commission. It also has a European Parliament with 705 members (MEPs). The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. It is composed of the heads of state or government of the EU member states, in summits held at least twice every six months.

Criticism

On the one hand, the European Union suspended Austria when its citizens voted for people^[Who?]Template:Cn it didn’t like. On the other hand, the EU has failed to react to the Rajoy government’s tactics in responding to the Catalonian crisis. This is not to claim that the EU was wrong in each of these cases. It merely shows that the EU is experiencing a serious identity crisis. It simply cannot make up its mind whether it is to:

(a) become a mere confederation;

(b) become a federation;

(c) recast itself as an inter-governmental organisation on the lines of the Council of Europe;

(d) muddle along as "neither fish nor fowl"; or,

(e) disappear under the weight of its inherent contradictions.

Take your pick!

Legal Problems of the European Constitution

From the very beginning the construction of an European super-bureaucracy faced legal problems: core agreements like the "economic stability criteria" have been broken frequently and permanently by the majority of member states.

The precursor of the Lisbon Treaty (13 December 2007), the Treaty of Maastricht has been rejected by the citizens' vote of many European countries. After that the European Parliament was set up without questioning the people further. The European Parliament is notoriously weak and has only a veto power over laws passed within a short timeframe. European law overrules national law but the people of the member states are not represented proportionally in the European Parliament. This conflicts with many national constitutions. The Maastricht Treaty has been challenged therefore before the highest courts of Member States as well as the European Court of Justice, among others by German professor of international law Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider.

Of particular concern are the paragraphs dealing with martial law or "emergency situations" and the re-introduction of the death penalty. The contents of the treaties are not discussed in the commercially-controlled media and there is no awareness of the far-reaching consequences in the general public. The contracts are packed with footnotes and references to previous treaties and legal acts, which makes them hard to understand even for insiders of international law. A survey showed that less than 20 percent of German MPs actually read the Lisbon Treaty before giving the go-ahead to their own disempowerment.

Capital punishment in Europe

Officially the death penalty has been abolished in all European countries. Widely adopted resolutions, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and two protocols from the European Convention on Human Rights of the Council of Europe lay out that no can be deprived of his/her live. However, Article 2 (Right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights holds that when force is necessary to quell an insurrection, the death of people can be lawful.

Deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary:

• c. in action lawfully taken for the purpose of quelling a riot or insurrection

Emergency assistance

The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union holds that member states can send forces for to another union member to:

• prevent the terrorist threat in the territory of the Member States;
• protect democratic institutions and the civilian population from any terrorist attack;
• assist a Member State in its territory, at the request of its political authorities, in the event of a terrorist attack;
• assist a Member State in its territory, at the request of its political authorities, in the event of a natural or man-made disaster;

Inaction about Gladio

On November 22, 1990 the European Parliament debated Operation Gladio, producing a strongly worded resolution calling for an investigation. However, this was never followed through. Summarising the procedure, Daniele Ganser writes that "The dog barked loudly, but it did not bite. Of the eight actions requested by the EU parliament not one was carried out satisfactorily. Only Belgium, Italy and Switzerland investigated their secret armies with a parliamentary commission, producing a lengthy and detailed public report."