Over the last few years, France has alluded to the concept of “European sovereignty”. This chapter discusses whether this proposal proceeds. In legal terms it seems that there is not sovereignty of the European Union. In Comparative Constitutional Law sovereignty and State are related concepts, and the Union is not a State. In order to be, there should be a European people with its own constituent power (“pouvoir constituant”). The Union is a sum of national peoples and there is no European people. As such, the Member States hold the constituent power in the Union. The political power of the Union is a supranational power resulting from the transference of sovereign powers from the Member States. If there is no sovereignty of the Union from a legal point of view, it can, however, be advantageous to talk about it on a political level, as a proposal to deepen integration, starting with the extension of the Union’s competences to new areas such as defence, energy, health, climate, immigration and, at the institutional level, the substantial reduction of the unanimity rule. Current times show how the Union has been postponing these reforms.

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Reflections on the “European Sovereignty” Proposed by France

  • Fausto de Quadros

摘要

Over the last few years, France has alluded to the concept of “European sovereignty”. This chapter discusses whether this proposal proceeds. In legal terms it seems that there is not sovereignty of the European Union. In Comparative Constitutional Law sovereignty and State are related concepts, and the Union is not a State. In order to be, there should be a European people with its own constituent power (“pouvoir constituant”). The Union is a sum of national peoples and there is no European people. As such, the Member States hold the constituent power in the Union. The political power of the Union is a supranational power resulting from the transference of sovereign powers from the Member States. If there is no sovereignty of the Union from a legal point of view, it can, however, be advantageous to talk about it on a political level, as a proposal to deepen integration, starting with the extension of the Union’s competences to new areas such as defence, energy, health, climate, immigration and, at the institutional level, the substantial reduction of the unanimity rule. Current times show how the Union has been postponing these reforms.