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Unique characteristics of the EU's institutional structure |
The main objective of Basic Course 4 is to analyse the uniqueness of the EU, and this includes its institutional structure. And we have already discovered a large number of unique characteristics so far: Just cast your minds back to the way in which institutions such as the Council of Ministers, Commission and European Parliament are composed and the interplay between them. No other models exist in this form. Or just think about the unique character of the EU's multi-level system.
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And its causes |
And it was during our investigations that we came across the reasons for the peculiar characteristics of this construction, namely, on the one hand, the high level of functional constraints that force nations into cooperation. While, on the other, there is the very different thinking among the member states as to how this cooperation should be structured (inter-governmental vs.. supranational). Taken together, these factors have led to very different institutional procedures and structures in individual areas of politics and for the most part are responsible for the complexity of the EU system. |
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Analysis of pillars 2 and 3 |
Our task now, then, is to complete the findings that we have made so far. So far we have been concentrating exclusively on the EU pillars and it is now time to turn to the Union's other two pillars, namely the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) that it supplements, as well as cooperation in Justice and Domestic policy as the third
pillar. .
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Supplements picture from the institutional structure and the momentum of the integration process |
Both of these areas represent fundamental cornerstones of national sovereignty. Indeed, it is clearly for this reason that they were first encompassed into the framework of the EU following the Treaty of Maastricht, after decades of EU cooperation, albeit outside of the EU with particular institutional and procedural rules that vary significantly from those of the EU pillar. This means that it is absolutely essential to include this area into our analysis in order to get a fully rounded picture of the EU's institutional structure and the momentum of the integration process. |
