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Sat, Jul 18th 2009, 23:07

John Hadjisky, Blogger, Platinum Contributor (328)

This is an absolutely critical question about the EU that none of the Euro-philes seem willing to discuss -- if the EU is to become a sovereign political entity, separate from the nation-states that make it up, what is the source of its sovereign authority, if not the people of the EU? Can any meritocracy or technocracy be legitimate, without a strong democratic component?

To even ask the question, is to answer it, in the West at least.

I am delighted and reassured that the German court confirms this.

I can't help wondering if this decision, or the thinking behind it, might not also have implications for International Law. Can sovereign people or nation-states permanently delegate their sovereign authority to the UN or other international body (ICC, etc) without at least a strong, universal democratic component to International Law? The UN General Assembly, for example, represents the governments of the world, not the people of the world. Isn't that an important difference?

Mon, Jul 20th 2009, 02:07

Colette Grace Mazzucelli, Hofstra University / New York University, Platinum Contributor (333)

I understand your concern, John, although my sense is that this Federal Court ruling, even more than the one in 1993, is likely to focus the European Union member states' attention more on internal matters at the cost of developing the strategic focus vis-a-vis the neighbors. This focus is necessary, in my opinion, as the regions around Europe's continent experience growth exploding demographically as well as in terms of poverty, particularly in North Africa, in the decades ahead.

Even if the EU does not enlarge to Turkey or Ukraine, relationships with the Union that help those countries to develop will become increasingly important to European security. A preoccupation with internal concerns will sap energy from the most urgent decisions, which must be made about the Union's role as a strategic actor regionally and in the world.

This is also important to a continental population approaching 500 million people with future enlargements. Europe faces the challenges to integrate peoples from at least three different civilizations - Western, Ottoman, and Slavic Orthodox. While India has managed to integrate many more cultures, ethnicities, and religions in a federal structure, it is also true that the subcontinent has a long history as a meeting place.

Europe's states continue to struggle demographically, economically, legally, politically, and socially with multiculturalism. This is paradoxical in that the European identity is, in my experience, more reflective of Sen's arguments in Identity and Violence than Huntington's in The Clash of Civilizations. All the best and greetings from New York, Colette