The influence of federalism on the process of European integration

Abstract

Federalism is one of the oldest political theories through which to view the process of European Integration. The federal vision has been viewed as in opposition to the Intergovernmental perspective which is institutionally represented in the European Council and the Council of Ministers. Intergovernmentalists view the Member Sates as holding the keys to European Integration whereas those in the federal tradition tend to view the existence and power of multiple supranational institutions. Federal thinking has been implicit throughout the history of European Integration and it has always been a point ofreference and a source of inspiration for European construction. The objective of this dissertation is to shed light on the influence of federalism throughout the process of European Integration. In the first part, I shall provide a structured and comparative view of the most established theoretical readings of the European evolution, their impact and future relevance within the context of federalism. When studying the influence of federalism on the process of European integration, it is pertinent to study more closely particular policy fields and examine their contemporary issues, such as the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the EU budget. Whilst various federal influences had significant impact on the process of European integration, contemporary issues reveal that political integration in such policy areas needs to gain further momentum in order to mark more impact of federalism on the process of European integration. The challenges which are faced by the EU that effect the federal influences on the future European integration are to be examined, which include the rejection of last year's Constitutional Treaty. A general conclusion that can be drawn is that economic integration took the lead over political integration throughout the process of European integration. However, since globalisation is expected to leave an increasing impact on governments, federalism can be seen as a vital instrument to be used by governments to the increasing challenges of globalisation. This is explained by the establishment of supranational institutions which are better equipped to deal with certain issues than Nation-States.