The European Union and diminished state sovereignty

TY - JOUR

T1 - The European Union and diminished state sovereignty

AU - Pavel, Carmen E.

N1 - Funding Information: I thank an anonymous referee for this important point. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - In A Republican Europe of States, Richard Bellamy embraces neither the anti-internationalism of the sovereign statist, not the unbounded trust in international institutions of the European federalists. He proposes instead a model for the European union he calls ‘republican intergovernmentalism.’ This model seeks to preserve internal state sovereignty while arguing that mutually agreed rules for regulating external sovereignty are necessary and beneficial. I argue instead that creating a supranational structure like the European Union cannot be accomplished without a reduction in the internal sovereign authority of member states. This a potentially legitimate reduction of sovereign authority for states, but a reduction nonetheless. The most important consequence of the conceptual claim that state sovereignty is diminished is that the delegation of authority to supranational institutions which has this cost ought to be publicly discussed and negotiated at the national level in member states to avoid misunderstandings and backlash against the legitimate authority of the EU.

AB - In A Republican Europe of States, Richard Bellamy embraces neither the anti-internationalism of the sovereign statist, not the unbounded trust in international institutions of the European federalists. He proposes instead a model for the European union he calls ‘republican intergovernmentalism.’ This model seeks to preserve internal state sovereignty while arguing that mutually agreed rules for regulating external sovereignty are necessary and beneficial. I argue instead that creating a supranational structure like the European Union cannot be accomplished without a reduction in the internal sovereign authority of member states. This a potentially legitimate reduction of sovereign authority for states, but a reduction nonetheless. The most important consequence of the conceptual claim that state sovereignty is diminished is that the delegation of authority to supranational institutions which has this cost ought to be publicly discussed and negotiated at the national level in member states to avoid misunderstandings and backlash against the legitimate authority of the EU.

KW - differentiated integration

KW - European union

KW - republican intergovernmentalism

KW - republicanism

KW - sovereignty

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126018913&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/13698230.2022.2042956

DO - 10.1080/13698230.2022.2042956

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85126018913

SN - 1369-8230

VL - 25

SP - 596

EP - 603

JO - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy

JF - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy

IS - 4

ER -