The Presidency of the EU does not exist - commentaires

The Presidency of the EU does not exist

A strong Europe is a supranational Europe. However, it should be made clear that 'supranational' does not mean 'federal' . On the contrary, federations like Germany or the USA are not, and cannot be, supranational. They are just national states. Europe will be a confederation , i.e. a union of national states with supranational institutions ; where subsidiarity means that the national level of the sovereign state comes first, the supranational level of the union comes in everywhere the national level is insufficient. Europe should become not only a supranational economic union, but as well a political and military one.

The Presidency of the EU does not exist

You are misunderstanding the point of the article. The fact is that there is no such thing as an EU president nowadays does not mean at all that there should not be at some point a stroinger EU leadership, on the contrary.

A part of the reason why the Union is not as popular as it should be these days is that many citizens are disappointed and believe that it should do more. Pretending that there is a leadership when there is not can only strengthen that disappointment.

But indeed we do need a federal Europe. Netherveless I believe that the US presidential system is not appropriate for the Union and that a parliamentary system is better.

The Presidency of the EU does not exist

On the same subject I published in the Netherlands, in the newspaper NRC Handelsblad of 27-28 december 2008. I added : There is no 'EU president' like there is a US president. Europe is no America. The EU neither is, nor will be, a federation . She is a union of souvereign states with five supranational institutions. With my remarks about confederation - souvereignty - subsidiarity.