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an eu-wide common tax code an eu-wide common immigration policy or even an eu-wide common army in other words a united states of europe is this the future the eu is heading towards and if it is what political model would work best a unitary model like the uk or a federal model like the us and switzerland to answer this this video will dive into the following three topics firstly what are the potential government models that the eu could develop into secondly what does a federal eu even mean and lastly what will actually happen so to start off with what are the political systems the eu could develop into before we can answer this we need to look at power distribution how is political power distributed between the national level and the sub-national level in other words a country's national parliament versus regional parliaments across the country on the one end there's the unitary model of government here the national government has total authority over all the country's sub-national regions france is a great example as its central government has control of nearly one thousand political subdivisions who mainly exist to implement directives issued by the central government globally there are 165 unitary states making it the most common form of government in the world next there's the federal model of government here political authority is divided between two sets of governments one national and the other sub-national both of which answer to the people this means that local provinces and states have their own governments with some authority over their territory of the eight largest countries in the world by area seven are organized on a federal basis then there is a confederal model of government in this model all the power resides with the independent states or in other words the sub-national governments the central government can only act if all sub-national governments find common ground unanimously currently there are no pure confederal countries in the world so what about the eu well a lot of power clearly still resides with the member states as the eu has exclusive rights to legislate in only five areas the customs union competitional rules for the single market monetary policy for eurozone countries trade a marine plant and animals then there's also some shared power as there are 15 areas where both the eu and the national governments can legislate then there are four policy areas where eu member states have veto rights meaning that very little gets done in these areas and then there's a long list of policy areas that are predominantly managed on a country level we can therefore conclude that the vast majority of power lies with the member states therefore placing the eu more towards a confederal model rather than a federal model this brings us to the next part of the video what does a more federal eu mean to become a functioning federation as we know them today there are four baseline criteria that the eu needs to work towards firstly it needs to consider to centralize key policies in a typical federation such as the u.s the following policy areas are managed on a central level firstly internal security for example the fbi secondly foreign policy then a common military for defence then monetary policy to control the money supply and interest rates and lastly a common fiscal policy to finance the provision of these public goods currently only monetary policy is managed centrally in the euro zone countries moreover in present-day eu most of the public goods provided by the union are financed not through federal taxes but by national contributions in the u.s federal model there is both a federal tax and estate tax the federal tax is used on a central level for government spending for example defense policy and the state tax is used in a more local level for example on education spending like the u.s the eu could centralize these policy areas meaning that the member states would lose some sovereignty but the eu would be able to make quicker and more decisive decisions on the world stage should the eu go even further though for example what about immigration and border control or the environment or even healthcare let me know in the comments what policies you think make sense on a federal level and which don't and please like the video and subscribe if you enjoy this type of content next there is the issue that member states have veto rights as mentioned before there are four key policy areas in which the european union cannot legislate unless there is unanimous agreement these areas are fiscal policy including taxes social security police corporation and foreign policy this means that the entire eu can be held hostage if one country disagrees for example germany blocked a recent proposal to ban russian gas and hungary blocked a proposal to ban russian oil via pipelines instead of veto rights the european parliament and the council of the european union should vote on such proposals next there's a need for a pan-european constituency in a typical federation you get multiple votes one on a local level and another on a national level currently in the eu citizens get one vote each which goes to a national party who then form an alliance with other member state national parties to form the european parliament in a pan-european constituency citizens would get a second vote for parties that campaigned throughout the eu these candidates would then represent the eu rather than just their own member state the first steps towards this model have already been made as the european parliament recently adopted a proposal to have 28 additional meps elected across europe a big shout out to vibes from our community who made me aware of this topic although i'm sure he will argue that 28 mps aren't enough lastly the european commission president is currently elected by the european council behind closed doors to make the process more transparent and democratic the european parliament and council should be involved but i've made an entire video about this link below so if you are interested check it out if these four areas are addressed the eu could truly be called a federation on the other hand the eu can also roll back federalism towards a more confederal model where the member states hold more power monetary policy in eurozone countries is currently federalized with the euro but there are still skeptics who question whether this young currency will survive and that brings us to the final part of the video how likely is it for the eu to move towards a federal model the eu is currently closer to a confederation than it is to a federation but history has shown that a confederation often results in the establishment of a federation take switzerland and the u.s both started as a confederation but ended up becoming federal unions and the swiss model is very interesting as it has seven heads of state a direct democracy where the swiss people also have the right to vote directly on specific issues and the sub-national states also called cantons have a lot of power this might be the best federal model for the eu to adopt but this is a topic for another video there's also a lot of support in germany for a federal europe with germany's chancellor olaf schultz stating that a sovereign europe is the key for our foreign policy not to mention that recent events have shown that an integrated eu is necessary to deal with global issues and progress towards a federation has already been made for example the introduction of eurobonds which was a taboo subject only five years ago and not to mention the eu procuring vaccines on behalf of all member states and creating a green pass and then of course there's the eurozone which really is a federal monetary policy but president macron has recently mentioned a new idea of creating a two-tiered european union he implied that it may take decades for the newly applied countries ukraine moldova and georgia to join the eu not to mention the five candidate countries who are still stuck in the process of joining therefore he suggests that we have a tiered model the more integrated tier would be the european union we have today with 26 member states who enjoy a political union with aligned principles and values then a second less integrated tier would be created which macro calls a european political community within this new political union nations like ukraine and even post-brexit britain could forge deeper ties without officially joining the eu this could include cooperation in security energy transport infrastructure investments and the movement of people i personally also like the idea of potentially also having a third tier a federal european union for those who want it here countries wishing for more integration in terms of foreign policy military fiscal policy internal security and immigration could do so with these three tiers european countries can determine how much integration they want and can move between these tiers depending on what the voters in their respective countries want i find a multi-tiered europe a fascinating topic and think that this might be the most likely way forward i would love to dive into this deeper and let me know in the comments if you're interested in another video in the meantime check out this video about eu democracy and let me know in the comments what you think about a federal eu thank you for watching