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this video discusses the European Union and its political system now the European Union is of course not a country it's not even a confederation though it has over time moved towards Confederation and exactly when it will become a confederation or or how it could become a confederation that's Up For Debate really it has a political system that is much more complex than any other form of regional integration today so uh I'm going to discuss this at at some length first let's talk about some principles of of governance basic principles for the EU is that it needs to balance the interests of the member states with pan European interests what's good for the continent as a whole versus what's good for an individual member states and when uh a member joins most recently Croatia in July of 2013 the member seeds some sovereignty to the EU so that country uh has slightly less sovereignty than uh it had before accession if we view it as a simple plus minus equation which is it isn't because uh upon seeding some of that sovereignty to the EU it actually gains influence over the other members at the same time so they're sitting around the table together in these institutions of governance they can uh then create coalitions with other member states on Common Ground common issues and thus impact the agenda and uh of course uh when a decision has been made um the the member states have to to effectively comply with it in in many policy Fields so there is a trade-off here all are bound by the same rules and all can influence each other uh so even though at at first glance there is this um seeming loss of sovereignty when joining there's actually also at the same time gaining influence over the other members also want to mention the Treaty of Lisbon which is the latest one it uh moves uh decision-making rules for the Council of the EU we'll get to that in a moment from unanimity to qualified majority on several policy areas that used to to require unanimity and that makes for a good deal more effective governance and when you have 28 uh people around the table 28 ministers around the table um it it goes without saying that unanimity would make it very difficult to to um make decisions uh and and act uh in in those policy areas it also introduced the president of the European Council and a European representative in foreign affairs which uh effectively uh means that the the EU is taking on more and more of these confederal um traits and it also made the UN Union's Charter of Rights binding for all member states now let's have a look at the system now let's have a look at the system so uh first of all there are a couple of checks and balances here the courts of justice that oversees the fair interpretation of EU law in all states and it has had quite a bit of it's kind of like the the European Union Su Supreme Court uh even though it it doesn't have uh the same powers that the American Supreme Court would have uh it has made a series of land make Landmark decisions that has asserted its significance for free movement and trade in these particular areas uh for the European Union uh because if you want an internal market and you want that internal Market to function um then uh you have to have an Arbiter and that's the court of justice and this it it really overrules uh member states in that sense a second check and balance here is the European Central Bank created in the M treaty uh which sets interest rates for the the Euro Zone effectively very much model on the German bundus Bank uh and it might very well become the most powerful body since 1957 so this is what the system looks like um here's the people and these are the bodies uh and uh it looks kind of like a parliamentary system like a parliamentary system and like many democracies it has a by cameral legislature but unlike most legislatures um the lower house which is the European Parliament is actually the less powerful body in the legislature the upper house is the Council of the EU and that's where the the real power lies the people uh elect directly representatives to the parliament uh the Council of the EU is the body that represents the member state governments so in that sense it's kind of equ equalent to the American Senate where states are represented or the German buat where the lender are represented uh and this would be an equivalent to the House of Representatives in the US or the German bundestag so that's how and of course the European commission is also the Commissioners are sent from the M member states so these member states have uh the these double appointment uh capacities now the legislature then uh as I mentioned the European Parliament uh is directly elected and it has legislative power and it makes uh so it's responsible for the Democratic supervision of of all EU institutions and it makes co- decisions with the council uh on a number of of issues uh and has to appr approve uh nominees for uh commission uh just a quick look inside Parliament it kind of looks like this where uh all these member people come from all these different memb countries uh and each member state has a number of seat ing to the population size and when they get there they join a party group so you will have all the Liberals in the same party group so there will be Germans and um French and British and Spanish liberals sitting together so they're organized in party groups by ideology uh not by which country they come from so you'll have socialists from all over Europe and the conservatives and and so on and so forth moving on moving on uh in the council uh instead uh which is the really the main decision-making body in the EU that this is where the ministers from the member states uh gather so that's what makes up the council uh when the health issues are discussed the health ministers meet uh when it's a top Summit it's the head of governments that meet and so on and they share uh Powers with with the Parliament and so on and votes here are differentiated based on the population of the member states so the biggest member states will have more votes than the small ones so Germany 29 Malta 3 in this table uh but note that it's also graded so that per capita the smaller states have more influence uh and so that a maltes citizen actually has more input in what happens at the co Council of the EU than a German citizen does and it's also rigged so that the large countries can't simply just run all over the smaller countries uh they have to build coalitions in different ways the commission is the executive uh this is uh kind of like the EU cabinet permanent executive of of the EU it proposes legislation and initiates and implements most programs and upholds the treaties and does all that everyday administration of the EU uh the commission commers come are nominated by national governments and approved by uh the council and um there are 28 Commissioners one per member State and each commissioner will have a uh director directorate General uh there's one at least one per per commissioner and this is where the the administration Civil Service of the EU comes in now the EU has has produced a whole lot of public policy of course and let's finish up with that first of all of course the internal Market uh really important uh the freedom of movement within the EU of people and goods and services and money um a member a citizen of the European Union if you live in Portugal you can go to Germany you can buy your car there and drive all the way back through all those customs and all those borders uh without ever being stopped by a customs agent because effectively there are no borders between uh there are no border checkpoints I should say uh between these countries so that's freedom of movement for for for um uh goods and services no tariffs or trade barriers between the members of the internal Market um it also means that member states have less control over what is made uh and sold in their borders and what crosses their what items are actually crossing their borders um but again that goes for everyone uh a a second really important public policy item here has been the common agricultural policy which is the the single biggest budget post of the EU uh really large subsidies to Farmers and high tariffs against non-eu produce uh this is a controversial policy it hasn't really been extended uh immediately to the newest members because of the controversy involved uh but um and it's also been heavily critiqued uh but it's also being defended uh by the older members that of course benefit greatly from the subsidies but of course the biggest talking point right now has to do with the Euro the common currency uh only 17 of the 28 sorry that should be say 28 use the euro at this time some have not qualified economically to join others have chosen not to so for instance Sweden and the United Kingdom could have joined the Euro but decided not to and uh it's really about how uh is sovereignty affected when member states can't regulate their own interest rates uh some people are saying that the current crisis uh in the Euro Zone with national debts and so on is because of too too little oversight by the European Commission on National budgets so the solution would then be to give the European commission more oversight over National budget but of course that's going to be very very controversial given the issue of sovereignty and and some people are are in in Greece if nowhere else have asked about if if Greece is still a sovereign state given all the the um strings attached to the bailout loans that the EU have provided on the other hand German taxpayers are not particularly uh are probably not going to be particularly pleased with the thought of of giving loans to a government that they would see as as ineffective and and without any assurance that uh the the state budget won't won't be cleaned up properly uh so this is uh the kinds of disputes going on around um the the Euro Zone and the Euro Zone crisis so that's an overview of the European Union political system I hope you found useful