DO NOWCopy the line graph below into your textbooks. Where would you place the main UK political parties on this spectrum?EXT: What are the major arguments for and against British membership of the EU?

The European Union

Very anti-EU Anti-EU Neutral Positive Very positive

Learning objectives

• To describe the origins and structure of the European Union

• To explain the relationship between the UK and the EU• To evaluate the extent of democratic accountability in

the EU

• States can be said to have transferred a portion of their sovereignty when they allow other institutions to create laws that take precedence over national laws.

• The institutions receiving this portion of national sovereignty are typically referred to as supranational institutions.

• EU law takes precedence over national law in the UK.

Keyword - Supranational

Read through the newspaper editorial (written in early 2014).

Summarise the writer’s position on the question of UK sovereignty in relation to the EU.

How does this relate to what we know about Parliamentary sovereignty?

Read through the article

Sovereignty at risk?

• Professor Piet Eeckhout, an expert in EU law, here explains the relationship between EU and UK on the question of sovereignty.

• What are his five questions about EU legal powers?

‘There is still a democratic deficit in the governance of the European Union.’ Discuss. (25 marks)

‘Allegations of a “democratic deficit” in the European Union are more justifiable in the case of some of its institutions than in others.’ Discuss. (25 marks)

‘The European Parliament has seen a gradual increase in its power and authority.’ Discuss. (25 marks)

‘Policy making within the European Union (EU) is dominated by the European Commission.’ Discuss. (25 marks)

Typical exam questions

What is the EU?

EU member states

What were the origins of the EU?

• After the Second World War (1939-1945) six western European states wanted closer economic cooperation (France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg)

• The Schuman plan put forward the idea of a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1950

• 1957 – same six countries signed the Treaty of Rome – creating the European Economic Community (EEC) and European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom)

• All existing bodies merged into one European Community (EC) in 1965

No! Je déteste Le rosbif!

• French President Charles De Gaulle (pictured) blocked UK membership of the EC in 1961 and 1967

• Il a dit: “Le marché commun actuel est incompatible avec l'économie, telle qu'elle est maintenant, de la Grande-Bretagne.”

Oui! J’adore les Anglais

• The EC expanded to nine members in 1973, when the UK, Ireland and Denmark joined

• The most significant progress in the 1970s was the creation of the European Monetary System and the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM)

• The Single Market was created in 1985

Maastricht Treaty (1992)

• This treaty established the European Union on three pillars:– The existing European Community– Common Foreign and Security Policy– Justice and Home Affairs

• It also gave birth to the idea of ‘European citizenship’ for the first time

• Economic and monetary union would follow with the creation of a single currency – the Euro – by 1999.

The British government, headed by John Major, secured a better deal for the UK; specifically, the UK opted out of :– EMU – the UK could decide whether or not to join the single

currency– The ‘social chapter’ which extended cooperation in social

policy. (However, New Labour joined this in 1997.)

Awkward British

• Eurozone = 16 states 2010 (11 originally 1999, 5 up to 2009)

• Member states surrendered control over monetary policy, i.e. interest rates (ECB does this)

• Stability and Growth Pact designed to create budgetary discipline – since 2008 countries bailed out (e.g. Greece)

Since Maastricht

1997 Amsterdam

Treaty 2001 Nice Treaty

2004 Constitutional

Treaty 2007 Lisbon Treaty

3. Treaty Reform:•Treaties are the highest laws in the European Union. Therefore, when they are made or reformed then the EU usually changes shape or scope.•Using pages 316-317 make notes on the following: