Small states in a European Union based on federal principles

Abstract

The European Union in 2002 is on the threshold of considerable changes. The Nice Treaty, signed in February 2001, has achieved institutional reforms, readjusting the balance between small and large Member States that was set in the initial establishment of the European Community. The parallel debate over the Union's finalite politique, culminating in the Convention on the 'Future of Europe' launched last February, has confirmed the wider constitutional changes that may lead the Union up the 'federal' path of integration. The major impetus behind such a reshuffling of the Union's internal agenda lies in 12 'active' applications for membership from Central and Eastern Europe and the predominance of small states therein, or better, the ensuing desire of attaining a successful process of 'deepening and widening'. The small Member States' status in a future federal Europe is thus still subject to many changes. In this context, this study argues that from a theoretical perspective, federal integration enables the small state to protect and achieve its essential interests in a wider union, as long as it is not of a centralising kind. A small state's sovereignty is jeopardized by its vulnerability and dependence, while its weakness and perhaps also a fear of foreign domination compel it to cling tightly to its independence and identity. The federal model is a multi-level decentralised political system based on a desire to preserve the diversity of the federated entities while achieving integration over spheres of common interests, thus satisfying the small state's coincident desires of integration and separateness. As a political concept, federalism does not necessarily manifest itself in a fully-fledged federation or a centralised Federal State, and this is the case in the context of European integration.