Now showing
Sovereignty and the vertical separation of powers in the EU
About this film
Hello, my name is Protesilaos Stavrou. In this seminar I will talk about the European Union’s vertical separation of powers. It is based on the legal principles of conferral, subsidiarity, and proportionality. These govern the distribution of competences in the EU. They do, in other words, regulate which level of state does what over any given area of policy covered by the European Treaties. Drawing from the last three seminars on the interlocking aspects of sovereignty and statehood, I will critically assess the function of these principles in relation to the key questions of “who governs?” and “where is the locus of power?” . Ultimately, I will propound the argument of considering the European Union as a de facto federation; a federal system whose constitutional arrangements provide for the vertical separation of powers and a distribution of effective sovereignty that is policy-dependent. This will provide a different perspective on the concept of national sovereignty in the European context. It will also present intergovernmental decision-making institutions, such as the European Council, as yet another emanation of supranational authority, rather than what is prima facie unders…
Directors & creators
Protesilaos Stavrou
More from this pool