The Federal Features of the EU: Lessons from Canada

Abstract

There has been a rise and fall in interest in federalism in the context of European integration. This article assesses the federal nature of the EU. It draws in particular on the work of Michael Burgess who has been one of the key thinkers on this issue. Because there are many types of 'federalisms' available across the globe, it is helpful to make a comparison with another political system to offer a base line. In this article I explore to what extent the EU already has federal features. With the help of the work of Burgess I seek to look beyond the specific characteristics of the EU and reflect on how a comparison with this other polity can offer us insights into what is going on within the EU political system. Drawing on the comparison with Canada, I seek to identify the characteristics of the EU that are already those of a federation. Therefore, the guiding question of this article is: compared to Canada, what particular features does the EU have that reminds us of a federation and what features is it still lacking? It finds that the EU has a considerable amount of federal features (federation), but that a federal tradition, a federal ideology and advocacy to a federal goal (federalism) are mostly absent.

Can the EU be a federal democracy? Assessing the horizontal and vertical dimension of the EU government from comparative perspective

“…This sort of loosely coupled arrangement has also been likened to modes of ‘treaty federalism’ in the Canadian case (Hueglin 2013 ; cf. also Verdun 2016 ). More reliance on this approach to governing could allow for variable, ‘differentiated integration’ (Fossum 2015 ; Schmidt 2019 ): accordingly national governments could reach voluntary agreements, while maintaining substantial latitude for achieving common goals and without hierarchic enforcement of compliance by the supranational level.…”

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“…If the EU is susceptible to the terms of conventional political analysis, the question still remains whether it is a confederationperhaps with consociational features (O'Leary 2020)a federation (Verdun 2016)perhaps in a postdemocratic form as executive federalism (Habermas 2012)or an empire (Zielonka 2006). Obviously, there is a massive and contentious literature on this subject that cannot be considered here.…”