‘The European Union is at a crossroad’

DEN HAAG (PDC) - How does EU membership affect national sovereignty? That was the central question during the presentation of the book ‘Sovereignty in the shared legal order of the EU’. The book presentation, moderated by Anna Gerbrandy, started off with a brief preface on the volume and the reasons for writing this book. The book focuses on the social relevance of sovereignty and gives a view on the power balance between the institutions of the European Union and its member states. The pragmatic perspective of a lawyer is one of the reasons for writing this book. ‘A lawyer is pragmatic and wants to know what the law does and what the use is for real life.’ After this brief introduction the speakers were introduced. Among them were Ton van den Brink, prof. Brinkhorst, prof. Hirsch Ballin and prof. Craig.

Ton van den Brink gave a more detailed introduction of the book. Therefore he used an example, from the book, that showed the tension between economic and social values. According to Ton van den Brink economic freedom is strongly protected and social values not so much. Furthermore, he focused on the fact that sovereignty is a complex concept with different interpretations. People should not look at sovereignty as an isolated term. Prof. Hirsch Ballin added that the book gives a lot of different views and provokes further thoughts on the issue of sovereignty.

Prof. Brinkhorst concluded that the European Union is at a crossroad where it should move forward or backwards. The actions of the European Union depend on the implementation of regulation in the member states. Member states have full responsibility for the decisions made in Brussels. ‘Brussels is at the same time Dublin, Berlin and Paris’. According to prof. Craig member states have a ‘constitutional responsibility’ to be honest to their citizens and explain the different situations and crises Europe faces. ‘The current crises give Europe the opportunity to develop European citizenship, concluded prof. Hirsch Ballin’. He explained that the European citizenship includes the right to vote and to be elected. Member states and their citizens should share their responsibility.

According to prof. Craig, people make different decisions and have to deal with the following consequences. ‘You have to deal with losing sovereignty when you are starting a collective, like the European Union. Eventually the overall idea of starting a collective is that in the end you will gain what the collective gives you. You win some, you lose some’.