E.U. and U.S. Counterparts Met: A Basis for Comparison

President Barak Obama of the U.S., and Herman Van Rompuy and José Barroso of the E.U. held a news conference following the EU-US Summit at Lisbon in 2010. Even though the E.U. and U.S. are both empire-scale federal unions of states, and thus are equivalent in terms of political type or genre, they differ in terms of how their respective federal offices are arranged and constituted. This does not, however, nullify the basis of comparison.

For example, the E.U. does not have one definitive president; rather, the Commission has a president, as does the European Council. Interestingly, the alternative of having more than one president (e.g., a presidential council) was debated in the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787. Yet this difference does not mean that the E.U. and U.S. are not comparable. In fact, I submit that each union can be strengthened by such a comparison. 

The picture below also shows the full presidential equivalence, while showing that the EU is not structured at the federal level as a replica of the US. 

The placement of the respective flags is interesting because the arrangement was, at least as of 2019, only done for countries. By implication, I submit, the EU flag, rather than the flag of an EU state (e.g., France) should be set with the US flag as a backdrop. At the very least, the EU flag and the flag of the state of France should both be present, for the sovereignty of the state of France is partial, just as is that of the state of Texas. Both states, in other words, are in federal systems in which governmental sovereignty is split between the federal and state polities.

Besides in how they are arranged, the flags themselves are also visually equivalent. Both contain stars, which represent semi-sovereign states, or polities, which are on the scale of the early-modern nation-state. The early US flag is even more equivalent, for the number of stars is roughly the same. 

The E.U. flag was designed by Arsène Heitz and Paul Lévy for the Council of Europe in 1955. The EC and the E.U. would subsequently adopt the flag as their own. The "Betsy Ross" U.S. flag was in use by 1777. Regarding the number of stars, whereas the 13 on the U.S. flag represent the original 13 states in the U.S. alliance, the 12 stars on the E.U. flag were chosen when the Council of Europe had 15 members (10 of which were founding members). Even so, the similarity between the two flags is striking, especially as both the U.S. and E.U. have added states since their respective foundings. It would seem, in other words, that both unions have followed the same evolution, which is another signifier that the unions may be in the same political genre. 
Lastly, the "EU and US" sign in the news-conference photo above implies that the two unions are equivalent. Lest it be objected, at least as of 2019, that the EU is not a political union, I submit that having a parliament, executive (the Commission), and supreme court (the ECJ) renders the federal level not only political, but also a government. The denial (in the E.U.) and ignorance (in the U.S.) on this point boggles the mind. Such is the force of ideology on cognition and perception.

The picture below also shows the full presidential equivalence, while showing that the EU is not structured at the federal level as a replica of the US. The placement of the respective flags is interesting because the arrangement was, at least as of 2019, only done for countries. By implication, I submit, the EU flag, rather than the flag of an EU state (e.g., France) should be set with the US flag as a backdrop. At the very least, the EU flag and the flag of the state of France should both be present, for the sovereignty of the state of France is partial, just as is that of the state of Texas. Both states, in other words, are in federal systems in which governmental sovereignty is split between the federal and state polities. 

Interestingly, the photo below attests that U.S. flag flew next to the E.U. flag in front of an E.U. building in Brussels in 2012. Perhaps knowledge of the proper equivalence existed within the E.U.'s federal government, while still noticeably absent at the state level, including the residents thereof. 

Even though the E.U.'s federal level has been criticized for being populated by technocratic officials, I submit that the nature of the E.U.'s laws (e.g., directives, regulations, etc) are such whereas the officials have tended to have a good understanding of the E.U. as a political system meant in part to act as an international counter to U.S. power. 

For more on this topic, please see: Essays on Two Federal Empires: Comparing the E.U. and U.S., available at Amazon.

Van Rompuy as the European Council's First Extended-Term President

“In a sense, Europe seemed to be living down to expectations. Earlier, the foreign minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt, warned against a 'minimalist solution' that would reduce the European Union’s 'opportunity to have a clear voice in the world.'"  Olivier Ferrand, president of Terra Nova, a center-left research institute in France, said, “It is quite astounding. . . . It is jaw-dropping. It is the end of ambition for the E.U. — really disappointing.”

I think these are rather extreme positions on the selection of Herman Van Rompuy on November 19, 2009 as the first non-rotated president of the European Council.  Moreover, I don’t think the E.U. is going the way of the dinasaur just because Van Rompuy was not well known at the time of his selection.  He has written six books, is a writer of Japanese poems, has consensus-skills, and seems humble enough.  Would popular election have yielded a better candidate? As the election would have been E.U.-wide, it is doubtful that a high proportion of the voters would have been sufficiently familiar with him to make an informed decision. 

The New York Times continues, “The deal that produced the two choices emerged as a result of backroom negotiations among leaders jockeying for future and more important economic portfolios that could be more powerful in the enlarged European Union, which is still more of an economic union than a political one and looks to remain so.”  However, the E.U. includes a popularly-elected Parliament. Is a parliament not political? Is a parliament not a government body?  Perhaps, moreover, we should simply say that transfers of sovereignty are now economic in nature.

One might ask: who would have a vested interest in perpetrating such a subterfuge wherein governmental institutions, whether intergovernmental (e.g., the European Council) or national (e.g., the E.U. Parliament) are to be portrayed as solely economic in nature? According to The New York Times,  “The leaders of Europe’s most powerful countries, France and Germany, did not want to be overshadowed. Nor apparently did their foreign ministers.”   After the European Council elected Van Rompuy, Gordon Brown, the then-current British Prime Minister who had been pushing for Tony Blair (his precursor), told reporters that the posts are only ceremonial anyway since the state governments are still in control.  However, is Van Rompuy's role in presiding over the European Council merely for show? Is there not power in chairing a political institution? Furthermore, are the heads of the state governments in charge of the E.U. Commission, the E.U. Parliament, and the European Court of Justice? Even within the European Council where the governors of the states sit, qualified majority voting on most issues means that any given state government is not in control. We can conclude that E.U. level officials are not mere gloss on a window, and that the member states have indeed transferred some of their governmental sovereignty to the E.U. Government. Lest is be thought otherwise--that the E.U. does not have a government, there is a saying in English: If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, and swims like a duck, odds are it is a duck.  It might be useful to ask why it is in the interest of some that the obvious conclusion be withheld.

My only caveat concerning the selection of Van Rompuy is that the consensus maker was not the sort to make transparent the "duck" subterfuge and denial, which had gone unchecked at the expense of greater European integration. In other words, the E.U. needs its own leaders who can garnish attention for the E.U. itself (i.e., apart from its state governments) because if integration falters, the danger will be dissolution unless or until more governmental sovereignty is transferred to the E.U. As for Van Rompuy's low name recognition outside Belgium at the time of his selection, let’s not forget that few, if any, presidents of the U.S. Senate (the Vice President of the U.S.) have been known at the beginning of their respective terms. Of course, outside of breaking tie votes, the president of the U.S. Senate (whose members are the member states of the union) is more ceremonial than is the president of the European Council.  In fact, senators regularly stand in for the presiding officer when the U.S. Senate is in session, whereas Van Rompuy himself presides over sessions of the European Council.  Also, the European Council is possibly more powerful among E.U. governmental institutions than the U.S. Senate is in the U.S. This is probably so because the state governments in the E.U. have more power at the E.U. level than the American state governments do in the U.S. This could explain why Van Rompuy's position, the President of the European Council, is powerful (because the Council he chairs is powerful) even if Van Rompuy had been an unknown outside of Belgium and was not an attention-getter in the media (e.g., unlike Tony Blair).

Source:

Stephen Castle and Steven Erlanger, "Low-Profile Leaders Chosen for Top European Posts," The New York Times, November 19, 2009.

Unions and States at a G-8 Meeting

At the G-8 summit at Camp David in May 2012, E.U. and U.S. leaders met with the leaders of four E.U. states (Italy, Germany, France and Britain). As this picture illustrates, the qualitative differences between looking after a union of states and a state can show up unintentionally in informal seating arrangements. In the context of the European debt crisis—in particular, whether to give one state (i.e., Greece) stimulus cash or just insist on the austerity programs already agreed to—the governors of the E.U. states have particular agendas (given the financial interests of the respective states) whereas the federal officials are oriented to the good of the whole (i.e., the E.U.). President Obama of the U.S. was by the time of the summit used to taking such a perspective over and above the interests of particular U.S. states. Such a commonality of federal, empire-level interests as distinct from the relatively particularized interests of E.U. (and U.S.) states could be reflected in the seating arrangement in the picture taken by the White House, wherein Obama, Barroso (sitting next to Obama), and Van Rompuy (in the sweater) seem to be facing the four governors. The seating arrangement could just as easily have been a circle. It probably was, originally, and I suspect that the federal v. states distinction operated unconsciously on the participants such that the three federal officials came to be as though a line facing the four governors of E.U. states.

The complete essay is at Essays on Two Federal Empires, available at Amazon.

dit Downgrades in the E.U.: Blaming the Messenger?

On January 13, 2012, “S&P stripped France and Austria of their prized triple-A credit ratings and reduced the ratings of seven other [states in the euro-zone], including Italy, Spain and Portugal. Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were spared, along with Belgium, Estonia and Ireland.”[1] Italy was downgraded from single-A to triple-B-plus. "We think there are elements missing in their analysis … when it comes to the growth strategy … there is no space for maneuver for fiscal impetus but we believe that a growth strategy will have to rely mainly on structural reforms," Olivier Bailly, an E.U. Government spokesman, told reporters.[2] “Bailly also called the timing of the S&P decisions ‘very odd’ citing fiscal policies adopted to weather the crisis in the downgraded countries as well as the two successful debt auctions in Spain and Italy last week. ‘We think that there is a strange timing in this announcement considering the signals from the markets,’ Mr. Bailly said.”[3] The “very odd” and “strange timing” reference a tacit political motive behind S&P, which the European officials point out is an American company.

The full essay is at "Essays on the E.U. Political Economy," available at Amazon.

1. Christopher Emsden, Matina Stevis, and Bernd Radowitz, “E.U. Leaders Focuson ‘Progress’,” The Wall Street Journal, January 16, 2012.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

The Democracy Deficit in Nominating Presidential Candidates

“Newt Gingrich is up, Herman Cain is out, and the attacks are getting sharper as the GOP primary campaign enters the final month.”[1] The final month, that is, before “Iowa launches the contests that will choose the challenger to President Obama.” This has the ring of before time began, or before the beginning. That anything is decided before the beginning may seem metaphysically impossible even if it applies politically. One might demur, claiming that anything without a foundation ought not to be able to exist, let alone to stand. Can Americans borrow anything from the E.U.'s presidents that might improve how the U.S. president is selected?

The full essay is at Essays on Two Federal Empires, which is available at Amazon. 

1. Susan Page, “Gingrich Rises in GOP Field; Cain Out,” USA Today, December 5, 2011.

An American President Meets the E.U.: Corrective Exigencies of a Debt Crisis

 Political protocol can take some time to catch up to changed political realities. For over two hundred years, it has been assumed that U.S. presidents have met with their counterparts in E.U. states such as Britain, France, and Germany. During the European debt crisis, “in numerous private conversations and increasingly forceful public statements, [American] policy makers are urging their European counterparts to take big steps and move fast to reassure markets.”[1] It was undoubtedly assumed that the counterparts were at the state level in the E.U., rather than in E.U. governmental institutions. So how are we to situate Barak Obama’s meeting on November 27, 2011 with José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission; Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council; and Catherine Ashton, the European foreign policy chief? 

 Doug Mills/NYT

1. Anne Lowrey, "Obama Meets Leaders of the European Union," The New York Times, November 28, 2011.