I mean it’s a political union of nations that are together for economic and defensive purposes. There’s a central body that does have power but is limited and each individual country still has a great deal of autonomy and has a right to secede.

I know it’s not established officially as a confederation but it seems to follow the characteristics of a confederation spot on.


10 comments

  1. Each EU country is responsible for its own defense, though. There’s NATO, but that’s separate from the EU, and not all EU countries are in NATO.

  2. It’s not. All member states are sovereign with their own governments and parliaments. A confederation would imply citizenship but there is no EU citizenship. 

  3. It shares some characteristics with a confederation but still isn’t one. Namely, the member states relinquish some sovereignty to join, which is the opposite of how a confederation works.

  4. I really feel like people here don’t understand what “Confederation” means. I’d argue it is a Confederation of sorts, bunch of organizations (governments with their countries) group together to achieve common goals like keeping democracy as the core ideology of the continent, tolerance and cooperation. Don’t get me wrong, it would be extremely naive to think all of it is done perfectly, Hungary is a crazy flawed democracy, tolerance is all over the place and cooperation… we’re still different countries competing with each other. Still, I think it fits.

  5. In a confederation there is a central government which is in charge of things like financial issues, foreign relations, defence. There is no such central government in the EU – the European Commission is the bureau branch of the European Parliament, which does not have a core of that kind

    “A confederation is “a system of government or administration in which two or more distinct political units keep their separate identity but transfer specified powers to a higher authority for reasons of convenience, mutual security, or efficiency.” (John McCormick. The European Union: Politics and Policies. Westview Press: Boulder Colorado, 1999. p.85.)

  6. No cause confederation means states or countries united by one army eg. Switzerland, thats a true confederation.

  7. It isn’t. Every member of the EU is a sovereign state. There are rules members of the “club” must follow and consequences for breaking them, but countries can leave the “club” if they want out (see Brexit)

  8. I would argue that the EU is a kind of Proto-Confederation. It’s relatively advanced on the way to becoming one, but isn’t one yet.

  9. I’d say not yet, but it certainly already has several element of a confederation as well as of a federation.

  10. No, because in a Confederation the states pool together key elements of their politics such as foreign policy and defence, which are almost totally outside the remit of the EU powers.

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