European Union overview and institutional structure

European Union

I believe that all politics create some kind of estrangement, particularly when large entities such as the European Union are at issue. The fact that power struggles dictate most of the current relationships between political entities and even individuals and their citizenry makes it difficult for a general individual to identify with a large entity of powerful heads of state that apparently pursue only their own personal agenda.

In addition, there is such a vast array of ideologies, that citizen estrangement is hardly a surprising phenomenon. Individual citizens can hardly identify with any single ideology with alienating or violating another. There is no unifying ideology that binds Europeans and their leaders together. There is no common cause.

A third component of this alienation is the fact that many member states consider the European Union as a source of failure, while the nation, made up of citizens, is considered as a source of success. Hence, the alienation between citizen and the European Union is exacerbated by the alienation between the latter and those in power. There is no conciliatory effect where there is a particular divide between those advocating for the rights of a specific citizenry and those claiming to advocate for the rights of the collective.

2. A Euro-skeptic might use the arguments above to convince citizens of a member State to leave the European Union. There is no unified concept of a European drive towards citizenry and success. There are a large amount of divergent opinions and ideologies. There is very little likelihood of these finding any common ground in the near or far future.

The main problem appears to be that there are so many divergent countries and cultures at stake. Each country and/or culture has its own main collective aim. For the European Union in general, it is very difficult, and even impossible, to conciliate every individual ideology and aim.

Hence, it might be surmised that there is not probability of finding either any solace in terms of national aims or abilities or indeed any useful singularity in terms of ideology. There is simply too much divergence.

I would therefore advise any member state citizens to leave the European Union, since, first, it is no union at all, and second, there is no unifying concept to the European Union, which in fact makes the very title "Union" something of a misnomer.

3. There is very little that would make me believe that anything could change within the European Union. The Treaty of Lisbon, for example, has introduced the double nomianation of the European Commission and the European Parliament. Although the "political parties" have taken "their responsibilities," this remains a highly politicized paradigm, in which citizens have minimal power or parlance in terms of how the European Union and its member states conduct their business.

In fact, the entire European Union and its member states appear so fraught with political jargon and ideology that individual citizens can hardly be assumed to have any part of it. Hence, any legislation to change anything at all can only be assumed to defeat any purposes that individual citizens would care for, including the outcomes of any elections. Indeed, the main purpose of the European Union would be unlikely to take into account even the concerns of individual countries in terms of overriding its own general purposes and ideals.

The fact that there are so many divergent ideals an purposes within the European Union, in fact, makes it all but impossible for the individual citizen or even member state to gain any advantages from such membership. Hence, any legislation, including the Treaty of Lisbon, would fail to provide any particular change to the existing status quo. Indeed, such treaties serve only as surface value items to provide an image of openness for a scrutinizing world without offering any true change in the way business within the Union has been conducted for the duration of its existence. Any politicization would result in simply more of the existing difficulties experienced within the European Union. The drive has been towards power rather than towards leadership or citizen power, which should be the core principle of any political entity such as the European Union. It is therefore believed that there will be no significant change as a result of the treaty.

4. Although the current European Union has a tendency towards political corruption and autocratic leadership, I do not believe that the principle behind it is entirely corruptible. Indeed, a unified Europe is a somewhat positive concept. On the other hand, one must retain a certain sense of wariness in terms of the fact that there are a large amount of cultures and divergent ideologies within Europe.