European Parliament

The European Union Introduction The European Union (EU) evolved from a regional economic agreement between six neighboring states, to today’s supranational organization of 28 nations across the European continent. These six states often accorded founding nation status include France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, Germany, and Italy. The lasting peace that has in the past half a century prevailed in Europe can largely be attributed to the formation of the European Union. As a matter of fact,…

It has often been said that the European Union suffers from a democratic deficit. This notion derives from the fact that prior to 1979, none of the EU institutions had directly elected members and therefore there was no democratic accountability to the citizens of the EU. It is also regularly asserted that the legislative powers at EU level are confined and dominated by executive actors, namely the Council of Ministers and the ‘unelected bureaucrats’ in the European Commission. However, this…

The European Union has always been recognized as suffering from democratic deficit and the standard of the European Union has been a controversial issue since the early 1990s. Therefore, Lisbon Treaty was lately implemented in order to improve the Union’s democracy. However, it is arguable that whether the Lisbon Treaty is effective enough to tackle the problem of democracy, which will be discussed in the following. In this essay, I will first define what is ‘democratic deficit’ and show the…

Does a European political identity exist today? If not, to what extent is it possible and/or beneficial for EU policymakers to create one? Political identity is the process through which "individuals recognize themselves as part of a group sharing a set of social and political values and principles" (Lucarelli, p.149). The European Union is still looking for its own identity. This paper aims to prove how European political identity is still 'under construction' and if it is possible or…

Democratic Deficit The plurality of Eurosceptic people argue that the European Union has a democratic deficient and I believe they are correct. The EU is fairly removed from individual nation-state governments and lack of accountability results in the loss member-state soverignty (Coughlan 2004). A democratic deficit refers the involvement of citizens in decision-making, and it is a foundational part of a legitimate government (Follesdal and Hix 2006). As discussed earlier, EU law is…

the Scottish parliament. Essentially this puts forward the view that Scotland is best placed to make decisions for Scotland, therefore decisions should be taken closer to home (Leach, Coxall and Robins, 2011). During the referendum…

Leases over 3years must be registered with land register but a licence is terminated whenever requested by the owner. Unless a tenant has exclusive possession there is no lease but a mere licence. This can be shown in the case Street v Mountford [1985], where Ms Wendy Mountford had concluded an agreement with the landlord for exclusive residential occupation (of…

Multi-level governance and federalism: a comparison of the models & a discussion on the future of the EU The purpose of this essay is to compare multi-level governance and federalism models in the sense of European Union and to discuss the future of the European Union based on these models. Firstly, I define what exactly multi-level governance and federalism models represent and what are the similarities and differences. Further on is a discussion about the developments of EU based on these…

‘Social Exclusion’ theory can be understood through many perspectives. With its origins in France in Europe it is important that this theory be better understood and analysed as it is paramount in shaping public policy that deals with exclusionary issues impacting some of the most vulnerable people in society today. This essay will first outline the origin of this theory. It will then move on to explain the various concepts of ‘Social Exclusion’ and the resulting impact this can have in…

Augustine a law that is not just is no law at all. As a result of this, these laws do not stay in your conscience, except at times when you need to avoid conflict because is still the law and it needs to be followed. Matthew stated, “If a man…Take away your coat, give him your cloak also; and whoever forces you to go one mile, go the second within” (Matthew 2). This quote seems to explain that if someone takes something away from you, you should give him more than what he asks for and make it…