WHAT IMPACT DOES REGIONAL INTERGRATION HAVE ON

A COUNTRYS SOVEREIGNITY?
National integration is to unite business and process differences that
exist in the country so that the formation of the unity, the various
Equality, and national hegemony. As we know the post World War I and
II in European countries increasingly eager to unify all of their country's
sovereignty by issuing various policies to promote the development
cooperation sector, the production and distribution sectors.
And with the birth of the European Coal and Steel Communtity
(ECSC) on 18 April 1951 in Paris, and eventually formed a community
called the European Community (EC), and also as a marker of the birth of
the European Union organization that is both intergovernmental and
supranational.
This international organization works through a combination of
supranational and intergovernmental system. In some fields, decisions are
determined through deliberation and consensus among member states,
and in other fields institutions supranational organ to discharge its
responsibilities without the consent of its members. Institutions important
organs in the EU is the European Commission, the Council of the
European Union, Council of Europe, the European Court and the
European Central Bank. In addition, there is also the European Parliament
whose members are directly elected by the citizens of member states.1
From some communities that factor into the European Union is the
establishment of communities concerned with development and economic
advancement. As well, the regulation of raw materials production and
distribution of production among member countries sesame. And
Euroatom become one community referred to as the European
Community / European Community (EC). The existence of the EC
progress that impact the emergence of interest from other countries
outside the member countries to join in this community.
Since the early 1950s, the EU has been a pioneer in regional
integration. The most important principles underlying the success of the
EU project include:
1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union

 Visionary politicians, such as Robert Schuman of France and

Konrad Adenauer of Germany, who conceived of a new form of
politics based on the supranational "community method" rather
than the traditional balance-of-power model. Support from the
United States was also crucial in the early years.
Leadership generated by the Franco-German axis. Despite many
problems, Paris and Berlin have been and remain the driving force
behind European integration.
The political will to share sovereignty and construct strong, legally
based, common institutions to oversee the integration project.
A consensus approach combined with solidarity and tolerance. The
EU approach is based on not isolating any member state if they
have a major problem (such as Greece in the most recent crisis),
hesitance to move forward with policies until the vast majority of
member states are ready, and a willingness to provide significant
financial transfers to help poorer member states catch up with the
norm.
These four tenets have guided the EU well over the years and enabled
the institutions to survive many crises, from French president Charles de
Gaulle's "empty chair" tactic of withdrawing French representatives from
EU political bodies in protest of moves to introduce qualified majority
voting (QMV) to failed referendums on new treaties in a number of
member states, including rejection of the Constitutional Treaty by France
and the Netherlands in 2005 and the Lisbon Treaty by Ireland in 2008.
More recently, the EU has adopted a more flexible approach resulting in a
multi-speed Europe with several tiers of integration. For example, not all
member states are in the eurozone, or in the Schengen passport-free zone;
this arrangement has allowed some of the more Euro-skeptic countries
such as the United Kingdom to opt out of certain obligations.
Nevertheless, the core tenet of the EU is readiness to share sovereignty
and operate through strong common institutions.2
Of the many international organizations, the European Union is one of
effective regionalism to success for its member countries. And the
European Union also is an area that has created an effective supranational
institutions to regulate the interaction of member countries, and also at
the same time an institution as of each member provide partial
sovereignty to the European Union it self.
2http://www.cfr.org/world/europeanunionmodelregionalintegration/p22935

The fundamental elements of the multinational integration process are

common policies pursuing common goals and serving common interests.
The supreme interests of the citizens of the participating states are the
assurance of peace with their neighbours and the increase of their
wellbeing. The common policies of the European Community/Union
serve those interests well. They have transformed the former enemies into
partners. War between the members of the Union has become unthinkable
and the wellbeing of their citizens has greatly increased through the
constant development of their economies and through the abundance of
good quality products and services inside the single market. In addition,
the common policies attain a great number of secondary common goals.
They monitor the free exchange of industrial and agricultural goods
between the Member States. They stimulate and support the development
of the poorer regions of the Union. They guarantee the rights of the
citizens of the Member States to travel, to live and to work wherever they
choose within its territory. They facilitate the access of all citizens to the
universal banking, insurance, telecommunication and audiovisual services
offered in the large European market. They bolster the competitiveness of
European industries by imposing uniform rules of competition and by
supporting their efforts in research and development. They prepare the
future by laying the foundations of the information society and of
transport, energy and telecommunications trans-European networks
spanning the whole Continent. They try to protect in a uniform way the
environment and the consumers of the member countries. Certainly, none
of these policies is perfect, but all of them are under the constant scrutiny
of the common institutions and they are amended very often, in order to
be adapted to the new needs that emerge from internal or external causes.3
The common policies are closely knit together and support each other.
Two horizontal policies - regional and social - pursue the objective of
economic and social cohesion, which is linked to the objective of
economic and monetary union. Such a union, implying abandonment of
the use of exchange rate adjustment as a means of balance of national
economies, would be to the detriment of the poorer Member States, if
there was not an efficient common regional policy operating capital
transfers from the richer to the poorer regions of the EU. In fact, thanks to
the common regional policy the standard of living in the Union's poor
3http://www.europedia.moussis.eu/books/Book_2/2/1/4/?all=1

regions increased considerably and they recovered a great part of their

disadvantages. Likewise, inside an economic and monetary union, where
governments gradually lose the ability to confront separately the social
problems of their peoples, since monetary and many economic decisions
are taken in common, the process of social integration is pursued through
common employment, vocational training and social protection policies.
The common social policy has already built a "European social model"
which guarantees, not only fundamental human rights and the democratic
and pluralistic principles, but also the fundamental rights of workers:
training adapted to the technical progress, fair pay allowing decent living
conditions and social protection covering the hazards of life, illness,
unemployment and old age. This model is the social bedrock of the
European integration process.
Three other horizontal common policies - on taxation, competition and
environment protection - ensure a level playing field for European
businesses. The harmonisation of indirect taxes brought about by the
common taxation policy is instrumental for levelling the competition
conditions inside the single market of products and services. The
common competition policy is not only a necessary instrument for the
smooth functioning of the internal market, preventing new
compartmentalisation by the agreements of large companies and
protectionism by national administrations through national aids, but is
also a complement to common sectoral policies - industrial, agricultural,
energy, transport - aimed at improving production structures and
achieving international competitiveness. The common environment
policy is essential, both for even-handed competition between nations
respecting both market laws and citizens' welfare and for the sustainable
development of the European and world economy.4
European Union indicates that the organization has been transformed
from an economic union into a political unity as well. This can be seen by
the increasing number of policies in the Euroepan Union. Increased
concentration in setarakan with two factors, namely:
1. Some countries have a tradition of a strong domestic regional
government. This led to an increased focus on regional policy in
the European region.

4Ibid.

2. The European Union's policy covers some different cooperation.

With the establishment of the EU's goal is to achieve a single
market among its member states.
There is some question of what kind of challenges that must be passed
in the European Union to apply its policy.
The first challenge is increased fiscal coordination amid a worsening
economic outlook. The EU needs to cleanse the financial system and
follow through on austerity measures introduced by almost all member
states. The situation in late summer 2010 is less critical than it appeared
in the spring, when many doomsayers were predicting the collapse of the
euro and even suggesting the EU might break up. The major risk today is
the continuing fragility of the economies of some eurozone member states
such as Greece, Spain, and Portugal, and the possibility of renewed
speculation in the financial markets. Although there are some positive
signs of economic recovery in Europe, many economists continue to warn
of a possible "double dip" recession and the likely impact of the ongoing
problems of many European banks. While most passed the "stress tests"
at the end of July 2010, there was broad agreement that these tests were
not as strenuous as they could have been.5
The economic troubles of the past few years come amid major, secular
shifts of wealth toward Asia. The EU's share of global GDP declined from
24 percent to 22 percent between 1990 and 2010. In addition to sluggish
economic growth compared to emerging markets like Brazil, Russia,
India, and China, the EU is losing competitiveness. The European labor
force is aging and increasingly prefers leisure to work. There are
insufficient resources devoted to innovation. The Lisbon Strategy that
sought to make the EU the most competitive region in the world by 2010
was a conspicuous failure. The latest 2020 plan, with its similarly lofty
ambitions, is likely to fare no better. Rising energy and commodity prices
have a negative impact on growth in Europe. Going forward, it is difficult
to see how Europe, with its largely immobile and aging population, can
compete with the labor markets of Asia, which are unburdened by health
or unemployment costs. The Asian development model not only poses
challenges to the Anglo-Saxon capitalist model but also to the creation of
a reformed, rules-based system of global governance. Few Asian nations
are willing to accept EU and U.S. pressure on social, labor, and
5http://www.cfr.org/world/europeanunionmodelregionalintegration/p22935

environmental issues, arguing that they would be disadvantaged at a

critical stage in their development.6
The response of Europe to these troubling circumstances should be
obvious: the eurozone will be safe only when discipline is matched by
solidarity between the member states of the zone, a very serious challenge
for the balance between Germany and the other eurozone countries. A
single European voice is needed in all forums of global economic
governance, including discussions on climate change and energy security.
But this will not be easy to achieve given the continuing attachment most
EU member states have to their own seats or shared constituencies in the
international financial institutions. The Copenhagen climate change
conference in December 2009 also revealed the EU's weakness as an
international actor. Though it reached a consensus and promoted climate
change to the top of the global agenda, the EU was unable to assert itself
at the most critical juncture.7
The second challenge is resolving the EU's long-standing identity
crisis. Member states have never been able to agree on the finalit
politique, making the European experiment a journey to an unknown
destination. Academics have described the debate as one between
widening and deepening. On the one hand, the EU has progressed from a
customs union to a single market and a eurozone of currently sixteen
(soon seventeen) countries; on the other hand, it has gradually extended
its membership from six to twenty-seven countrieswith more to join
covering almost the whole continent. The EU, however, has proved
unable to strengthen its political institutions at a pace and with a depth
consistent with the needs of its integration, as well as the number and
heterogeneity of its membership. Faced with widespread public
skepticism about the EU, European capitals remain attached to national
sovereignty and reluctant to give great powers to Brussels. Furthermore,
France and Germany remain divided on the issue of economic
governance, and questions linger over the EU's final eastern borders.
Many hoped that the Lisbon Treaty would provide the impetus for a
further deepening of the EU, but the long struggle to achieve ratification
of the treaty and the shattering impact of the financial crisis has revealed
little appetite for further institutional changes. As noted above, there is
little public appetite for "more Europe," and national politicians seem
6Ibid.
7Ibid.

increasingly reluctant to make the case for a strong EU. Germany is the
most noticeable examplepreviously the strongest champion of closer
integration, it has moved into the skeptic camp mainly due to public
doubts about the euro, reflected also in judgments of the supreme court.
There are, however, some experts and politicians, such as Nicolas
Sarkozy, president of France, and Guy Verhofstad, the former Belgian
prime minister and current leader of the Liberals in the European
Parliament, who argue that the best response to the crisis is indeed a
radical step forward toward a form of economic governance in Europe.
They believe that the EU is severely handicapped by the eurozone's weak
central institutions and the insufficient regulation of its financial and
energy
markets.
Unfortunately,
Sarkozy
and
Verhofstad's
recommendations have met with a lukewarm response from Germany and
other member states.8

Conclusion
According the statements that have been discussed as above, it can be
concluded, regionalism in the European Union is a the success in the
integration between its member states to create a supranational institution,
8Loc.Cit.

which is useful to regulate social interaction, politics, and economics in

the region. Euroepan Union is able to maintain economic stability and
political legitimacy to the institutions using it. and also, a high level of
compliance to the EU member states are also very rarely found in other
regions.