European Sovereignty Now? A Reflection on What It Means to Speak of “European Sovereignty”

Abstract

Spearheaded by French President Emmanuel Macron, the concept of “European sovereign-ty” is used increasingly often in debates on the role of the EU in the world. The concept’s recurrent use makes it important to reflect on what it means to speak of a “European sovereignty” in the con-text of the institutional reality which is the EU. To contribute to this effort, in this insight I look at the role of the concept of “sovereignty” in the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU; I explore the dif-ferences and similarities between “sovereignty” and “autonomy” as the ordering principles of, respec-tively, the international and EU legal orders; and I point to a number of advantages and disad-vantages that come with speaking of a “European sovereignty”. I argue that, by refocussing political debate, the term may very well contribute to efforts to better equip the EU to face an increasingly un-predictable international environment. In the final analysis however, if the EU is to be able to “exist in the world as it currently exists, to defend our values and our interests”, a European external sover-eignty must go hand in hand with a meaningful degree of internal sovereignty. This, in turn, requires a reshuffling of the balance of power between EU institutions, with a greater role for those institu-tions that represent the interests of the EU citizenry, as well as a more effective enforcement of exist-ing EU policies. In particular as far as the first of these requirements is concerned, it is unclear at this juncture whether President Macron is willing to take steps in this direction.