Towards a European National Economy? Lessons from the Economic History of Europe

The institutional framework of the European Union has been the subject of much debate. The proposals presented to the European Convention, meeting during 2002 and the first half of 2003,1 illustrate the diversity of positions concerning this institutional framework. It is possible to divide these positions into three main groups: (a) Those that support the transformation of the European Union into a true federal state (i.e. a state with its own constitution, as distinct from a treaty among the member states, and its own government independent of the governments of the federated national states belonging to it), even if they admit that it should be a confederation (i.e. a federal state in which federated states retain their own separate role in international relations and have the right to leave the union). (b) Those that support the idea that the European Union, which is neither a federal state nor an intergovernmental international organization, should maintain its present institutional arrangements based on a significant role for supranational elements, without upgrading them into a federal state. (c) Those that support the transformation of the European Union into an intergovernmental international organization, by reducing the role of supranational elements in its institutional structure, or even suppressing them.