The EU is neither a confederation nor a federation but rather a dual system of nation states and a collective political entity, according to a leading academic.
In a booklet analysing ideas about the future political structure of the EU put forward by leading European political figures, Prof Brigid Laffan says it is important to break away from the perspective of the nation state as just a single institution.
Prof Laffan, the Jean Monnet Professor of European Politics at UCD, believes there should be a "focus on multileveled governance and the potential for a multileveled constitutional order and multiple political identities in the EU".
Prof Laffan's booklet The Future of Europe, was one of three pamphlets published yesterday by the Institute of European Affairs. The papers are designed to explain different aspects of the debate surrounding the Nice Treaty and the future of Europe. The other booklets are: The Charter of Fundamental Rights by Mr Eugene Regan, chairman of the institute's lawyers group, and Enhanced Co-operation by Mr Tony Brown, Labour Party representative on the National Forum for Europe.
Prof Laffan reviews the parallel debate on European governance and goes on to examine the central issues for consideration in the current Convention on the Future of Europe and possible outcomes. She says that it is important to engage critically with the terms of the debate and to probe their meaning in the context of the experimental nature of the EU.
Mr Regan's paper explains that the Charter of Fundamental Rights has nothing to do with the Treaty of Nice.
It is a political declaration by the European institutions and the issue of whether it should be given legal status is an important element in the debate to be conducted in the Convention on the Future of Europe, leading up to the 2004 Intergovernmental Conference, he believes.
Mr Brown's paper deals with "enhanced co-operation" - an expression employed in the Treaty of Nice. This describes arrangements whereby a number of EU member states - less than the full membership of the Union - may co-operate more closely in certain areas of activity within the treaty framework of institutions and laws.