Impact of European Integration on Member States' Political Institutions

Adaptation of State Structures

Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 2,0, German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer (German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer), language: English, abstract: For over 60 years now European integration-or 'Europeanization'-takes places. It can hardly be doubted, that there is 'something' going on in Europe since six European countries established the European Coal and Steel Community by the Treaty of Paris in 1951 until today, when 27 European countries-under the pressure of the Euro-crisis-seriously discuss to promote a political union. The European states signed numerous treaties. A swelling stream of legal acts flows from the EU's institutions to the member states. Representatives, executives, and judges all over the EU have, on the one hand, to obey, but gained additional channels to exert influence, on the other. As obvious as these developments are, the much debated is the effective impact of European integration on the EU member states. In this paper I focus on the polity dimension of Europeanization. I follow the question: Has European integration led to an adaptation of the state structures of the EU member states? In other words: Is there a trend towards homogenization of the member states' political institutions, i.e. the legislatives, the executives, and the judiciaries?