The EU as a Political Entity

The European Union has resulted in something greater then just a collection of separate sovereign states. The EU has become a supranational, creating regional polices, dealing with internal European polices and external relations in the for of diplomacy. Individual states and the EU as a political entity often compete over sovereignty, this had led to debate between nation states, some believing that the EU should have more sovereignty over EU members where others believe it should have less.    

The EU has to respect the political systems of its member states so the state remains sovereign in local, regional and national affairs, however in order to become an EU member the state must accept that it may be more effective and efficient  for some affairs to be run on a union level in order to complete treaty obligations.

If member states agree to give up some of their power in this way they will have pooled sovereignty, the powers that have been given up by individual states are transferred to separate body's, for example, the EU trade commissioner represents member states in the WTO and the European Central Bank has the job of managing monetary policy and sets interest rates for the member states that use the euro for currency. In these and all other cases sovereignty has been pooled but not lost.

EU member states can no longer rely on just themselves as single states when dealing with international affairs, and sometimes they can not even rely on their own sovereignty when it comes to internal EU affairs, and yet when it comes to national affairs member states remain mostly sovereign and for the majority of polices do not need EU interference. However widespread the EU's sovereignty may be it can not be denied that it is a powerful political entity that mirrors the Westphalia model.