Federation

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg (Photo: Ssolbergj)

A federation is a state where power is divided between the federal and the provincial or regional level and where the provinces, states or Länder (as in Germany) do not have absolute independence.

The EU is a hybrid of a federation and Confederation. Its constituent Member States have handed control over large areas of economic, social and political life to the supra-national EU institutions. But they remain equal to one another in the areas where they still retain exclusive power to decide policy.

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