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.

Notes

• The EU has had federal state features from 1964, as shown by the primacy of EU law over national law in any case of conflict as affirmed by the Court of Justice. 
• The word "federal" was deleted from the draft Treaty of Maastricht. 
  in 1991 as being too politically sensitive.
• In the EU Constitution, the Union was said to "administer certain competence on a federal basis". This expression has now been changed to "community method".
• The supra-national policy areas have been continually extended in each new EU treaty.