EU Decision-Making and the Sanctions Against Russia

Abstract

The European Union is an example of extensive regional cooperation. The main motivation for starting the EU was to prevent future bloodshed and focus on cooperation after the Second World War. Starting with economic cooperation, the European Union has expanded towards many other policy areas. One of them is foreign policy. Foreign policy is a traditionally sensitive issue. Since all states have a big stake in their security and foreign relations, it has proven to be complicated to take decisive action in this area. From an intergovernmentalist point of view there is a generally high level of distrust between nation states when it comes to this issue, and coming to an agreement is not something intergovernmentalists would predict to happen. But since the European Union is becoming more integrated and issues that arise are becoming more global, it seems there is a need for coordination of foreign policy of the EU member states. Examples of this include the inaction of the European Union regarding the Bosnian war in the 90s or more recently the refugee crisis that followed the Syrian civil war. The question is of course in which format this is done. While some argue for a more centralized decision-making progress, others feel that the mandate should stay at the member states and the European institutions should merely play a facilitating role. This could be placed in a bigger context: how much decision-making power are the member states willing to concede to the supranational level of the EU.