Connecting the National and the Supranational

This semester my research with professor Buck’s class revolved around the European Union Emissions Trading System, specifically the method with which they allocate the emissions allowances. One of the conclusions I came to in the process was that this particular policy was better regulated at the EU level. One of the terms they use frequently in the EU is “subsidarity”, in this context subsidarity means that policy decisions should be made on the most relevant governance level. For example Education policy is almost exclusively decided at state and local levels. On the other hand, certain Environmental issues like air and water pollution are not confined by borders and therefore governance is most efficient on the supranational level.
During our trip I organized a meeting with the Danish permanent representation to the Council. This office has an interesting role in the connection between the state and supranational decision-making processes. Comprised of ministers, ambassadors and other similar civil servants the goal of the office is to try to align EU decision-making process with the Danish agenda. Our contact explained how one of the biggest issues she has to deal with is finding consensus among political and cultural differences. As politics moves to the supranational level the goal in the EU is to find a unified voice, but that requires agreement among states. In a conventional national policy debate there are already the contrasting interests of parties, interest groups and internal regional interests, on the EU level they deal with all of these factors plus the added dimension of state interests, and cultural variation across Europe, not to mention a significant amount of languages that must be translated, a process that can dilute or even change the meaning.
Following this meeting I have been contemplating the decision-making and policy-making process at the EU level. It is amazing that despite all of these conflicting interests, views and cultures the EU has been quite effective at crafting policy. When I look back at my research from earlier in the year and consider the intricate and complex nature of the EU ETS and the amount of debate and compromise that must have gone into crafting that policy it is quite amazing that the EU, a young, diverse an often conflicted political entity, has developed such a successful system of compromise. It has been able to tackle quite a diverse and complex body of issues, including environmental and climate policy and do so with quite a degree of success.