The Brexit referendum in 2016 made one thing clear to the world: The unity of the European Union is in jeopardy. Those who voted to leave argued that the EU undermined the United Kingdom’s national sovereignty by limiting the UK’s ability to independently make trade deals and regulate immigration. This idea of the EU infringing upon state sovereignty is not something unique to the UK; major political parties across Europe, such as the National Rally (formerly known as the French National Front), and the Five Star Movement of Italy, believe that the EU is infringing on state sovereignty.

The EU should not ignore the calls to leave the EU since the primary purpose of the EU is to integrate Europe as a united economic bloc. This idea of European integration can be traced back to the initial founding of the European Economic Community. The goal was simply to integrate the economies of Europe. In 1991 with the passage of the Maastricht Treaty, the European Economic Community became what is now the EU . The rise of the EU has caused mumblings of sovereignty violations to become the forefront of debate across Europe. Discussions of leaving the EU have become increasingly real, to the point that the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU. The EU’s attempts to further integrate Europe by acting as a supranational organization is instead fragmenting Europe.

The European Union is different from other organizations around the world because its member states give the EU the power to make laws that member states must follow. This inherently means that they must willingly relinquish some state sovereignty, but why this is an issue may be unclear. According to Professor Ole Wæver, an International Relations Professor at the University of Copenhagen, the EU is replacing the traditional form of political organization. Over the past 150 years in Europe, the nation and state were one entity. The EU is replacing this model with one where the state encompasses many nations, similar to the United States. This creates the issue of a democratic deficit, a common criticism of the EU. A democratic deficit is the idea that members feel their voice is not being adequately listened to, in this case, the member nations of the EU. The EU has members that are democratically elected to the European Parliament, but this is only one of the institutions of the EU. The Council of the European Union (the other house of the legislature) and the European Council (Executive) are notably not directly elected. This leads members to feel that the EU’s decisions are not necessarily representative of the member nations’ views or governments. 

This idea of feeling outspoken has given rise to Eurosceptics and Euroscepticism across the continent. Previously, talks of leaving the EU were ignored because the economic benefits of being an EU member outweighed any negative effects on state sovereignty as a result of membership. Seemingly, this is no longer the case, but not because the economic benefits have decreased. Professors Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks, Professors of Political Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, both contend that due to the mobilization of power by political elites over time, national identity can outweigh economic self-interest. This idea suggests that the economic incentives of EU membership are no longer adequate to appease Eurosceptics. Instead, this infringement on national sovereignty is significant enough that national political elites are driving political discourse away from the EU and towards nationalism.

This seemingly would indicate that the EU is potentially on the verge of severe fragmentation. Returning to Brexit, it is easier to understand why the Brexit referendum went the way it did.  Political elites seized upon the gradual encroachment on the UK’s sovereignty. These elites then proceeded to mobilize public opinion under the UK Independence Party, unifying a large portion of the nation in their desire to leave the EU. The Brexit referendum was then called, where voters displayed that national identity overrode the economic benefits of EU membership. The UK is just the first country to vote to leave the EU, possibly beginning the fragmentation of Europe once more.

France is also concerned about violations of state sovereignty. However, it has not defined France in the same way that Brexit defines the UK. The French National Rally has seen a recent dramatic rise in prominence in recent history due to its brand of hardline nationalism, slightly softened under the new leadership of Marine Le Pen. The party notably fights to limit immigration, leave the EU, and reintroduce the franc as the country’s currency, all of which are at odds with EU membership. In the 2017 Presidential race, Le Pen came in second in the first round of presidential voting, garnering 21.3 percent of the vote, forcing a runoff with the first-place vote-getter, Emmanuel Macron at 24.0 percent. France and the UK, however, are different in that the French Eurosceptic portion of the populace did not mobilize nearly as well as their UK counterparts, with Le Pen receiving only 33.9 percent of the second-round vote, handing a sizeable 66.1 percent electoral victory to President Macron. The victory of Macron is important, as it underscores that economic interests can still outweigh national sovereignty infringements. Yet what is more important still is that this Euroscepticism is not isolated to Britain alone, but rather can be seen as a direct result of the EU’s overreach.

The issue of increasing control over member nations versus a united Europe is not a hard choice. The EU’s founding goal was to integrate Europe, and that goal has not changed. By encroaching on state sovereignty to a degree that discourages members from remaining in the union, the EU is fundamentally working against its primary objective. To keep an integrated Europe a viable possibility, the EU needs to do a better job of not encroaching on state sovereignty.