2026-09-28
When the USSR fell apart in the '90s, Europe was already well advanced with it's own version, the EU, dubbed by some as the EUSSR.
The primary difference being that it wasn't set up by Bolshevik revolutionaries but by stealth. A mere 6 years after the end of WW2, barely enough to stabilise the post war European continent then (and since) under effective military occupation (I personally have exercised with NATO in Germany), the European Coal and Steel Community was founded allegedly by Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg West Germany and Italy, but necessarily with at minimum the blessing (and more likely at the instigation of) the occupying powers.
A nice friendly community that simply wanted to cooperate together.
Not much later this scope was expanded to become "the Common Market", which was beginning to look very much like a putative State with customs union, regulations, tariffs, and much else besides, and much talk of establishing a "level playing field".
Then Ted Heath took the UK into the EEC without a referendum, which was so controversial at the time that his successor Harold Wilson gave the country a referendum on whether or not to leave. But by that time it was the status quo and the "leave" vote wasn't enough.
The process of creating the EU then advanced incrementally, a step at a time, until the Maastricht Treaty brought the matter to public attention once more, and also to a head. Denmark had to vote until they supported the integration, having secured an opt-out on the single currency.
By then the EU had sprouted most of the attributes of an independent nation, including courts, currency, "citizenship" and a Parliament that met mostly in Brussels but decamped monthly to Strasbourg (don't ask), can't initiate legislation, but can debate (within strict time limits) and can refuse to ratify certain appointments, and can also refuse legislation which is proposed by the Commission, whose members are appointed by the member states.
(It was the televised Parliamentary debates that gave Nigel Farage his chance to shine in the public eye)
There is no "revising chamber" analogous to the House of Lords.
So the EU governing body is the European Council (not to be confused with the Council of Europe which is not an EU institution) composed of heads of member states plus EU presidents (yes, they have several).
The Commission is the "engine room" of the EU implementing policies and decisions taken by the Council, the Parliament is the democratic fig-leaf that gets all the publicity.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is an EU court.
The European Court of Human Rights is not an EU Court, but is associated with the Council of Europe.
Yes, it's complicated. And don't get me started on the ECB.
So what is the EU in historical context?
