A supranational union is a kind of multinational political union in which negotiated power is delegated by the governments of the Member States to a public authority. After the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, Albert Einstein often spoke and wrote in the late 1940s for a “supranational” organization responsible for controlling all armed forces except local police forces, including nuclear weapons. He thought it could start with the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, and grow to encompass most other nations, as the only way to avoid nuclear war. He addressed the idea in articles from November 1945 and November 1947 to The Atlantic Monthly, which described how the constitution of such an organization could be written. In an April 1948 speech at Carnegie Hall, he repeated: “There is only one path to peace and security: the path of supranational organization.” [2] Thanks to his fame, Einstein`s ideas on this subject generated much discussion and controversy, but the proposal did not receive much support in the West and the Soviet Union viewed it with hostility. The term “supranational” appeared for the first time (twice) in an international treaty in the Treaty of Paris of 18 April 1951. This new legal concept defined the Community method when the European Coal and Steel Community was created and the democratic reorganisation of Europe began. It defines the relationship between the High Authority or the European Commission and the other four institutions. The treaty deals with a new democratic and legal approach. Joseph H. H.
Weiler notes in his groundbreaking work The Dual Character of Supranationalism that there are two main facets of European supranationalism, although they seem to apply to many supranational systems. Here is an example of a supranational organization less involved in the regulation of international activities: the International Olympic Committee. The organization sets standards for events that are included in the competition, including rating standards. The committee that selects the host city for the Summer and Winter Games is made up of international members. In a supranational Union, the problem, such as the principle of equality between nation states that applies to international (intergovernmental) organizations and the principle of equality of citizens within national states,[13] is solved by a sectoral approach. This increases the number of actors in innovation and democracy. They are represented not only in the classical Parliament, which has slightly different functions, but also in advisory committees such as the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, to which the treaties give equal powers to parliaments in their own fields, but which, at present, are still developing their potential. Within the European Union, the Lisbon Treaty combines two principles (classical parliamentary government and politically elected government) and a supranational community with a fully independent European Commission. [14] Governments are also trying to treat the Lisbon Treaty as a mere classic treaty, or even as an amendment that requires neither citizen support nor democratic approval. The proposed Lisbon Treaty and the previous draft Constitution remain elements of a supranational Union within the European Union, unlike a federal state modelled on the United States of America.
[13] But this is at the expense of the democratic possibilities of a comprehensive supranational Union, as conceived in the first Community.
