During the U.S. Constitutional Convention in 1787, delegates
from the sovereign states feared that foreign states would seek to divide their
American counterparts to the extent that the United States could split apart.
So the delegates voted to move foreign policy from the state to the federal
level. Unlike this case, government officials of the E.U. states held foreign
policy closely rather than ceding it to the federal level. Whereas in the
American case the delegates could adopt a federal
perspective as distinguished from the immediate interests of the respective
state governments, the state officials in the European Council can be taken
even as personifications of their respective state interests. Foreign powers
can take advantage of the state officials’ conflict of interest to the extent
that the very functioning of the European Union is compromised.
China provides a case in point.
