The European Union’s governmental
institutions are not limited to the European Council and the Council of
Ministers, both of which represent the state governments directly at the federal
level. Nor, moreover, is the E.U. an aggregation of its states. In foreign
affairs, for example, the E.U.’s foreign minister, Kaja Kallas, can speak and
take decisions on the basis of consensus rather than the unanimous consent of state-level
officials being required. Therefore, the Von der Leyen administration did not
overreach in taking the “decision to send the Commissioner for the
Mediterranean, Dubravka Suica, as an observer to the first former gathering of
the United States President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace” on 19 February,
2026.[1]
That Suica was merely an observer suggests that the objecting state officials
were overreacting as well as misconstruing the E.U. as a confederation of
sovereign states.
The full essay is at "The European Commission."
1, Mared G. Jones, “France Says Commission Lacks ‘Mandate’ to Join Board of Peace Meeting as Brussels Remains Defiant,” Euronews.com, 19 February 2026.
