The EU is sliding into a United States of Europe

When a proposed constitution for the EU was mooted in 2005, many in the UK and elsewhere in the bloc smelt a rat. This looked like a bid to shoehorn national governments into a nascent United States of Europe. The French and the Dutch agreed: and being constitutionally guaranteed a referendum on the matter, both took the obvious step and voted the scheme down. No matter. As we now know, the proposal was re-packaged in almost the same form as a consolidation measure called the Lisbon Treaty. It is now part of the EU treaty system.

The Cassandras were, of course, absolutely right. The EU was indeed playing a long federalist game. The point is nicely made by a decision of the EU’s Court of Justice this week. It concerns the seemingly dry-as-dust topic of how Poland appoints its Supreme Court judges, but it matters a lot.

Under the Polish constitution, Supreme Court judges are appointed by the president on the nomination of the KRS (the National Judicial Council), a collegiate body predominantly composed of judges.