Is EU Policy Eroding the Sovereignty of Non-Member States?

In the long run, the most important tensions between Europe and the United States may not derive from differing policies toward Russia, or China, or the Middle East. The most important issues may arise over something that is fundamental to the European Union's own structure and legitimacy-namely, its systematic program of eroding or reconfiguring national sovereignty. This EU posture has many practical ramifications for US policy. But it also presents a clear ideological alternative. A world more in accord with EU designs will be a world in which national sovereignty has less and less meaning. Is that the kind of world Americans want to inhabit? Some hints of what that world might look like are already apparent in EU-sponsored proposals regarding international criminal justice, international environmental regulation, and international trade regulation. After a brief look at the distinctive features of EU politics, we look at the way developments in each of these fields have come to reflect the peculiar policy penchants of EU-style governance.