Distinguish Between Intergovernmentalism and Supranationalism.

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Distinguish between Intergovernmentalism and Supranationalism. Intergovernmentalism is where a group of nation states come together but at no point in the process lose any of their national sovereignty. This interaction may be via treaties, alliances, leagues, and confederations. States do not sacrifice their sovereignty since their sovereignty is protected via the power of veto. An example within the EU would be the council of ministers where a veto is given to all of the nation states and unanimity is required for something to become law. A well known example of where intergovernmentalism has been visually retained, is when the council votes on whether they feel it is appropriate that a new member should join. In regards to an example of a vote, France twice rejected the UK's membership attempts in the 1970's until De Gaulle later died. In the case of a Supranationalism body it can be claimed that decisions are made above, rather than between the member states. In the EU this is personified by Qualified Majority Voting which is used on the European competencies (Fishing, Agriculture etc). In this case there are no choices for member states to opt out. This is important because it means that often the decisions made will not be in the interest of each individual member state and instead decisions are made on the interest of Europe as one entity. An example of this within the EU would be the Common Agricultural Policy which is popular with the French and a lot of the poorer countries and therefore Britain is obligated to be involved with the policy, which is largely unpopular with its own population. This means that in effect the sovereignty has been transferred or pooled to the EU. Another example to display Supranationalism can be seen with the example of the Factor Tame Case regarding EU fishing rights. This case shows that decisions made by supranational
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