It is often said that one of
the goals of the political project that is the European Union is to
establish a “United States of Europe”. This analogy is misleading.
While the United States has become increasingly centralized at
least on paper the states are granted some established rights and
responsibility.

The federal government is too large and its influence too
prominent, but states still set their own laws on some of this
country’s most contentious issues such as abortion and gun rights.
Were Europe to emulate such a model the constituent parties (nation
states) would retain local authority over at least some of their
affairs. However, as recent cases demonstrate, European federalism
is far from the federalism of the United States.

Over in Ireland, like the United States, abortion is a hot
topic. Ireland is alone in Europe when it comes to the severity of
its restrictions on abortion. Abortions are illegal under all
circumstances except in the case pregnancy endangering the life of
the mother.

While the abnormally religious Irish do have some unorthodox
legislation relating to abortion you would think that the sort of
federalism European officials say they are practicing would allow
for the Irish to make their own laws on abortion. After all, the
European Union has an open border policy and Europeans can vote
with their feet when it comes to policies. Thousands of Irish women
already do this every year, travelling to England to have
abortions.

The European Court of Human rights, which has one Irish judge
out of the forty seven on the court, ruled in 2010 that a woman
with cancer had her rights violated when she was unable to get an
abortion in Ireland. The court is set to report on its findings
next month. Depending on the findings the court might demand the
Irish revise their abortion laws.  The current government has
vowed to oppose any suggestion from the court.

The European Union has done a poor job at implementing
federalism. As a political entity it is highly centralized. It
ignores
referendums and
locally supported policies. The truth is that American-style
federalism is not really what the European political machine wants.
As the current euro-crisis has been demonstrating, the European
political establishment has no respect for democracy and a
fetish for centralized control, whether it is
economic,
political, or
judicial.  

Nigel Farage MEP from UKIP outlines the EU’s political and
economic treatment of Greece below: