Unit 2. The inter-institutional relations: how institutions and subsystems interact.

STEP 4. So, what kind of political system is the EU? It is a ‘mixed’ model!

Following the considerations of the previous steps, one question naturally emerges. What kind of political system is the EU? It is a presidential or a parliamentary system? As we have seen, according to the type of executive-legislative relation taken into consideration, the EU at times resembles a presidential system and at other times a parliamentary one. We could therefore say that it is a ‘mixed’ system, where both independent and fused powers characteristics are in place. If we consider the relationship between the European Council, on the one hand, and the European Parliament and Council of Ministers on the other, it is more similar to a presidential system where the executive and legislative powers are reciprocally independent. The same happens if we consider the relationship between the European Commission and the two legislative bodies, as the former cannot dissolve the latter. Yet, the EU is not a ‘pure’ presidential system. Indeed, we have also seen that the relationship between the European Parliament and the Commission clearly resembles the key features of ‘fused powers system’. Yet, even in this case, the EU is not a ‘pure’ parliamentary system for several reasons.