On Economic Sovereignty: European Nation-States Between Globalization and Regional Integration
European monetary unification has once again brought the issue of national economic sovereignty to the front: often regarded as the quintessential attribute of national sovereignty in the realm of economics, monetary powers have been most solemnly foregone and transferred to a supranational authority, independent from political bodies. Insistence by the French minister of Finance that restructuring French banking sector should take place within the national borders, frustration over the impossibility for continental member states to go on imposing an embargo over British beef, the opening of the so-called Millennium round of international trade negotiations in late November in Seattle, the loud reactions of the German government and press to the hostile takeover bid over Mannesmann, a giant “German” telecommunication company, by the “British” Vodafone: over recent months, there have been many examples of the ambivalent way in which European nation states react to the consequences of globalization and international monetary integration.