EU Increases It's "Soft" Power

Europe is a major economic power in today's world but it lacks the critical military might to make it a superpower on the par of the United States. The EU spends less than half as much on defense, $186 billion versus $461 in 2004, as America. The common saying is, "Europe is an economic giant and military dwarf."

However there are two kinds of geopolitical power wielded by nations, 'soft' and 'hard'. Hard power is military and economic might, both of which America in abundance. The EU does not have the same degree of military status  as America, something that has become evident in recent years. Soft power is a co-optive power, the ability to manipulate another nation through the attractiveness of one's culture or values. It is this soft power, the ability to coerce favorable actions from other nations without intervention where the EU is gaining ground.

Yesterday the supreme court of the EU ruled that Brussels has the power to introduce harmonized criminal law across the EU, creating for the first time a body of European criminal law that all member states must adopt. The action was opposed by 11 EU governments and amounts to a major transfer of power from the individual nations.
 

"EU members have always insisted that the power to set criminal law goes to the heart of national sovereignty and must be decided by national governments and parliaments. The ruling means that the Commission can propose an EU crime that, if passed by the European Parliament and a qualified majority of member states, must be adopted by all member states. This means that Britain could be forced to introduce a crime into its law if enough other members support it. It also gives the Commission the power to compel members to enforce EU criminal law if governments drag their heels or if their courts refuse to sentence people."

Just because the EU does not now have a large military force capable of projecting it's influence and will on any other nation does not mean it is not growing in other forms of power. This ruling by the Court of Justice is a giant step toward stripping power from its own member states to ensure the preservation of European values. This is the slow, bricks and mortar, manner of building  a structure. You  don't see much coverage of this , but it is slowly being done. When this internal grid work is in place it will be very easy, should the need arise, to build a hard military force to match this soft power.