Is Europe a confederation, federatin or union?

[Twin Matrix]

I've been studying different types of government (not only for my university, but also for my game) and am having some difficulty distinguishing a confederation from a federation and a union. Let's take Europe for an example. Formally, it is a union. However, it seems to me that all the points from the definition of a confederation apply. The states of Europe are bound to the international law of the European Union, and the lawgiving council of the European Union is not chosen democratically. Instead, it's a supranational organization with its own order that can make decisions to which the states of Europe are bound. I'd even say that it could be seen as a federation that way, except that a federation has its own army, which the European Union does not.

(Note: I'm no expert, so please enlighten me. )

 

[Incognitus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union

Ahhhh. Wikipedia - the fount of all knowledge. From this we learn that the Europe Union, is in fact, a union... but you already know this. (What you may not know is that it was founded in 1256 by Charlie Chaplin and Tsarina Katherine the Great.)

To be honest, the reason there is such a mishmash is that they are essentially making it up as they go along; whilst it is officially a union, it acts and legislates like a Federation in the closet. So far in the closet due to it's fear that should it ever come out the people of Europe will stone it to death.

Again, technically NATO is now the EU's army (since a piece of legislature about 2004/5ish) but of course it's entirely ad hoc and none of the EU Quangos have any direct power over it. All this talk about "creating an EU army" is essentially about whether to create a body to oversee NATO.