How Does Membership Of The European Union Affect Parliamentary Sovereignty?

The issues surrounding sovereignty in the UK system are affected by Britain's membership of the European Union (EU). The laws of the EU are binding on all member states, and therefore, take precedence over British domestic law. Apart from a few exceptions, EU legislation automatically becomes law within the UK, irrespective of the opinion of the British Parliament. Although this is the case, parliament could agree to repeal previous legislation, withdraw from the EU to demonstrate that parliamentary sovereignty still exists. However, this is unlikely unless one of the mainstream political parties were to adopt a strong anti-EU policy.

The 1986 Single European Act and the Maastrict Treaty can be seen as reducing Britain's sovereignty since they have extended the range of policy areas on which the EU can legislate. This has caused many British Conservative members of the European Parliament to continually vote against many proposals, not because they necessarily disagree with them, but that they think they should be dealt with at a national level.