Spanish, European and World Citizens

In all the units we have studied, including this one, we have been looking at the concept of citizenship as something personal: for us, that citizenship is Spanish. But citizenship cannot be limited; being a citizen means being open to others, to other cultures, other communities.
Spanish citizenship can only be understood if it is regarded as a European and world citizenship. This is why we can say that we are Spanish, European and also cosmopolitan citizens.

European Citizenship: The European Union and its Institutions
The European Union is not a federation like the United
States, or a mere organ of cooperation among governments, like the
United Nations. It is a unique social, political and cultural reality. Its
Member States are still independent sovereign nations, but they
share their sovereignty in order to be stronger and have a global
influence that none of them could have in isolation.

A shared sovereignty means that the Member States delegate some of their decisive powers to the common institutions with a view to taking joint decisions, always democratically, about matters of common interest.

There are three main institutions in charge of taking decisions:

• The EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, representing the citizens of the European Union. It
is directly elected by them;

• The EUROPEAN UNION COUNCIL, representing the Member States; and

• The EUROPEAN COMMISSION, defending the Union's interests as a whole.

These institutions draw up the politics and legislations to be applied in the European Union. The Commission proposes the new rules (in principle) and the Parliament and the Council must pass them. The Commission and the Member States apply them, and the Commission guarantees their compliance.

Other important institutions are the European Court of Justice, in charge of the compliance of European legislation, and the European Court of Auditors, in charge of funding.
Apart from these institutions, the European Union has some other organisms that deal with specific matters.

International Institutions: Towards a Cosmopolitan Citizenship (The UN) The UN may be the most important organisation of many other international organisations. The United Nations (UN) is the biggest international organisation. Its task is to facilitate cooperation on several matters such as international law, peace, international security, economic and social development, humanitarian matters and human rights. It was founded by 51 countries after the second Wold War in San Francisco (California) on the 24th October 1945.
The UN consists of several administrative and management organisms, some of them as important as the General Assembly, the UN Security Council or institutions like UNESCO (in charge of education) or the WHO (World Health Organisation). The UN is chaired by a “General Secretary”, at the moment this post is held by Ban Ki-moon from South Korea, who took over the presidency on the 1st January 2007.