Semi-presidentialism and European integration: lessons from Finland for constitutional design

The relationship between semi-presidentialism and the co-ordination or leadership of national EU policy has become increasingly relevant. After all, currently 11 of the 27 European Union (EU) member states have semi-presidential systems of government. This article contributes to the literature through a comparative analysis of the ‘fit’ between semi-presidentialism and the co-ordination of national EU policy, with empirical evidence from Finland used to illustrate the challenges involved in combining semi-presidentialism with EU membership.

The main argument is that semi-presidential regimes where both the government and the president have powers in foreign and/or European policy are prone to tensions, particularly when considering that domestic foreign policies are increasingly co-ordinated at the EU level and that foreign and EU policies are difficult to separate from one another.