Online ISSN 2286-0266
Print ISSN 1223-0685
© 2025 Œconomica by ASE & SOREC
 
Graţiela-Denisa IORDACHE
Academia Română
The current global economic and political context poses numerous threats to the viability of the European Union. Analytical tools are thus required to better understand the internal and external factors that affect the EU’s institutional structure. The Viable System Model, originally developed by Stafford Beer, offers a cybernetic framework for analysing the organizational structure and long-term sustainability of complex systems. Applied to the EU, this model helps reveal the internal dynamics and adaptive capacity of this multinational entity. Characterized by multiple layers of governance and a heterogeneous membership, the EU faces ongoing challenges in maintaining cohesion, efficiency, and responsiveness to shocks. Within the Viable System Model, the EU can be viewed as a meta-organization composed of interacting subsystems – member states, European institutions, regulatory bodies, and policy domains. Each subsystem fulfils distinct roles: operations (day-to-day governance), coordination (policy harmonization), control (compliance monitoring), intelligence (future planning and adaptation), and policy (strategic direction and legitimacy). The resilience and viability of the EU depend on how effectively these functions are distributed and how feedback mechanisms support self-regulation. The model offers both diagnostic insight and a design-oriented approach to institutional sustainability, making it a valuable tool for policy evaluation and organizational reform.

ŒCONOMICA no. 3-4/2024
Keywords: cybernetics, systems, viability, viable system model, European Union
JEL: E02, O21, R13, R15
The Viable System Model of the European Union