n [ U ]
the condition of being an independent country with the power to govern itself. The British government has always had the authority to make and change laws, but as a member of the European Union , Britain now has to respect some European laws that cannot be changed by the government. In the 1980s and 1990s some British people thought that this was a serious loss of sovereignty. Eurosceptics said that there would be more losses of sovereignty, and that Britain should leave the EU, but most people agreed with the idea of ‘subsidiarity’, i.e. that most local decisions should be made by individual countries or regions, unless there is an important reason for deciding something at a European court.