PSIR332 EUROPEANUNION

WEEK 2

HISTORY OF EUROPEAN
INTEGRATION
TEXTBOOK CHAPTER 2
and CHAPTER 3
 INTERWAR
EUROPE
Tension ,Ambition, Division
7 February 1992: Treaty of Maastricht

1 November 1993: Maastricht enters into force

* ‘European Union’ as we know it today thus established

*Ideas, hopes and plans for uniting Europe date

back to the interwar years

*These have taken a new shape since the 2000s

3 September 1938.
*This lecture offers a historical overview
of the integration process
VENTOTENE
MANIFESTO  For a Free and United Europe: A Draft Manifesto

(1941) Prepared by anti-fascist Italian political activists Altiero Spinelli, Ernesto Rossi
exiled on the island of Ventotene
The manifesto blamed absolute sovereignty as the cause of wars in Europe
 Customs union + free movement + political union + common currency would
mean peace
 Spinelli later became EU Commissioner for industrial policy and member of
EU parliament in the 1970s and 80s; wrote a draft treaty for the European
Union which became a source of influence the Treaty of Maastricht
 1940s: SERIES OF TREATIES

 Fear of a possible German revival leads to a series of

collective defense pacts
 May 1945: Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg
(BENELUX) Customs Union
 March 1947: Treaty of Dunkirk, Britain and France
 March 1948: Treaty of Brussels (Britain, France,
BENELUX)
 4 April 1949: Treaty of Washington / NATO established
(BENELUX+ Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy,
Norway, Portugal, USA, Portugal) (Turkey and Greece will
join in 1952)
 1940s continued: COUNCIL OF EUROPE and OEEC

 April 1948: Organization for European Economic

Cooperation created, will turn into the OECD in 1960
 Its main purpose was to administer US Marshall Aid
to Europe
 Tries to promote free-market economies
 G-77 will try to balance the OECD in the 1970s
 May 1949: Council of Europe created
 OEEC and Council of Europe were both intergovernmental
organizations, working on the basis of unanimity
 They disappointed pro-integration enthusiasts like Benelux,
Italy, France while UK and Scandinavian states were satisfied
 Central, eastern European states could not participate as
Europe was becoming increasingly more divided
EUROPE UNITES MORE: SCHUMAN and
MONNET
 Robert Schuman (French foreign minister) + Jean
Monnet (French bureaucrat) devise more ambitious
plans for a more united Europe
 The idea of creating a supranational authority to
jointly control French and German coal and steel
resources is born which are required for weapons
manufacturing and industrial, energy production
 By establishing joint control over coal and steel, war
between France and Germany would become
‘materially impossible’.
 It would also help post-WWII economic
reconstruction of Europe as coal and steel were
crucial for economic development
1950s: UNITED EUROPE TAKES
CONCRETE SHAPE
 9 May 1950: Schuman Declaration
 18 April 1951: European Coal and
Steel Community
 23 October 1954: Western European
Union: Benelux, France, UK, Italy, W.
GR (defense)
 25 March 1957: Treaties of Rome:
European Economic Community and
European Atomic Energy Community
created by the six founding members:
Benelux, France, Italy, West Germany
 1 January 1958: Treaties of Rome
enter into force, united Europe
originates

Preamble;
the signatories declare their
‘determination to lay the foundations
of an ever closer union
among the peoples of Europe’.
Treaties of Rome created new institutions and joint
policies among the 6 founding members (Benelux, Fr,
Gr, Ita.)
Customs Union and Free Movement
Common commercial, agricultural, transport policies
Commission, Court of Justice, Council, Parliamentary
Assembly (later renamed Parliament, Schuman
became its first president)
 SCHUMAN DECLARATION
‘ The coming together of the nations of Europe
requires the elimination of the age-old opposition of
France and Germany’.
‘The pooling of coal and steel production should
immediately provide for the setting up of common
foundations for economic development as a first step
in the federation of Europe’.
‘The solidarity in production thus established will make
it plain that any war between France and Germany
becomes not merely unthinkable, but materially
impossible’.
‘By pooling basic production and by instituting a new
High Authority, whose decisions will bind France,
Germany and other member countries, this proposal
will lead to the realization of the first concrete
foundation of a European federation indispensable to
the preservation of peace’.
 LORRAINE-RUHR
INDUSTRIAL BASIN

• Schuman plan focused on this strategic

industrial basin
• Other available coal-steel resources were
under Soviet occupation
• This region itself was divided due to
customs and trade barriers (hence the need
for a customs union and a single market)
• Nearly 155 mn population size
• Coal accounted for 70% of energy
production in western Europe
ANALYSIS
 Schuman: a truly European figure,
born in Lux, German father, studied in
Germany, worked as a lawyer in
France and became a French citizen
 Monnet: director of French National
Planning Agency for Modernization
and Infrastructure; designed the coal
and steel community as the first step in
an eventual ‘European federation’
 High Authority, a financially
independent institution with powers to
impose price controls and organize
production, was an embryonic
European government; it controls
competition and eliminates military
advantage
 Monnet became the first president of
the High Authority
Combined free market principles with economic planning,
therefore becoming acceptable to both socialist and capitalist Analysis continued..
circles

It placed Germany on equal footing with France which was

symbolically important; tied Germany to the west

Targeting coal-steel was also symbolically important; at the

time these represented state power

Benelux countries demanded a genuinely independent High

Authority as they feared potential Franco-German domination;
the Authority became the first supranational institution in
European history

These events marked a breakthrough in Franco-German

relations; Schuman plan became very successful
Tension between a supranational federation vs. functional, step-
by-step, intergovernmental visions of Europe emerges,
continues to this day
‘Relations between France and Germany have been the dominant
political theme for a century, they have determined the lives and
deaths of millions of our fellow men and women’. (Anthony Eden,
1950).
1960s and 1970s: EUROPE WIDENS AND DEEPENS
 NEW MEMBERS: DENMARK, IRELAND, UK

Turkey and Greece were

1 JANUARY 1973: Three new interested in joining, but their
members join the European level of development was
Communities: UK, Ireland, lagging behind the rest
Denmark

UK membership application
vetoed twice by Charles de
Gaulle (FR), UK joined after Membership increased to 9
de Gaulle’s presidency
CHARLES DE GAUELLE AND FRENCH
POLICIES

 Favored intergovernmentalism
over supranational integration
 Commissioned the Fouchet
plan in 1961 for a politically
integrated, intergovernmental
Europe of states  1966: Luxembourg compromise
 1965-6 ‘Empty Chair’ crisis: de  ‘Agree to disagree’
Gaulle opposed plans for  If a member states believes that its vital
financing agricultural policies interests are at stake, negotiations will
and shift from unanimity to continue until a universally acceptable
qualified majority voting; solution is reached
instructed French officials to
not take up their seats in the  Luxembourg Compromise tilted the
Council of Ministers meetings balance towards intergovernmentalism
‘Yes, it is Europe, from the Atlantic
to the Urals, it is Europe, all of
Europe, which will decide the fate of
the world’.
Uni. Of Strasbourg, 22. Nov. 1959.

‘There cannot be any Europe other

than that of the
nation states, apart from in myths,
fiction, and parades.’

Press conference, 15 May 1962.

(an intergovernmental approach that prioritizes

nation states)
 1980s:
ESTABLISHING
THE
EUROPEAN
UNION
 NEW MEMBERS, NEW VISION

 1970s was a tough decade in the  19 June 1983: Solemn

world (1973 oil crisis) Declaration on European Union,
 European integration seemed to Stuttgart.
slow down, but members
nonetheless started discussing
 This declaration pointed to a
plans for a monetary union and common European identify as the
common foreign policies basis for achieving an ‘ever
 1980s gave a new impetus to closer union’
integration with new and  The idea of a genuinely single
influential leaders such as
market, with all barriers to trade
Commission President Jacques
removed, also advanced
Delors
 3 new members welcomed:  Delors built on this momentum
and became the architect of the
 1981: Greece
Single European Act
 1986: Spain, Portugal

J. Delors
SINGLE EUROPEAN ACT: A MILESTONE IN INTEGRATION
17 February 1986:
combines 3 different issues
previously dealt with separately
into a single document, hence
the name ‘single act’
2. Completion of the single
market: 31 Dec. 1992 set as a
deadline for the full realization
of the single market (ex:
mutual ecognition of diplomas,
visas)
1. Institutional reform: increased
Parliament’s role in legislative
processes; environment,
research and development,
social cohesion identified as new
areas of Community action
3. Cooperation on foreign affairs:
concept of ‘European security’
mentioned, European Political
cooperation codified (a term that
refers to foreign policy which the
Treaties of Rome did not deal with).
 1. Psychological: commits member states to the
SINGLE eventual establishment of a European Union in the
Preamble in accordance with the Stuttgart
EUROPEAN ACT: Declaration

SIGNIFICANCE 2. First major treaty since Rome

3. Shift from unanimity to qualified majority voting to

complete the single market, plants the seeds of
Why is the SEA important? the world’s largest trading bloc

4. Parliament given real powers in legislation;

cooperation and assent procedures in internal
market, association agreements and accession.
SEA also introduced the direct election of MEPs
who were appointed by member states earlier,
hence addressing emerging democracy concerns.

5. SEA introduced major procedural reforms and

accelerated European integration to include new
areas like the environment; it is one of the major
milestones in European integration history
 1990s: END OF THE COLD WAR
A UNITED EUROPE TO EMERGE WITH THE TREATY ON EUROPEAN UNION (MAASTRICHT)
 • Created the ‘three pillar’
structure

• Created new institutional

mechanisms

• Created new areas of

community action and the
subsidiarity,
proportionality principles

• Laid the foundations of

economic and monetary
union and the Euro,
introduced citizenship
Signed on 7 February 1992 in the Dutch town of Maastricht
• Created differentiated
A major treaty that takes integration to a new and political level integration
  Pillar I: European Communities (European Coal and Steel Community,
EURATOM, European Economic Community which is now renamed ‘European
Community’ to reflect the fact that integration is now beyond merely
economics). Supranational, oldest, most active pillar.
THE 3 PILLAR STRUCTURE
 Pillar II: Common Foreign and Security Policy. Intergovernmental, loose,
informal pillar.
 Pillar III: Justice and Home Affairs. Intergovernmental, a necessary pillar
emerging out of the free movement of persons.
  Parliament: strengthened with the introduction of the ‘co-
decision’ procedure; becomes a co-legislator with the
NEW INSTITUTIONAL Council
MECHANISMS  Court of Justice: gains new powers to fine member states
 Voting in the Council: More policy areas moved from
unanimity to qualified majority voting
  Areas: include youth, education, trans-European networks
 Article 5 subsidiarity: the Union only acts if Union action is more
NEW AREAS OF
COMMUNITY ACTION, effective than national, regional or local level.
SUBSIDIARITY AND  Article 5 proportionality: Union action must be limited to
PROPORTIONALITY
achieving specific ends
 These two principles are designed to prevent possible Union
overreach into member states’ affairs.
  Economic/Monetary Union: coordination of economic, fiscal and
ECONOMIC AND monetary policies; European Central Bank created, step-by-step plan
MONETARY agree for the introduction of the single currency Euro
 Article 9, citizenship: ‘Every national of a Member States shall be a
UNION
citizen of the Union’.
EU CITIZENSHIP  Union citizenship does not replace but complement national
citizenship
  Decision-making became too complex; Community method now undermined by
intergovernmental mechanisms in different policy areas
 Originated differentiation by giving member states the ‘opt-out’ option from specific
ANALYSIS policy areas (ex: UK and Denmark opted out of the monetary union).
 Will lead to the recognition of close cooperation, later renamed enhanced cooperation to
balance differentiation
 Differentiation + enhanced cooperation: will create a ‘multi-speed Europe’
 2 OCTOBER 1997:TREATY OF
AMSTERDAM

 Aim was to reform and update Maastricht
 CFSP reformed, JHA significantly communitized
 Communitization refers to transferring policy areas
from the intergovernmental pillar to the
supranational pillar
 Article 43: recognized close cooperation
 Reform CFSP: High Representative for Foreign Policy
post created, assumed by Javier Solana
 Communitize Pillar III: Area of Freedom, Security and
Justice created
 Free movement of persons, asylum, immigration, fraud,
police-judicial cooperation and external borders
communitized
2000s: THE FUTURE
OF EUROPE
A CONSTITUTION FOR AN
ENLARGED EUROPE?
 FROM 6 TO 25: MAKING AN ENLARGED UNION WORK ?
5th ENLARGEMENT
 1 January 1973: UK, Den,
Ireland
 1 January 1981: Greece
 1 January 1986: Spain, Port.
 1 January 1995: Swe, Aus, Fin
 1 May 2004: largest round of
enlargement: Cyprus, Czech
Rp,, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, Malta, Poland,
Slovakia, Slovenia)
ISSUES
 How to make the Union work
efficiently? How to arrange voting in
the Council, how to arrange the
Commission?
 A new divide: small vs. larger members
 Voting in the Council and size-
composition of the Commission are
called ‘Amsterdam leftovers’ as these
could not be settled there
 Treaty of Nice (2000) addressed some
of the technical-institutional issues
 Yet a political question remained: what
is the EU, what is its final shape?
  European Convention (2001-2002): led by former
FUTURE OF French president Valery Giscard D’estaing, tasked with
drafting a Constitutional Treaty for Europe
EUROPE  Topics for discussion:

DEBATE  1. distribution of power between member states and

the Union
 2. the status of the Charter of Fundamental Rights(the
Charter creates new rights for citizens and refugees-
asylum seekers; will it be binding or not?)
 3. simplification of the EU’s complex set of treaties
 4. role of national parliaments within the EU (a
democracy issue)
 Constitutional Treaty (2004): rejected by French and
Dutch voters in 2005
 No campaigns linked to Turkey’s membership and
general dissatisfaction with the EU
 Qualified majority becomes the norm, unanimity becomes the exception in the
Council
 Small members: over-represented in the Parliament; votes disproportionately
weighted in the Council
 Pillar structure abolished, it becomes a single legal entity as the previously
intergovernmental pillars of CFSP and JHA are communitized;
CONSTITUTIONAL TREATY:
 European Parliament strengthened further with increased budgetary powers KEY POINTS
 Role of national parliaments recognized in an additional protocol; mechanisms
introduced for them to voice their disapproval of EU legislation Analysis: ‘A carefully contrived compromise
 Charter of Fundamental Rights became binding Part II of the text, applies when between the positions of the supranational
EU law is being implemented ‘federalists’ and the ‘intergovernmentalists’
while at the same time acting as a bridge
 Symbolic measures introduced (European anthem, European flag) between the large and the smaller member
 The principles of proportionality and subsidiarity emphasized throughout states’
 Voluntary termination of membership regulated for the first time
 The document was a compromise between supranational and
intergovernmental visions of Europe; even the name ‘constitutional treaty’
reflects this
 A NEW EFFORT TO RE-ORGANIZE THE EU
 Irish voters rejected the Lisbon Treaty in 2008
 Entered into effect in 2009 after a second referendum in Ireland
 Currently, the EU functions on the basis of this treaty
TREATY ON THE
FUNCTIONING
OF THE EU IS IT DIFFERENT THAN THE CT?
(LISBON) (2007)
 According to d’Estaing, Lisbon preserves the substance of the
reforms in the Constitutional Treaty but removes words in
order to ‘head off any threat of referenda by avoiding any form
of constitutional vocabulary’.
  Preserves many of the voting and institutional arrangements in the
Constitutional Treaty; symbols like flag, anthem removed
 Pillar structure is removed, EU becomes a single legal entity
(which means it can sign agreements, join int. orgs. under the
name ‘EU’).
 Co-decision procedure renamed ordinary legislative procedure and
LISBON: KEY becomes the norm (Council QMV + Parliament co-legislate)

POINTS  Justice and Home Affairs fully communitized

 Member states can use ‘emergency brakes’ in sensitive issue areas
such as taxation, social rights for migrants
 National parliaments given several options to halt EU legislation.
Ex: yellow card: if 1/3 of national parliaments oppose, the
Commission must review a legislative proposal and possibly
amend it.
  Article 50: voluntary termination of membership regulated
 Charter of Fundamental Rights becomes binding through a reference
to it in the text (it was Part II of the CT)
 Defines the competences (powers) of the Union for the first time:
 1. exclusive (ex: customs union) 2. shared (with the member states
LISBON KEY like environment, energy, social policy) 3. supporting (complements

POINTS member states like industry, tourism)

 European External Action Service created to support the High
CONTINUED Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
 High Rep. also become vice president of the European Commission
 Jurisdiction of the Court of Justice extended
 To the citizens, EU still looked undemocratic
  Schuman Plan (1950)
 Treaties of Rome (1957)
 Single European Act (1986)
 Treaty on EU (Maastricht) (1992)
 Treaty of Amsterdam (1997)
 Constitutional Treaty (2004)
KEY TEXTS,  Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (Lisbon) (2007)
CONCEPTS  Supranational vs. intergovernmental
AND ISSUES  Subsidiarity and proportionality principles
 Ever closer union
 Differentiated integration vs. enhanced cooperation
 Small vs. large member states
 Technocratic vs. democratic development of the EU
  Can you guarantee peace if you eliminate;
 (i) competition between states
 (ii) weapons and militaries
 (iii) national sovereignty?
 If yes; can we do it
 (i) in other parts of the world

DEBATE  (ii) in the entire world system?

QUESTIONS
 Is a common European identity the key to European integration
as the Stuttgart Declaration (1983) asserts?
 Is a supranational entity like the EU more or less legitimate
than nation-states? Why, why not?
 Can the EU provide individuals with a better life?