Lecture 1 - 4 november 2024
Some Eu institutions are more intergovernmental in nature, while others are more supranational.
The European Commission
→ promoting the common interest (of the European Union) → most supranational.
Roles:
1. Propose legislation to the Parliament and the Council;
2. Manage and implements EU policies and budget;
3. Enforce European law (with court of justice);
4. Represent the EU on the international stage.
Commission president: the political leader of the commission
★ Has permanent secretariat: secretariat-general;
★ Power to reject commissioner nominees;
★ Power to re-allocate portfolios & reshuffle;
★ Primus supra pares.
European Council
★ Defines EU’s general political direction and priorities, no legislation;
★ Meets (at least) 4 times per year;
★ Heads of state or government;
★ Where do we want to go?
The high representative
★ The High Representative of the union for foreign affairs and security policy;
★ Visible international legal personality;
○ Blurs boundaries between council + commission;
○ Boosts eu as credible global actor;
○ High-level diplomacy through european external action service;
★ The European council appoints HR for a 5-year term.
The European Parliament
→ the voice of the people
EP elections every five years
★ Regional or national lists;
★ Proposal for transnational lists
Power and influence in three key areas
1. EU budget;
2. Commission: Right to scrutinize, dismiss, and appoint;
3. Law-making: Right to amend & reject Commission proposals.
, Robin de bruin
Predecessors EU → European steel and coal committee → European Economic committee → euratom or
EAEC.
Part 1 - Plans for European integration before 1945
These plans aimed to create a common European market (= Europe and overseas territories) without
internal trade restrictions.
The aim of this was to increase prosperity and to protect the European economy against cheap imports
from the extra-European world.
Examples:
★ 1923: Coudenhove-Kalergi’s Pan-European Plan;
○ After 1918 → WW1 end → decline Europe → Habsurg empire fallen apart → fear in
Western and East-Central Europe → communism spreading over Europe due to Russian
Revolution → to counter this fear → Coudenhove-Kalergi’s Pan European Plan;
○ Europe had to unite economically in order to count communism, the Americas and
SouthEast Asia.
★ 1930: Briand Plan;
○ Economic nationalism after economic crisis 1929: beggar-thy-neighbor policies, dumping
and, in response to that, the building up of tariff walls → specific products from one
country were dumped at low prices in the market of the neighboring country to destroy
the market and dominate. To protect the national economy → raising tariffs on imports.
★ 1940: Nazi Funk Plan;
○ WW2 → European continent under Nazi rule. Nazi Reichsminister walther funk’s plan
for European economic cooperation.
Democracy was of secondary importance in the plans of Coudenhove-Kalergi and Briand. The Nazis were
opponents of parliamentary democracy.
After the end of WW1 → blueprint European integration → Coudenhove-Kalergi → Pan-European Plan
→ starting to think about European Integration.
After invasion of Poland/beginning WW2 → Nazi Funk Plan.
Wartime Federalist plans for a Postwar European federation
★ German resistance: Carl Goerdeler, Kreisauer Kreis;
★ Italian anti-Fascist resistance: Altiero Spinelli’s Ventotene Manifesto.
Part 2 - The economic importance of West Germany for Western Europe after the end of the Second
World War and the fear of a future flirtation of West Germany with Moscow
Germany sat in the middle of the see-saw between East and West, and always had gained profit from that
geopolitical position - Rapallo fear. Germany flirted with West and East → threatened to side against the
other.
Theran conference (1943):
★ Second front against Nazi Germany in Western Europe;
★ No compromise peace between SU or Western Allied forces with Nazi Germany;
Morgenthau Plan (1944/1945), US plan for Postwar Germany:
, ★ De-industrialisation of Germany;
★ Re-agrarianisation of Germany;
★ Partition of Germany;
Severe negative economic consequences for Postwar Western Europe;
★ West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer: No flirtation with Moscow, but Westintegration or
Westbindung via European Communities and NATO.
Geopolitical purpose of postwar Western European integration (European Coal and Steel Community,
European Economic Community, Euratom)
★ Lord Ismay: The purpose of NATO from a Western EUropean perspective is too keep the
Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down;
★ Quite similarly, one of the main purposes of Postwar Western European integration was to keep
(West) Germany in, and to keep it down.
Part 3 - Establishment of European institutions after the end of the Second World War, establishment of
the predecessors of today’s EU after 1950
★ 1947-1952 Marshall Aid, OEEC/OECD;
○ Start cold war;
○ Start first european integration process;
○ Fixed rates in countries tied to the American dollar;
○ Americans created the start of european integration process;
■ Establishment of the organization of European economic co-operation → start of
postwar European integration.
★ 1949 Establishment of the Council of Europe;
★ 1950-1952 Establishment European Coal and Steel Community;
★ 1950-1954 European Defence Community/European Political Community (never realized);
★ 1955-1958 Establishment of the European Economic Community/Euratom.
Call for the establishment of welfare states and social security in the late 1940s
Communist threat both from the East and within West European countries.
Poverty as a consequence of the crisis of the 1930s - from which WW2 had issued in part - still fresh in
everyone’s memory.
This required the solution of the German question.
Democratisising can prevent totalitarianism that arose from the economic crisis.
Forms, or types, of European integration
★ Intergovernmentalism: different countries cooperate while keeping their own sovereignty;
★ Federalism: the development of a European federal state with a supranational government and
parliament;
★ Functionalism: the pooling of sovereignty in a relatively undisputed field (economic areas, like
coal, steel or agricultural policy), which would potentially in the future load to more political
cooperation - the so-called Monnet-method.
, Lecture 2 - 6 november 2024
Different driving forces behind process of European integration can be distinguished, some parties
preferred intergovernmental collaboration, other parties aimed for supranational Europe.
Part 1 - The decolonisation of the French, Belgian, Dutch and Italian colonial empires
Myth of European integration as a postcolonial fresh new start after the defeat of Nazism and Facism
★ Schuman declaration, May 9th 1950.
Eurafrica and Atlantropa (damming the street of gibraltar, and lowering sea level → increase dry land
areas → provide overland access to africa). French, and to lesser extent German (economically speaking,
because they lost their colonies after WW1), fantasies from the Interwar period about the European
pooling of colonial sovereignty → europeanising colonies to keep them.
Coudenhove-Kalergi’s Paneuropa, South East Asia, especially The Dutch East Indies, as the weakest link
→ creation of a strong west economy (industrialisation).
Extensive trade between Dutch East Indies + Americas (extra european world) → global supplier of raw
materials → creating markets overzees for European products. Modern imperialism → interests of Dutch
colonial enterprises could not easily be reconciled with European integration + building of tariff walls of
the larger Paneuropa.
★ After decolonisation → dutch started to support ideas of European integration.
Decolonisation of Asia and Africa after 1945 supported by the US, USSR, and UN
Some European politicians concluded that European colonial powers had to defend themselves by
cooperation.
After the end of WW2 many states in Asia and Africa achieved autonomy → mixed feelings during this
process. Decolonisation was often affected by the cold war → picking sides. Both sides saw themselves
as opponents of colonization.
Ingrijpen US → only way to protect each other (west european countries) was by European integration.
Connection Suez Crisis and Treaty of Rome
Decline of GB and Fr → Suez Crisis shows this → after invaders started fighting → US, USSR, and UN
said they had to leave → european powers concluded that they had to be able to defend themselves, but
also find alternatives to oil from the middle east → middle east no longer controlled by western powers
→ atomic energy → eurotom.
French association policy EEC: development aid or neocolonialism?
Taking materials from Africa to manufacture in Europe → maintain french colonial empire in a different
form.
Some Eu institutions are more intergovernmental in nature, while others are more supranational.
The European Commission
→ promoting the common interest (of the European Union) → most supranational.
Roles:
1. Propose legislation to the Parliament and the Council;
2. Manage and implements EU policies and budget;
3. Enforce European law (with court of justice);
4. Represent the EU on the international stage.
Commission president: the political leader of the commission
★ Has permanent secretariat: secretariat-general;
★ Power to reject commissioner nominees;
★ Power to re-allocate portfolios & reshuffle;
★ Primus supra pares.
European Council
★ Defines EU’s general political direction and priorities, no legislation;
★ Meets (at least) 4 times per year;
★ Heads of state or government;
★ Where do we want to go?
The high representative
★ The High Representative of the union for foreign affairs and security policy;
★ Visible international legal personality;
○ Blurs boundaries between council + commission;
○ Boosts eu as credible global actor;
○ High-level diplomacy through european external action service;
★ The European council appoints HR for a 5-year term.
The European Parliament
→ the voice of the people
EP elections every five years
★ Regional or national lists;
★ Proposal for transnational lists
Power and influence in three key areas
1. EU budget;
2. Commission: Right to scrutinize, dismiss, and appoint;
3. Law-making: Right to amend & reject Commission proposals.
, Robin de bruin
Predecessors EU → European steel and coal committee → European Economic committee → euratom or
EAEC.
Part 1 - Plans for European integration before 1945
These plans aimed to create a common European market (= Europe and overseas territories) without
internal trade restrictions.
The aim of this was to increase prosperity and to protect the European economy against cheap imports
from the extra-European world.
Examples:
★ 1923: Coudenhove-Kalergi’s Pan-European Plan;
○ After 1918 → WW1 end → decline Europe → Habsurg empire fallen apart → fear in
Western and East-Central Europe → communism spreading over Europe due to Russian
Revolution → to counter this fear → Coudenhove-Kalergi’s Pan European Plan;
○ Europe had to unite economically in order to count communism, the Americas and
SouthEast Asia.
★ 1930: Briand Plan;
○ Economic nationalism after economic crisis 1929: beggar-thy-neighbor policies, dumping
and, in response to that, the building up of tariff walls → specific products from one
country were dumped at low prices in the market of the neighboring country to destroy
the market and dominate. To protect the national economy → raising tariffs on imports.
★ 1940: Nazi Funk Plan;
○ WW2 → European continent under Nazi rule. Nazi Reichsminister walther funk’s plan
for European economic cooperation.
Democracy was of secondary importance in the plans of Coudenhove-Kalergi and Briand. The Nazis were
opponents of parliamentary democracy.
After the end of WW1 → blueprint European integration → Coudenhove-Kalergi → Pan-European Plan
→ starting to think about European Integration.
After invasion of Poland/beginning WW2 → Nazi Funk Plan.
Wartime Federalist plans for a Postwar European federation
★ German resistance: Carl Goerdeler, Kreisauer Kreis;
★ Italian anti-Fascist resistance: Altiero Spinelli’s Ventotene Manifesto.
Part 2 - The economic importance of West Germany for Western Europe after the end of the Second
World War and the fear of a future flirtation of West Germany with Moscow
Germany sat in the middle of the see-saw between East and West, and always had gained profit from that
geopolitical position - Rapallo fear. Germany flirted with West and East → threatened to side against the
other.
Theran conference (1943):
★ Second front against Nazi Germany in Western Europe;
★ No compromise peace between SU or Western Allied forces with Nazi Germany;
Morgenthau Plan (1944/1945), US plan for Postwar Germany:
, ★ De-industrialisation of Germany;
★ Re-agrarianisation of Germany;
★ Partition of Germany;
Severe negative economic consequences for Postwar Western Europe;
★ West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer: No flirtation with Moscow, but Westintegration or
Westbindung via European Communities and NATO.
Geopolitical purpose of postwar Western European integration (European Coal and Steel Community,
European Economic Community, Euratom)
★ Lord Ismay: The purpose of NATO from a Western EUropean perspective is too keep the
Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down;
★ Quite similarly, one of the main purposes of Postwar Western European integration was to keep
(West) Germany in, and to keep it down.
Part 3 - Establishment of European institutions after the end of the Second World War, establishment of
the predecessors of today’s EU after 1950
★ 1947-1952 Marshall Aid, OEEC/OECD;
○ Start cold war;
○ Start first european integration process;
○ Fixed rates in countries tied to the American dollar;
○ Americans created the start of european integration process;
■ Establishment of the organization of European economic co-operation → start of
postwar European integration.
★ 1949 Establishment of the Council of Europe;
★ 1950-1952 Establishment European Coal and Steel Community;
★ 1950-1954 European Defence Community/European Political Community (never realized);
★ 1955-1958 Establishment of the European Economic Community/Euratom.
Call for the establishment of welfare states and social security in the late 1940s
Communist threat both from the East and within West European countries.
Poverty as a consequence of the crisis of the 1930s - from which WW2 had issued in part - still fresh in
everyone’s memory.
This required the solution of the German question.
Democratisising can prevent totalitarianism that arose from the economic crisis.
Forms, or types, of European integration
★ Intergovernmentalism: different countries cooperate while keeping their own sovereignty;
★ Federalism: the development of a European federal state with a supranational government and
parliament;
★ Functionalism: the pooling of sovereignty in a relatively undisputed field (economic areas, like
coal, steel or agricultural policy), which would potentially in the future load to more political
cooperation - the so-called Monnet-method.
, Lecture 2 - 6 november 2024
Different driving forces behind process of European integration can be distinguished, some parties
preferred intergovernmental collaboration, other parties aimed for supranational Europe.
Part 1 - The decolonisation of the French, Belgian, Dutch and Italian colonial empires
Myth of European integration as a postcolonial fresh new start after the defeat of Nazism and Facism
★ Schuman declaration, May 9th 1950.
Eurafrica and Atlantropa (damming the street of gibraltar, and lowering sea level → increase dry land
areas → provide overland access to africa). French, and to lesser extent German (economically speaking,
because they lost their colonies after WW1), fantasies from the Interwar period about the European
pooling of colonial sovereignty → europeanising colonies to keep them.
Coudenhove-Kalergi’s Paneuropa, South East Asia, especially The Dutch East Indies, as the weakest link
→ creation of a strong west economy (industrialisation).
Extensive trade between Dutch East Indies + Americas (extra european world) → global supplier of raw
materials → creating markets overzees for European products. Modern imperialism → interests of Dutch
colonial enterprises could not easily be reconciled with European integration + building of tariff walls of
the larger Paneuropa.
★ After decolonisation → dutch started to support ideas of European integration.
Decolonisation of Asia and Africa after 1945 supported by the US, USSR, and UN
Some European politicians concluded that European colonial powers had to defend themselves by
cooperation.
After the end of WW2 many states in Asia and Africa achieved autonomy → mixed feelings during this
process. Decolonisation was often affected by the cold war → picking sides. Both sides saw themselves
as opponents of colonization.
Ingrijpen US → only way to protect each other (west european countries) was by European integration.
Connection Suez Crisis and Treaty of Rome
Decline of GB and Fr → Suez Crisis shows this → after invaders started fighting → US, USSR, and UN
said they had to leave → european powers concluded that they had to be able to defend themselves, but
also find alternatives to oil from the middle east → middle east no longer controlled by western powers
→ atomic energy → eurotom.
French association policy EEC: development aid or neocolonialism?
Taking materials from Africa to manufacture in Europe → maintain french colonial empire in a different
form.
