Institutions and Policy
Introduction
Origins of the EU:
• Setting aside national differences in favour of a collective European interest
after WWII
• Treaty of Paris (1951):
o Creating European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
o 6 members: West Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, Belgium, The
Netherlands and France
Integration > unification
Two Treaties of Rome (1957):
• Creating EEC and Euratom
• EEC: set out to build an integrated multinational economy among its members,
to achieve a customs union, to encourage free trade and to harmonize
standards, laws, and prices among its members
Late 1960’s:
• EEC= full-blown political system: own executive and bureaucracy, own
protolegislature, own judiciary, own legal system
• Word ‘economic’ was dropped from the name à EC
• Success drew new members
Single European Act (1987):
• Free movement of people, money, goods and services
Maastricht Treaty (1993):
• Established the European Union
Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice (1998 and 2003):
• Built on these changes, fine-tuned the powers of the institutions and helped
prepare the EU for new members from Eastern Europe
1
,Treaty of Lisbon (2007):
• Reformed institutions:
o The European Commission
o The Council of the EU / The Council of Ministers
o The European Council
o The European Parliament
o The Court of Justice of the European Union
2
,Part I: History
Chapter 1: What Is the EU?
• A Sui Generis (“van zijn eigen soort”) organisation:
o International relations: decisions made among the governments of the
member states
o Comparative politics and public policy: political system in its own
right
o No single, generally accepted theoretical framework
o A political system in its own right
1.1 The Role of a State:
4 approaches on the study of the EU: (Ben Rosamond)
1. International organization
2. Regionalism in the global economic system
3. Dynamics of policy making to understand the crafting of interstate policy and
how it’s influenced by actors interested in the use of power
4. As a unique organization that emerged out of a unique set of circumstances
5. As a political system in its own right and comparing its structure and operating
principles with those of conventional national political systems.
(hier werd overgekeken door Roseman)
The State has 4 tasks:
1. Rule: make laws and enforce them
2. Provide public goods
3. Extract taxes
4. Solve collective action problems
3
,And 4 main characteristics:
1. Fixed and populated territory
2. Possibility to impose authority over that territory
3. Legally and politically independent
4. Recognized by its people and by other states
Importance of states since The Peace of Westphalia, 1648: new permanence to the
idea of borders and sovereignty
Differences:
• State: political-legal unit defined by territory and by laws, institutional basis.
• Nation: a group of people defined by shared identity or culture based on
language, ethnicity, religion … unified by a sense of purpose to control the
territory that the members of the group believe to be theirs
o Ethnic group: a group of people who share a heritage, common
language, culture and can discuss shared ancestry
• Nation-state: sovereign states in which a majority of the population is
united based on factors that define a nation.
Limitations:
• Nationalism: state should be based on a nation.
o National superiority, ethnocentrism, racism and genocide.
o Tensions between states.
• International cooperation to overcome tensions and promote cooperation:
o Manifestation: international organisations and/or international treaties
4
, Integration:
• Collaboration: member states decide to achieve certain goals together by
taking joint measures, but the member states retain authority over the specific
policy domain
• Integration: the authority to take decisions is transferred to a higher
(supra-)national level, so there is a transfer of competences from the member
states to the EU level.
o International organizations can lead to integration: pooling of authority
in specific policy areas and the creation of common institutions with
restricted powers, transfer of sovereignty. This is the right of
jurisdiction that states have over their people and territory and that
cannot legally be challenged by any other authority.
This is NOT a total surrender of their own separate legal, political, economic,
social and national identities
o No autonomous powers.
o No authority to impose their rulings on their members.
• International organizations: bodies that promote voluntary cooperation and
coordination between or among their members but have neither autonomous
powers nor the authority to impose their rulings on their members.
• Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs): “organizations with at least three
state parties, a permanent headquarters or secretariat, as well as regular
meetings and budgets”
Key characteristics of a political system:
1. Stable and clearly defined set of institutions for collective
decision-making and a set of rules governing relations between
and within these institutions.
2. Citizens seek to realize their political desires through the political
system.
3. Collective decisions in the political system have a significant
impact on the distribution of economic resources and the
allocation of values across the whole system.
4. Continuous interaction between these political outputs, new
demands on the system, new decisions, etc.
5
Introduction
Origins of the EU:
• Setting aside national differences in favour of a collective European interest
after WWII
• Treaty of Paris (1951):
o Creating European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
o 6 members: West Germany, Italy, Luxemburg, Belgium, The
Netherlands and France
Integration > unification
Two Treaties of Rome (1957):
• Creating EEC and Euratom
• EEC: set out to build an integrated multinational economy among its members,
to achieve a customs union, to encourage free trade and to harmonize
standards, laws, and prices among its members
Late 1960’s:
• EEC= full-blown political system: own executive and bureaucracy, own
protolegislature, own judiciary, own legal system
• Word ‘economic’ was dropped from the name à EC
• Success drew new members
Single European Act (1987):
• Free movement of people, money, goods and services
Maastricht Treaty (1993):
• Established the European Union
Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice (1998 and 2003):
• Built on these changes, fine-tuned the powers of the institutions and helped
prepare the EU for new members from Eastern Europe
1
,Treaty of Lisbon (2007):
• Reformed institutions:
o The European Commission
o The Council of the EU / The Council of Ministers
o The European Council
o The European Parliament
o The Court of Justice of the European Union
2
,Part I: History
Chapter 1: What Is the EU?
• A Sui Generis (“van zijn eigen soort”) organisation:
o International relations: decisions made among the governments of the
member states
o Comparative politics and public policy: political system in its own
right
o No single, generally accepted theoretical framework
o A political system in its own right
1.1 The Role of a State:
4 approaches on the study of the EU: (Ben Rosamond)
1. International organization
2. Regionalism in the global economic system
3. Dynamics of policy making to understand the crafting of interstate policy and
how it’s influenced by actors interested in the use of power
4. As a unique organization that emerged out of a unique set of circumstances
5. As a political system in its own right and comparing its structure and operating
principles with those of conventional national political systems.
(hier werd overgekeken door Roseman)
The State has 4 tasks:
1. Rule: make laws and enforce them
2. Provide public goods
3. Extract taxes
4. Solve collective action problems
3
,And 4 main characteristics:
1. Fixed and populated territory
2. Possibility to impose authority over that territory
3. Legally and politically independent
4. Recognized by its people and by other states
Importance of states since The Peace of Westphalia, 1648: new permanence to the
idea of borders and sovereignty
Differences:
• State: political-legal unit defined by territory and by laws, institutional basis.
• Nation: a group of people defined by shared identity or culture based on
language, ethnicity, religion … unified by a sense of purpose to control the
territory that the members of the group believe to be theirs
o Ethnic group: a group of people who share a heritage, common
language, culture and can discuss shared ancestry
• Nation-state: sovereign states in which a majority of the population is
united based on factors that define a nation.
Limitations:
• Nationalism: state should be based on a nation.
o National superiority, ethnocentrism, racism and genocide.
o Tensions between states.
• International cooperation to overcome tensions and promote cooperation:
o Manifestation: international organisations and/or international treaties
4
, Integration:
• Collaboration: member states decide to achieve certain goals together by
taking joint measures, but the member states retain authority over the specific
policy domain
• Integration: the authority to take decisions is transferred to a higher
(supra-)national level, so there is a transfer of competences from the member
states to the EU level.
o International organizations can lead to integration: pooling of authority
in specific policy areas and the creation of common institutions with
restricted powers, transfer of sovereignty. This is the right of
jurisdiction that states have over their people and territory and that
cannot legally be challenged by any other authority.
This is NOT a total surrender of their own separate legal, political, economic,
social and national identities
o No autonomous powers.
o No authority to impose their rulings on their members.
• International organizations: bodies that promote voluntary cooperation and
coordination between or among their members but have neither autonomous
powers nor the authority to impose their rulings on their members.
• Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs): “organizations with at least three
state parties, a permanent headquarters or secretariat, as well as regular
meetings and budgets”
Key characteristics of a political system:
1. Stable and clearly defined set of institutions for collective
decision-making and a set of rules governing relations between
and within these institutions.
2. Citizens seek to realize their political desires through the political
system.
3. Collective decisions in the political system have a significant
impact on the distribution of economic resources and the
allocation of values across the whole system.
4. Continuous interaction between these political outputs, new
demands on the system, new decisions, etc.
5
