Class 1: Introduction
1. Why study European integration?
1.1 The sovereign state as the building block of international relations
Sovereign state = building block of international relations
• Rooted in the Peace of Westphalia (1648)
• Growing in number over time (51-> 193 UN members)
State sovereignty includes:
• Certain territory (over which laws apply)
• Presumed right to non-interference (from the outside)
• Capacity to act
→ to enforce the law within & shield the state from external aggression
<=> political systems can vary from one state to the next
State formation: usually violent
- ‘war made the state and the state made war’ (Charles Tilly)
States often - but not always - overlap with nationhood
- states = institutions with budgets, forced laws…
- nation = thing that people feel & identify with
- ex. België Vlaanderen
2. Multi-level governance
EU-level above the state, yet quite unlike other
international organisations
→ Has a strange legal status: not a state, but
higher ranking courts than national courts
Central historical phenomenon of postwar Europe: Francois Miter & Germany
→ France & Germany reconciled = central to EU
,3. NATO & EU enlargement
From 12 to 32 NATO allies & from 6 to 27 ECSC/EEG/EU member states
→ membership increases
Succes story for Euro-Atlantic & European integration
• 1989 German reunification
• Expanding the free & single market
• CEE-states (Central- and East European states) anxious to plug into democratic model
and security
A nightmare for Putin:
• appeal of democracy
• buffer space dwindles
• who makes the rules?
4. from one ‘crisis’ to the next
• Sovereign debt crisis & the Euro (2009…)
• Ukraine crisis & relations w Russia (2014…)
• Migration crisis (2015…)
• Brexit (2016…)
• Climate emergency (2019…)
• COVID-19 emergency (2020...)
• Putin’s war with UKR & the West (2022…)
=> More often than not, the European level plays a prominent role in generating policy
(re)actions - based on EU competences & MS coordination
In a crisis, political contestation is never far away
• Taxation, poverty & redistribution of wealth
• Citizenship & identity issues: belonging to political communities
• Political values (freedom, democracy, sovereignty, rule of law, pluralism…)
• War time: ofter heralds a reset of political systems
5. European integration
Essence: sorting out European politics by means of constant negotiations & common
institutions → studying European integration is seeking to understand the European project
, Class 2: A short history of European integration
1. What history of European integration?
End WWII: largely ruined → big reset moment in European politics
• History of European integration largely overlaps with the European continent in the
2nd half of 20th century & beyond
2 important parallel storylines to pay attention to:
1. Security cooperation
2. Economic integration
→ ultimately about the ‘high politics’ amongst European capitals
Focus of this session: early seeds, chronological birds eye perspective of treaties signed
amongst member states & big geopolitical bargains
2. Uniting the continent step by step
#6 -> 9 -> 10 -> 12 -> 15 -> 25 -> 27 -> 28 -> 27
→ more enlargement to come?
→ membership is not fixed
EU started with a European Economic Community
- 1957: EU was about ideas
→ spreading an economic and political model
- signs of partial disintegration
• some argue only in the last years, but actually already
from the beginning
• 1960s: France (one of the founding states) kind off pulled out for a while
o Charles The Gaulle didn’t participate in the meetings
→ French “empty chair crisis” in 1965-1966
• Brexit 2016 referendum → 2020 UK withdrawal
• ‘Rule of law’ debate: concerns over more member states leaving the Union
3. Some founding fathers
Konrad Adenauer:
- 1st post-war west-German chancellor
- played a key role in the debate about what new west-Germany should look
like
, George Marshall:
- US army general that became secretary of state
- during WWII:
* general of US military
* closed military advisor to Roosevelt
- after the war:
* secretary of State
* created Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program) ‘48
Jean Monnet
- got tasked during WWI to run points on wartime logistics
* had to make sure that the frontlines of the French (later also the British)
soldiers got resupplied with food and other materials
- started lobbying ideas of scale logistics to the French government to work
together with the British -> ended up being successful
- French government appointed him as Deputy Secretary General of the
League of Nations (predecessor of the UN)
- learned important lessons that he went pitching to the leading politicians
after WWII (also R. Schuman)
Robert Schuman
- French foreign minister
- came up with the Schuman declaration in 1950
Paul-Henri Spaak
- considered the most inspirational figure in the Belgian foreign ministry
- thought that neutrality could save Belgium
-> wrong: squeezed between big countries -> neutrality violated
- WWII: member of the Belgian exiled government
* early ideas of establishing a closer relation between the BENELUX
Countries
- served as the 2nd general of the NATO
- drafted what would eventually be the 1st treaty giving birth to the EEC
(many others: Winston Churcill, Alcide De Gasperi…)
1. Why study European integration?
1.1 The sovereign state as the building block of international relations
Sovereign state = building block of international relations
• Rooted in the Peace of Westphalia (1648)
• Growing in number over time (51-> 193 UN members)
State sovereignty includes:
• Certain territory (over which laws apply)
• Presumed right to non-interference (from the outside)
• Capacity to act
→ to enforce the law within & shield the state from external aggression
<=> political systems can vary from one state to the next
State formation: usually violent
- ‘war made the state and the state made war’ (Charles Tilly)
States often - but not always - overlap with nationhood
- states = institutions with budgets, forced laws…
- nation = thing that people feel & identify with
- ex. België Vlaanderen
2. Multi-level governance
EU-level above the state, yet quite unlike other
international organisations
→ Has a strange legal status: not a state, but
higher ranking courts than national courts
Central historical phenomenon of postwar Europe: Francois Miter & Germany
→ France & Germany reconciled = central to EU
,3. NATO & EU enlargement
From 12 to 32 NATO allies & from 6 to 27 ECSC/EEG/EU member states
→ membership increases
Succes story for Euro-Atlantic & European integration
• 1989 German reunification
• Expanding the free & single market
• CEE-states (Central- and East European states) anxious to plug into democratic model
and security
A nightmare for Putin:
• appeal of democracy
• buffer space dwindles
• who makes the rules?
4. from one ‘crisis’ to the next
• Sovereign debt crisis & the Euro (2009…)
• Ukraine crisis & relations w Russia (2014…)
• Migration crisis (2015…)
• Brexit (2016…)
• Climate emergency (2019…)
• COVID-19 emergency (2020...)
• Putin’s war with UKR & the West (2022…)
=> More often than not, the European level plays a prominent role in generating policy
(re)actions - based on EU competences & MS coordination
In a crisis, political contestation is never far away
• Taxation, poverty & redistribution of wealth
• Citizenship & identity issues: belonging to political communities
• Political values (freedom, democracy, sovereignty, rule of law, pluralism…)
• War time: ofter heralds a reset of political systems
5. European integration
Essence: sorting out European politics by means of constant negotiations & common
institutions → studying European integration is seeking to understand the European project
, Class 2: A short history of European integration
1. What history of European integration?
End WWII: largely ruined → big reset moment in European politics
• History of European integration largely overlaps with the European continent in the
2nd half of 20th century & beyond
2 important parallel storylines to pay attention to:
1. Security cooperation
2. Economic integration
→ ultimately about the ‘high politics’ amongst European capitals
Focus of this session: early seeds, chronological birds eye perspective of treaties signed
amongst member states & big geopolitical bargains
2. Uniting the continent step by step
#6 -> 9 -> 10 -> 12 -> 15 -> 25 -> 27 -> 28 -> 27
→ more enlargement to come?
→ membership is not fixed
EU started with a European Economic Community
- 1957: EU was about ideas
→ spreading an economic and political model
- signs of partial disintegration
• some argue only in the last years, but actually already
from the beginning
• 1960s: France (one of the founding states) kind off pulled out for a while
o Charles The Gaulle didn’t participate in the meetings
→ French “empty chair crisis” in 1965-1966
• Brexit 2016 referendum → 2020 UK withdrawal
• ‘Rule of law’ debate: concerns over more member states leaving the Union
3. Some founding fathers
Konrad Adenauer:
- 1st post-war west-German chancellor
- played a key role in the debate about what new west-Germany should look
like
, George Marshall:
- US army general that became secretary of state
- during WWII:
* general of US military
* closed military advisor to Roosevelt
- after the war:
* secretary of State
* created Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program) ‘48
Jean Monnet
- got tasked during WWI to run points on wartime logistics
* had to make sure that the frontlines of the French (later also the British)
soldiers got resupplied with food and other materials
- started lobbying ideas of scale logistics to the French government to work
together with the British -> ended up being successful
- French government appointed him as Deputy Secretary General of the
League of Nations (predecessor of the UN)
- learned important lessons that he went pitching to the leading politicians
after WWII (also R. Schuman)
Robert Schuman
- French foreign minister
- came up with the Schuman declaration in 1950
Paul-Henri Spaak
- considered the most inspirational figure in the Belgian foreign ministry
- thought that neutrality could save Belgium
-> wrong: squeezed between big countries -> neutrality violated
- WWII: member of the Belgian exiled government
* early ideas of establishing a closer relation between the BENELUX
Countries
- served as the 2nd general of the NATO
- drafted what would eventually be the 1st treaty giving birth to the EEC
(many others: Winston Churcill, Alcide De Gasperi…)
