Politics of european union

Politics of European union
PEU

Exam – 25th may
Final exam – 100% multiple choice
Exam questions are based on lectures, and the assigned readings

Lecture 1 – the historical context of European integration

European union were a peace project for Europe, they did not say they
never wanted to go to war again but just not within Europe
 They are not a peace project for the world

The first half of the 20th century
Political and ideological divisions in Europe

We had two very bloody world wars, European projects were not a result
of linear developments

Sharp and fluid inter-state relations – treaty of Versailles (1919) and
league of nations (1919)

The political systems of western Europe’s major states in the late 1930s
were very weak (except for Britain)

The impact of world war II on Europe
Economic devastation (massive war debts, infrastructural damage)

Political weakness (newly established political systems, loss of empires)

The continent was quickly divided in two, with western Europe facing a
new menace to the east (eastern bloc, communism, Soviet Union)

There was a consciousness that the Versailles approach (after WWI) had
not resolved the German problem

These factors combined to produce a situation wherein there was a
willingness on the part of many decision-makers to explore new forms of
inter-state relations

World war II changed the political climate
Factors that changes;
 Emphasis on combating nationalism
- E.g. creation of the council of Europe (1949), goals were very vague,
mission was to change human rights
 The new political map of Europe
- New borders, division into west and east through the iron curtain, US
support for liberal democratic systems
 The new international power balance

,- Start of cold war: Europe in-between the US and USSR
 The German problem – how to prevent another war
- Adopt a conciliatory approach
- Successful – Germany did not start a war
Differences between the western European states
Although they had much in common post-world war II, there were major
differences between west European states
 The six founding members of the EU – Benelux, Wester Germany,
France, Italy
- They were not perfectly aligned, very different goals
- Benelux; wanted to create balance to the bigger power states
- France – constraining Germany
- Italy/west Germany; acknowledging crimes and moving forward

No state participated in the integration process for idealistic reasons –
hard-headed national calculations always prevailed

UK though they did not need other states, wanted to be involved loosely,
decided not to be part at first

In Milward’s phrase – integration helped rescue the European nation-state

Work together in order to become a power, a common project, because all
lost their identity after the wars/decolonization

Notable institutional developments
No general agreement on what was to be done – hence multiple
organisations;
 The organization for European economic cooperation (OEEC),
established in April 1948
-> transformed into the organization for economic co-operation and
development (OECD) in 1961
- Administered fund from the Marshall plan
 The council of Europe (CoE), created in may 1949
 The north Atlantic treaty organization (NATO), created in 1949
 The European coal and steel community (ECSC), created by the 1951
treaty of Paris
 European defense cooperation (EDC) (not ratified) and the western
European union (WEU), created in 1954

Out of these many organisations only one has to do with the European
union today – only the ECSC (foundation of European union)

The ECSC/treaty of Paris/1951
Idea put forth in the Schuman declaration (1950), (France minister)

Envisaged duration – 50 years

Ambition to create a free trade area

,Coal and steel – extremely important and political;
 At the time were some of the basic materials of any industrialised
society
 Moreover, coal and steel were key materials to make arms and wage
war in Europe
 Lay the foundations of a common marker



Institutions of the ECSC




High authority;
 High authority will become the European commission as we know it
today
 Members were bureaucrats (experts in their field)

Common assembly – early form of European parliament today

Court of justice – essential because you cannot create a super national
organization without some form of restriction (could file complaints), is in
Luxembourg

Architects of European integration
Jean Monnet; secretary general of LoN in interwar period, was not a
politician, fought in WW I and II, he thought that states at war could be in
a union together, technocrat, set up foundation of European union

Robert Schuman

, Other initiatives
The European defence community (1950);
Goal to establish a European army under the political institutions of a
united Europe

Similar institutional structure as the ECSC -> supranational organization

Rejected by the French national assembly in 1954
 Scared that it would take away state sovereignty, monopoly on the
means of violence is a characteristic of the state and they did not want
to give that to an organization

Western European union (1955) – 6 founding members + UK;
Loosely structured, essentially consultative, primarily defence-orientated
organization
Permitted west German rearmament subject and enabled its membership
into NATO

The EEC & Euratom / 1957
After the failure of the EDC, refocus on economic integration
 Guided by ideas of free-market, liberal, non-interventionist capitalism
 But with some protectionist elements – agriculture (because of the
French) + some elements of social policy

Messina declaration (1955) -> treaties of Rome
 The European economic community (EEC)
 The European atomic energy community (Euratom)

The EEC provides
Goal – gradual establishment of a common market
 Free trade area – remove all tariffs and quantitative restrictions on
internal trade
 Customs union – create a common external tariff and develop a
common external trade policy – the common commercial policy (CCP)
 Common rules – prohibit practices that would distort or prevent
competition (monopoly) between member states
 Common/single market – promote free movement of goods but also
free movement of persons, services, and capital
 References to a future common currency

EEC institution is essentially the same as the ECSC

Lecture 2 – history of European integration II – 1960s - present

History viewed via a chronological approach
Focus on grand steps;
 Crisis
- Example; the empty chair crisis of 1965-6, France he packed his stuff
and left (France held the presidency and left)