CHAPTER 1: WHY EUROPEAN INTEGRATION?
EU enlargement history: the accession criteria is found through the Copenhagen criteria.
EU enlargement is probably the biggest success of the integration process.
3 phases:
1950-1990 1990-2016 2016-
Cold War paradigm Post-Cold War paradigm New Cold War paradigm
Pax Americana Globalization Strategic autonomy
Germany: Westbindung German Wiedervereinigung German Zeitenwende
Market integration EMU + enlargement Geopolitics
Les 2 (18/02)
CHAPTER 2: WHY IS THERE NO EUROPEAN ARMY YET?
The EU is vulnerable in its security system and defending itself
Trump does not support the European Integration process
Munich – 30 September 1938
The first place were the Nazi’s became successful.
Slide 8: Chamberlain, Hitler, Mussolini, French Prime-minister
The idea was to concede to Nazi Germany and then they would stop was not the case
Chamberlain declared that he arranged a peace agreement with the Nazi’s.
Europe 1939: Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
It allowed Nazi Germany to focus on the West because he knew there wouldn’t be an
invasion from the SU. This was his plan first defeat the West and then open a new front
in the East.
There was a secret protocol attached to this agreement to divide countries between Nazi
Germany and the Soviet-Union this way they would become the two world powers
Execution of the agreement started with Nazi Germany invading Poland and at the same
time the SU took the independent Baltic States and occupied them + half of Poland
Europe 1940: Blitzkrieg in the West
Western front was secured
Europe 1941: Operation Barbarossa
Nazi Germany first defeated the West and then attacked the SU (Hitler looked down on
the Slavic people) Stalin was taken by surprise he asked the West to open a second
front in the West so there wouldn’t be so much pressure on the SU
Europe 1944: Normandy Landings
, Second front in the West Stalin had to wait three years he became suspicious of the
real plans of the European leaders and feared there would come a peace agreement
between the West and Nazi Germany without the SU
Europe 1945: German Surrender
Stalin secured his own borders because he did not trust the British nor the Americans.
Europe 1946: The Iron Curtain Descends
Austria was and will never be in a peace treaty after WW2 (they aren’t in the UN) the
allies gave them their sovereignty back after they promised to never step into a military
alliance
Slide Paul-Henri Spaak: When he says ‘vous’ he means Russia
Berlin Blockade (June 1948 – May 1949)
Western Berlin was kept alive by planes supplying them with everything they needed to
survive. This way the allies proved they weren’t going to give up to Stalin. He then gave
up the blockade in May 1949.
The communists were winning the elections in Belgium, France and the Netherlands.
Then the Americans reacted by saying they didn’t sacrifice everything for Europe to then
see it get occupied by Stalin again under the communists. Because if that happened they
wouldn’t be able to do trade. Because of this the NATO was founded, to keep Stalin from
further expansion and to prevent communism. The most famous article of NATO is article
number 5. It’s also a big issue because with the question of a NATO army rising it is not
certain that the US would deliver troops. Western Germany was not a founding member
of NATO because they didn’t exist and didn’t have an army so it was impossible to form a
military alliance with them.
Stalin never wanted to unify Germany again after the Second World War the allied
forces then founded Bundesrepublik Deutschland on May 23rd 1949.
Schuman Declaration 9 May 1950 (ECSC)
Press conference organized by Robert Schuman he asked for the international press to
tell that France would try to negotiate a second way to ensure an organization
He wanted to make a new international organization at supernational level with its own
government to ensure the coal and steel industry (those were resources for war)
Founding of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
It was a reaction to the Council of Europe that couldn’t really decide on anything.
Six founding member states of what is now the European Union:
Germany, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Luxemburg and Italy
Founded in the Treaty of Paris
After three wars where Germany was very brutal and powerful it was enough
Chamberlain had to step down given the clear failure of the appeasement strategy.
Winston Churchill took over and succeeded in ending the Second World War and