History of the European Union

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History of the European Union

• Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c Wichard Woyke

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Which Europe?

• in post-war Europe the idea of Pan-Europa
  (Coudenhove-Kalergi 1922/23) was heatedly
  discussed
• even the British were in favour of European Unity
• Churchill United States of Europe (Zurich 1946)
• Congress of Europe (The Hague 1948)
• Unionists vs. Federalists
• Result Council of Europe (1949)

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• European integration is closely obliged to the
  names
• Jean Monnet Robert Schuman
• Jean Monnet (1888 - 1979)
• responsible for the French economic modernisation
  (Monnet Plan)
• author of the Schuman Plan and by this
  architect of European Unity
• assuming that integration does not follow grand
  logics but functional necessities
• peace and prosperity only in a federal Europe

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Robert Schuman (1886 - 1963)

• French Foreign Minister from 1948 - 1952
• presented the Schuman Plan and announced the
  Schuman Declaration on May 9, 1950
• formed by this the first supranational European
  institution

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Monnet peace and prosperity only in a federal
Europe

• close economic cooperation in specific sectors is
  the key to overcome national separation and to
  achieve European federation
• elite approach leading politicians, not huge
  assemblies would determine the way
• only a great crisis would provide the necessary
  push for European integration
• destruction in post-war Europe emerging of Cold
  War (east west conflict)
• threat of internal communist subversion in
  Western Europe
• none of these crises challenged sufficiently the
  nation-state

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Marshall Plan (European Recovery Plan - ERP)

• announced by General George Marshall, US
  Secretary of State, Harvard 1947
• social situation in Europe
• containment of USSR influence
• US-fear for economic recession in the US
• leading position in Europe (isolation led the US
  into two wars)
• economic health to avoid communist subversion
• Organisation for European Economic Cooperation
  (OEEC) was to diverse to push European
  integration (1948)
• US-engagement and cooperation for security
  reasons
• NATO strongly dependent on US

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German Economic Recovery and the Ruhr Area

• the western parts participated in the Marshall
  Plan and gained rapid economic success
• US and UK acknowledged the important role of the
  Ruhr Area for economic recovery of the entire
  continent and loosened restrictions
• political/military threat to France
  (Germanophobia)
• economic threat (Monnets modernisation plan for
  France relied on the assumption, that coal from
  the Ruhr would fuel French economy)
• US requested France to change their policy
  towards Germany
• the above mentioned Franco-German tensions proved
  to be the catalytic crisis according to Monnets
  strategy

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Motives of European Integration

• Overcoming of nationalism
• Solving the German problem
• Building new structures of security
• Reconstruction at an accelerated tempo
• self-assertion of Europe and the attempt to win
  influence in the international policy

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The Schuman Plan

• Monnets idea was to subordinate parts of the
  energy and heavy industries sector to a joint and
  legislative authority
• common regulations should create a common market
  for related goods
• politically, the supranational approach promised
  control over all important military industries
• economically, France could benefit from the
  transnational, common market and the availability
  of energy, and improve its economic modernisation
• no alternative intergouvernemental approach was
  that auspicious

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• main element of Monnets idea was the European
  Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), controlling the
  war-making potentials of heavy industries and
  establishing a common market for related goods
• addressed possible members F, G, Benelux, Italy
• Britain was at that time reluctant to involve
  itself in European integration and left it to the
  continent
• intergouvernemental negotiations began in August
  1950 and ended April 1951 the ratification by
  national parliaments took another year
• ECSC began operating finally in August 1952

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EDC European Defense Community

• parallel to the ECSC negotiations Europe was
  confronted with the US demand for a German
  rearmament (context Korea War 1950)
• due to French hostility towards this idea
  Adenauer stressed that, if shared sovereignty is
  good enough for industry, it can also be a frame
  for rearmament
• in October 1950 French Prime Minister Pleven
  announced the plan to rearm Germany within a
  supranational approach comparable to the coal and
  steel sector European Defense Community

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Paris Accords 1954

• Protocol on the Accession of the Federal Republic
  of Germany to the North Atlantic Treaty (Paris,
  October 23, 1954)
• At the end of August 1954, the French National
  Assembly failed to ratify the European Defense
  Community Treaty. But this only represented a
  brief setback for the project of integrating a
  West German defense contribution into European
  structures, since the French voted instead for
  the formation of a Western European Union (WEU)
  with an arms control system that included the
  Federal Republic..

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Paris Accords 1954

• They also opened the door for West Germany to
  join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
  (NATO). On October 23, 1954, the following
  protocol was signed in Paris. For the Federal
  Republic, the Bonn-Paris Conventions meant an end
  to the occupation regime and the acquisition of
  expanded sovereignty vis-à-vis the Germany Treaty
  of May 1952. Within the framework of its
  accession to the WEU and NATO, the government of
  the Federal Republic accepted restrictions on
  rearmament, including the renunciation of
  nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons

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The Way to Rome 1957

• The failure of the European Defence Community
  (EDC) and the European Political Community,
  brought the process of European integration to a
  standstill in 1954. At that moment Johan Willem
  Beyen (Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs)
  took the initiative to revive an idea, based on
  the Ouchy Convention of 1932, he had already put
  forward in December 1952 and February 1953 for
  the European Political Community (EPC).

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The Way to Rome 1957

• Beyen proposed that the member states of the
  European Coal and Steel Community would develop a
  common market without customs duties or import
  quotas instead of a sector-based integration
  which had been the option taken by the ECSC.
  Beyen sent a memorandum to his BeNeLux colleagues
  Paul-Henri Spaak (Belgium) and Joseph Bech
  (Luxembourg) on 4 April 1955 in which he proposed
  his idea of a customs union.

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The Benelux-Memorandum 1955

• The BeNeLux-memorandum proposed the establishment
  of an Economic Community based on a general
  common market and a sectoral approach for
  transport and energy, especially nuclear energy
  (the last was in the line of the approach taken
  with the ECSC). The common market was to be
  achieved by a gradual reduction of trade
  restriction and custom tariffs. Besides the
  economic domain the memorandum proposed an
  integration also at the social and financial
  domain. In addition they proposed the creation of
  a joint (supranational) independent authority.

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Messina 1955

• The six ECSC countries turned after the failure
  of the EDC their attention to the idea of a
  customs union, which was elaborated at Messina.
  The final resolution of the conference, largely
  reflecting the point of view of the three Benelux
  countries, formed the basis for further work to
  relaunch European integration. s.

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Rome Treaties, March 25, 1957

• European Atomic Energy Community (Euroatom)
  research and development for civil and safe use
  of nuclear power
• European Economic Community (EEC) creation of a
  common market free movement of goods, persons,
  services and capital customs union, common trade
  policy
• inclusion of a common agricultural policy
  approach was a concession made to guarantee
  ratification in the French national assembly
• the institutional arrangement of the Community
  was negotiated in Brussels

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• This common market is founded on the famous "four
  freedoms", namely the free movement of persons,
  services, goods and capital. It creates a single
  economic area establishing free competition
  between undertakings. It lays the basis for
  approximating the conditions governing trade in
  products and services over and above those
  already covered by the other treaties (ECSC and
  Euratom).

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Customs Union

• The EEC Treaty abolishes quotas and customs
  duties between the Member States. It establishes
  a common external tariff, a sort of external
  frontier for Member States' products, replacing
  the preceding tariffs of the different states.
  This customs union is accompanied by a common
  trade policy. This policy, managed at Community
  level and no longer at state level, totally
  dissociates the customs union from a mere
  free-trade association.The effects of
  dismantling customs barriers and eliminating
  quantitative restrictions to trade during the
  transitional period were very positive, allowing
  intra-Community trade and trade between the EEC
  and third countries to develop rapidly.

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common policies

• Certain policies are formally enshrined in the
  Treaty, such as the common agricultural policy
  (Articles 38 to 47), common trade policy
  (Articles 110 to 116) and transport policy
  (Articles 74 to 84).

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Treaty developments

• alternative approach of EC non-members
  European Free Trade Association (EFTA/1960)
• Merger Treaty (April 1965, in force July 1967)
• Treaty establishing a Single Council and a Single
  Commission of the European Communities
• European Political Cooperation (EPC, 1970)
  intergouvernemental cooperation of foreign policy
  ministers
• Helsinki process Commission on Security and
  Cooperation in Europe
• - weak position in the aftermath of SUs
  occupation of Afghanistan

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• establishment of the European Council (non-treaty
  body) for continuous meeting under alternating
  presidency of MS (Summit, Paris 1974)
• members heads of states and governments foreign
  ministers, president of the European Commission,
  one further member of the Commission
• codified by the Maastricht Treaty (TEU, Art. 4)

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• decision for direct elections of the European
  Parliament (intended for 1976, first election in
  1979)
• better legitimacy for EP members
• several proposals for institutional and policy
  reform
• Altiero Spinelli Draft Treaty Establishing the
  European Union (passed the EP with vast majority
  in 1984)
• European Monetary System 1978
• Single European Act (1986/87)
• based on a White Paper by Jacques Delors
  (political Union by economic integration)
• Single Market as vehicle for further and faster
  integration
• compulsory consultation between Council and EP
• cooperation procedure for decisions related to
  market harmonization
• majority voting in the Council for most internal
  market policies
• Introduction of new policies environment,
  development, research, cohesion

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Enlargement Economy

• monetary crisis (1971, cancellation of US
  commitment to exchange USD into gold)
• oil price crises 1973 and 1979/80
• economic recession, increasing unemployment,
  inflation
• British budgetary question
• Europessimism
• Eurosclerosis

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• Southern Enlargement 1981 (Greece)
• Southern Enlargement 1986 (Spain, Portugal)
• all enlargements implemented without formally
  agreed political or economic criteria

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Charles de Gaulle

• sceptical about supranationalism, but good
  performer of economic integration
• reluctant to law from Brussels, but main advocate
  of CAP as Community policy
• kept Britain out, but initiated - together with
  Konrad Adenauer - Franco-German reapprochement
  and the axis Paris-Bonn (Elysée Treaty 1963)

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Valéry Giscard dEstaing Helmut Schmidt

• established a privileged partnership between F
  G by close and intense communication in order to
  avoid political frictions
• both preferred the intergouvernmental approach
  and mistrusted Commissions proposals
• their close friendship alienated other national
  leaders
• Giscard and especially Schmidt advocated the
  European Monetary System (and reanimated the
  Communitys development)

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Margaret Thatcher

• perceived EC as complementary but subordinated to
  NATO
• enforced in 1979 renegotiation of British
  budgetary contribution ( I want my money back)
• Thatchers tactics were to grind her enemies
  down by endlessly repeating her main arguments
  and keeping everyone up late after dinner.
  Infuriated, the Danish prime minister hurled
  insults bored, the German chancellor feigned
  sleep disdainful, the French president ignored
  her embarrassed, the Irish prime minister wished
  it werent happening. (Dinan, 82)
• the dispute was settled with a compromise in 1983
• obstructed further integrative steps for a couple
  of years
• forced the Community to rethink the distributive
  monster called CAP

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Francois Mitterrand Helmut Kohl

• deeper economic integration - Single Market
• closer political cooperation Union treaty

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The Single European Act 1987

• the first profound and wide-ranging
  constitutional reform of the EU since the 1950s.
  The SEA introduced measures aimed at achieving an
  internal market (for instance, harmonisation)
  plus institutional changes related to these (such
  as a generalisation of qualified majority voting
  and a cooperation procedure involving the
  European Parliament). It also provided legal form
  for European Political Cooperation (EPC). The SEA
  was signed in February 1986 and came into force
  on 1 July 1987

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SEA 1987

• In the institutional field, it ratifies the
  European Council, that is to say, the periodical
  meeting of Head of State and Government, as the
  organism where major political negotiations take
  place among the member States and  great
  strategic decisions are taken. The competences of
  the European Parliament were lightly reinforced.

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SEA 1987

• The main compromise agreed was to adopt measures
  guided to the progressive establishment of a
  common market over a period that would conclude
  on 31 December1992.This would mean an area
  without obstacles to free movement of goods,
  people, services and capitals. This ambitious
  goal, summed up in 282 detailed measures, was
  broadly reached in the foreseen term. The common
  market became a reality.

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SEA 1987

• Different procedures were passed to coordinate
  the monetary policy of the member States, paving
  the way toward the objective of economic and
  monetary union.
• The Single Act included diverse initiatives to
  promote integration in the spheres of social
  rights (health and the workers' security),
  research and technology, and  environment.

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SEA 1987

• To achieve the objective of a greater economic
  and social cohesion among the diverse countries
  and regions of the Community, reform  and 
  financial support to the denominated Structural
  Funds, European Agricultural Guidance and
  Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), European Regional
  Development Fund (ERDF), European Social Fund
  (ESF) was settled. 

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Establishing a Union

• SEA 1987 little concern about loss of power or
  sovereignty ratification was rather no problem
  exception Denmark Parliament No Referendum -
  Yes
• main goal completion of Single Market in 1992
• Delors Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)
• Commission sponsored report enormous costs of
  non-completion
• accompanying social measures were required
• need for economic, social and political coherence
• reducing the democracy deficit improving
  transparency and subsidiarity
• Intergouvernmental Conference (IGC)
• Political Union (EU)
• Monetary Union (EMU)

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Changing contexts

• second Gulf War 1990
• Yugoslavian wars from 1991 onwards
• EC economic global player without (global)
  political weight
• German Re-Unification
• how to integrate the under-developed parts of
  eastern Germany
• how to integrate a reunified Germany and
  counterbalance its possible political weight
• for Germany how to assure Germanys position as
  a reliable partner in European integration
• IGC started under presidency of Luxembourg
• presidency proposal introduced combination of
  supranational and intergouvernmental areas (three
  pillars)
• final negotiations on December 9, 1991
• treaty signed on February 7, 1992

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Positions

• France
• reluctant to include CAP-Reform talks into Union
  negotiations
• in favour of Delors plan for EMU (3 stages of
  monetary integration)
• UK
• endorsed the Single Market (intergouvernmental)
• rejected EMU (abrogation of sovereignty
  Thatcher) / political public perceived the
  necessity of joining EMS
• no further social measures
• Spain
• further economic and political integration only
  if flanked with further social and regional
  measures
• Germany
• not willing to sacrifice D-Mark independence of
  German Central Bank
• aiming for further policy coordination / further
  integration
• paid the bill for extension of cohesion policy

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Maastricht Treatie(s)

• Treaty of the European Community (TEC) / Treaty
  of the European Union (TEU)
• main actors in Treaty formulation have been
  Member States (Council) and the Commission the
  Parliament stood only apart
• introduction of co-decision procedure and
  extension of Qualified Majority Voting

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Economic and Monetary Union

• Stage 1 1.07.1990 31.12.1993 all MS join EMS
  liberalisation of exchange provisions
  abolishment of exchange controls
• Stage 2 1.91.1994 31.12.1998 establishment of
  European Monetary Institute (EMI from July 1998
  European Central Bank) introduction of Stability
  and Growth Pact (Amsterdam 1997)
• Stage 3 1.01.1999 single monetary policy (ECB),
  introduction of Euro as real (book) money
  introduction of notes and coins January 2002
• TEU 3rd stage EMU under opt-out provision,
  introducing a multi- or dualspeed Europe
• this and other amended opt-outs allowed British
  ratification (August 1993) and Danish
  ratification in a second referendum in May 1993
• Maastricht Treaty entered into effect in November
  1993

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Amsterdam Treaty 1997

• Amsterdam did not introduce a new budgetary
  system in order to prepare the EU for eastern
  enlargement
• Amsterdam did not change the provisions for the
  composition of the Commission
• Amsterdam did not reform the decision-making
  procedures and did not constitute QMV as general
  voting procedure in the Council

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The Nice Treaty (2003)

• Changes in the Commission from 2005
• every Member State provides one commissioner
• when the EU has 27 Member States, another
  solution must be found

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Changes in the Council

• Modification of weighting of votes
• Extension of qualified majoritiy voting

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Changes in the Parliament

• Succsessive increase up to 723 seats

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The Need for a Constitution

• loss off legitimacy
• inefficiency due to Eastern Enlargement
• intransparency of existing treaties

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The Ratification Crisis

• French referendum 54.7 against proposed
  Constitution
• Dutch referendum 62 against proposed
  Constitution
• Other Member States delayed referendums for an
  indefinite amount of time

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The Lisbon Treaty One Single Organization

• Three pillars and a roof become one single
  organization - the EU
• The three-pillars and a roof organization is
  replaced there isjust one organization with
  legal personality
• the EC is abolished
• - Throughout the Treaty of Rome (ToR) and the
  Maastricht Treaty the term Community is
  replaced by Union
• New official name of the ToR Treaty on the
  Functioning of the
• European Union
• - Before Treaty Establishing the European
  Community

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Lisbon Treaty

• What happens to the three pillars?
• - simple way to think about it third pillar
  (Justice and Home Affairs)
• is included into the first pillar (formerly the
  EC)
• ?? Most third pillar policies are placed under
  the first-pillar
• supranational institutions. (Is this more in the
  spirit of the
• federalist or the intergovernmentalist
  approach?)
• ?? not surprising opt-outs for Britain and Poland

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Lisbon Treaty

• So for Justice and Home Affairs,
• - new laws in third pillar areas will be done by
  majority voting (before only for first pillar
  policies)
• - the Commission will have the monopoly on the
  right of initiative
• - the EU will have jurisdiction and its rulings
  will be supreme to those of national courts
• - but Second pillar issues remains subject to
  intergoveramental procedures and practices

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• EUs founding Principles
• - no substantial change in values
• - the Charter of Fundamental Rights (agreed by
  Nice T.) becomes binding (UK and Poland opt-out)
• - entry criteria do not change but are mentioned
  for the 1st time in the Treaty
• - exit procedures for entry and exit are
  introduced

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Competences

• - key in each constitution rules how the
  constitution can be amended
• (e.g. 2/3 majority for the German basic law).
  Same for thevirtual constitution
• - current procedure maintained as possibility
  with slight changes
• - two major innovations in the Lisbon Treaty
• ?? passerelle clause
• ?? flexibility clause

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The passerelle clause

• - with the enlargement of the EU, unanimity in
  the CoM becomesmore and more difficult to achieve
• - in the future more majority voting will be
  necessary.
• How to switch to QMV on particular issues without
  having referenda?
• - the clause allows the European Council to
  switch from unanimity to majority voting for a
  particular policy ?? no referenda
• requires unanimity in the European Council,
  National and EU Parliaments can veto the switch

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The passerelle clause

• - example EU laws on corporate taxation
  unanimity necessary in the CoM
• - old rules new treaty necessary to switch to
  unanimity
• - Lisbon passerelle clause provides alternative
• - exception defense and any area with military
  implications

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The flexibility clause

• - clause grants EU the power to give itself the
  power necessary to attain treaty objectives, even
  if that power is not granted by the amended
  treaties
• - existed already in the ToR source of the
  creeping competency(disliked be the
  intergovenrmentalists)
• - Maastricht Treaty limits flexibility to first
  pillar issues
• - Lisbon Treaty flexibility applies to all areas
  except explicit
• exceptions many second pillar issues, defense
  policy and the Charta of fundamental rights

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Institutional Changes

• Commission, from 2014
• - number of commissioners 2/3 of members.
  Rotation of seats among countries (each member
  will be without a commissioner for 5 out of 15
  years)
• - But note European Council can change the
  number of Commissioners by unanimous vote. So one
  Commissioner per country might persist after 2014
• the powers of the President of the Commission are
  reinforced
• - Parliament s oversight on the Commission
  reinforced

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Council of Ministers

• - Lisbon QMV rules apply till 2014
• - after double majority yes-voters need to
  represent
• more than 55 of members
• at least 65 of the population
• blocking minority needs at least four members
• - 2014-2017 transition period any member can
  request that QMV is used probably no true
  change of the voting system till 2017

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The Lisbon Treaty Institutional Changes

• - CoM meetings continue to be chaired by nation
  with rotatingpresidency
• - exception foreign affairs council chaired by
  the (new!) HighRepresentative of the Union for
  Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

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High Representative

• The High Representative of the Union for FA and
  Security Policy
• - kind of a Minister for EU Foreign Affairs
• - combines duties of the Commissioner for
  External Affairs and the High Representative of
  the Union for Foreign Affairs more rights and
  responsibilities
• - note potential overlap with the other new
  post, the President of the European Council (who
  also represents the EU in external matters)

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The European Council

• - now a formal EU institution - subject to
  European Court jurisdiction
• - new post European Council President
• chair EU Council meetings
• ensure preparation and continuity of the EU
  Councils work
• report to the European Parliament after each
  Council meeting
• full time position (no national office)
• elected by EU council (QMV) for 30 Month (once
  renewable)

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The European Parliament

• - new joint decision-making powers with the EU
  Council on budget and 3rd pillar issues
• - number of seats capped at 750
• - increased role in treaty revisions and
  selection of senior EU leaders

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EU Court

• - extention of jursdiction to include 3rd pillar
  issues
• - makes easier to set up specialized courts

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Other changes

• - role of national parliaments
• - citizens right of initiative
• - legislative process
• - Charter of Fundamental Rights

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Future development

• Any country seeking membership of the European
  Union (EU) must conform to the conditions set out
  by Article 49 and the principles laid down in
  Article 6(1) of the Treaty on European Union.
  Relevant criteria were established by the
  Copenhagen European Council in 1993 and
  strengthened by the Madrid European Council in
  1995.
• To join the EU, a new Member State must meet
  three criteria
• political stability of institutions guaranteeing
  democracy, the rule of law, human rights and
  respect for and protection of minorities
• economic existence of a functioning market
  economy and the capacity to cope with competitive
  pressure and market forces within the Union

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Future development

• acceptance of the Community acquis ability to
  take on the obligations of membership, including
  adherence to the aims of political, economic and
  monetary union.
• For the European Council to decide to open
  negotiations, the political criterion must be
  satisfied.
• Any country that wishes to join the Union must
  meet the accession criteria. The pre-accession
  strategy and accession negotiations provide the
  necessary framework and instruments.

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Programm Costs in of BIP p.a.
US Marshall-Plan13,3 bill.(Milliarden) US, 1948-1951 2,00
German Unification500 bill. (Milliarden) , 1991-1998 (until2019) 5,00
EU enlargement69,5 bill.(Milliarden) , 1990-2006 (laufend) 0,05
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Literature

• Dinan, D. (20053) Ever Closer Union. An
  Introduction to European Integration.
  Basingstoke.
• Eschke, N. and Malick, T. (eds.) (2006) The
  European Constitution and its Ratification
  Crisis. Constitutional Debates in the EU Member
  States. Bonn
• McCormick, John2011 European Politics, New York
• http//ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/europe/2000/ni
  ce_su mmit/default.stm
• http//news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7053054.stm
• http//euobserver.com/9/25001?rss_rk1