This guide travels through all the lecture material, week by week, in a clear and structured way. This lecture guide is an amendment to the one already posted - as the 1st Year BA Programme changed in 2023-24.
Allowing you to understand all the basic knowledge of the European Integration and De...
All the events in detail that one must know for the exam
Timeline of all the events one must know for the exam
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Europese Studies
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Lectures
Lecture 1: The Creation of the ECSC
Roles of the EU Commission:
1. Propose legislation agenda setting
2. Manage and implement EU policies and budget
3. Enforces EU law
4. Represents the EU on the international stage
The Council of Europe is not an EU institution
European Parliament = Strasbourg EP elections every 5 years, turn out from each election actually
dropped
Coudenhove-Kalergi’s Pan Europa 1923 in response to the communist takeover
Internal tariff barriers were raised after the economic crisis state protectionism
Walther Funk’s plans for European economic cooperation were dismissed by Hitler
The process of dividing European regions under one European banner would politically integrate
post-war Germany with its strong economy, without allowing for Germany to be an independent
economic state
Bretton Woods / ERP / Marshall Aid Were the Americans the driving force behind European
integration efforts?
Europeanisation of the economy could be a solution to the post-war problems of Western European
nation states it could prevent an economic depression
European integration was a conservative project, a reformation of Europe to preserve European
ideals
Functionalism (Monnet Method) = search for unity in an undisputed field, that could spill-over to
further political integration
Council of Europe 1948 = failed attempt at a federal Europe
Schuman Declaration 1950 = Advocated for a Supranational cooperation in a ‘sectoral community’
Conclusions:
- Early EU integration plan focused on creating political stability by increasing national
prosperity
- Monnet Method was an answer to the failure of the federalist narrative of the Council of
Europe
Lecture 2: Empty Chair Crisis
The progressive nature of European integration went hand-in-hand with imperial conservatism
Africa was seen as a relatively easy are to integrate into European integration processes
Decolonization after 1945 coincided with the beginning of the Cold War European integration as a
process of ‘reform in order to preserve [the greatness of ex-colonial states]
,The decline of the global position of countries like Britain and France manifested itself most clearly in
the Suez Crisis (1956) the aims of both ex-colonial states was to regain Western control of the
Suez Canal that was vital for trade some European politicians concluded that Western economic
integration was needed to regain strength and re-coordinate efforts once they lost domination of
the Suez Canal
EDC / EPC (European Defence/Political Community) strongly supported by the US would
politically integrate based on the defence sector, but eventually wasn’t realised because of the
supranational character of its budget committee
Treaty of Rome:
- Lay the foundations for an ever closer Europe
- Roadmap for the establishment of the customs union / free trade zone
- Common external tariff
- Article 8 stipulated that ‘the Council shall make such a statement acting by means of a
qualified majority vote’
De Gaulle was a staunch supporter for intergovernmentalism 1965 Speech
The ECs after the Luxembourg Compromise was a blend between the supranationalism of Monnet
and the intergovernmentalism of De Gaulle
Pompidou 1969 new spirit in the European integration process
The EEC of 1958 was a far broader community than ECSC but both communities were economic
drivers of integration
The democratic criteria for EU accession was first mentioned for the first time in the ‘Birkelbach
Report’ in 1961 drawn up in the context of application of Francoist Spain
Conclusions:
- The idea of Europe was not new it consisted of old traditions (especially linked to
colonialisation)
Lecture 3: EU Council
History is about singular processes versus political science concerns the repetition of pattern
Theories of European integration:
1. Haas and Neofunctionalism National states are not capable of stopping European
integration processes once they have began / collaboration in one sector inevitably spills
into another sector
2. Moravcsik and Liberal Intergovernmentalism pragmatic calculations of national politicians
grounded in their national interests
British Attitude to the EU:
- European integration coincided with British loss of empire
- UK was reluctant to join as it accession endangered its special relationships with the
Commonwealth and the US
, British Referendum 1975 = 64% voted to remain within the EEC the Labour Party was against the
EEC whilst the Conservatives were majorly in favour
In the early 1960s significant parts of the tabloid press saw the EEC as a powerful alternative to the
age of empire this changed from the mid-1980s onwards (due to issues of national sovereignty
and the oil crises)
National politicians leaders turned against the EEC so as to uphold national values Brussels was
used as a scapegoat for unpopular measures
As a consequence of the Europeanisation of Britain, the imperial system was replaced by the metric
system
Thatcher used a press conference in Dublin to underline her position = ‘We are simply asking to have
our money back’ resulted in the British rebate of 1984, the budget for the CAP was reduced
Thatcher’s antipathy towards the EC’s was a result of her politicisation of the character of European
institutions
Euroscepticism:
1. Integration processes of the EC’s expected to weaken the national state
2. Socialist overregulation
3. Neo-liberal socio-economics
In the 1970s, Europe was marked by economic malaise = collapse of Bretton Woods / Oil crisis
this led to an increase in national protectionism (in regard to national industries) and a re-
nationalisation of domestic economy
European Council 1975 = informal intergovernmental body, soon took the lead in the EC’s until its
formal status in 1992, it affected domestic politics within nation states (strengthened the position of
the prime ministers)
1979 Elections for European Parliament = satisfied supranational demands, ‘Crocodile Club’ 1980
designed a new federalist treaty (new European spirit?)
Conclusions:
- EC’s was a result of a watered-down compromise
- EUSSR versus Neoliberal EEC
- EU reflected the spirit of the 1950s = welfare state
- EC’s in this period concerned rule and regulations of ‘low politics)
- National political leaders abuses Brussels as a scapegoat for domestic political inefficiency
Lecture 4: Single European Act & EU
European Council slowly became the leading body from its creation in the 1980s
intergovernmental base
Schengen Treaty 1985 = Completion of a core aim of the Treaty of Rome
Until the beginning of the 1980s, since the end of the war, European states can be seen as a
paternalistic state with a big focus on social welfare from the beginning of the 1980s there is a
marked shift towards a neoliberal state (and a full ideological investment in the ‘market’ as a
mechanism for individualisation)
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