This is a summary of the book that is compulsory for the course 'Politics of the European Union'. It contains a lot of the information you need. If you study this, you will pass. I studied this and got 39/40
• European integration
o process of establishing common inst and policies, which brings European member
states closer together
• You have geographic widening and process of deepening
o geographic widening: the addition of more member states
o deepening: more and more powers have been shifted from member states to EU level
• creation of EU and dual process of widening and deepening have produces many
beneficial pol development
o creation of integrated Single Market
▪ many benefits
• European integration has facilitated the peaceful reunification of the European continent
after the end of the Cold War (Europe split Western and Eastern bloc)
• EU has been affected by major pol crises
• EU other challenge: Brexit
The purpose of this book and the three themes
• Theme 1: EU was created out of the ashes of World War II w primary goal of never
having another war again
o Goal achieved through strategy of locking the member states into ever-closer economic
and pol interaction
• Theme 2: EU has more power than a typical IO but falls short of being a state →
represent unique cooperation among member states
• Theme 3: EU’s legitimacy is increasingly subject to controversial debates
o Concern both output and input
o Output: EU pol achievements
o Input: ability of citizens to exercise democratic control over EU decision making
Theme 1: Peace-building through economic cooperation in a mixed economy
• 1952: six states
o To prevent another war from happening
o Origings of European integrations as a peace project
,• Policies conducted in the EU framework were inspired by the idea that the European way
would be one that is a mixed system
• Mixed system
o = economy that is neither state-controlled nor left to an unconstrained market
• 1950s to 1980s: gradual growth of EU from 6 to 12 member states
o Denmark, Ireland, UK: 1973
o Greece: 1981
o Spain and Portugal: 1986
• Schengen Area for borderless travel btwn EU member states (1.2)
• Many countries negotiated opt-outs = some states obtained the right not to participate
in certain policy areas
• Expansion 1990s: triggered by fall berlin wall 1989
o Countries that joined 1995, 2004, 2007, 2013: check De Munter, Van Den Bossche,
p.301
Theme 2: More than an international organization, less than a state
• Since December 2009, EU has legal personality under international law
o Legal foundations: founding treaties
• Intern treaties have set up pol system that differs from conventional IO in variety of ways
o 1st major difference: extensive scope of EU powers
o 2nd: legal quality of this law
▪ Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) has ruled that EU law has direct effect (= may directly
create rights and obligations for the citizens
▪ EU law enjoys supremacy over nat law
o 3rd: decision-making bodies and processes in the EU
▪ EU combines inst that speak for member states and their G (called intergovernmental)
w inst that represent the EU as a whole (supranational)
▪ Most salient intergovernmental inst are European council and Council of the EU
▪ Main supranational institutions are European Commission, European Parliament,
Court of Justice, and European Central Bank
▪ EU construction is built on the postwar assumption that by integrating gradually in
technocratic and economic areas, the rest of integration will automatically follow
• European council
o heads of states/G of member states decide on LT priorities of EU or agree to new
treaties
• Council of the EU
o ministers of member states meet to pass legislation
,• European Commission
o EU’s executive body that represents the interests of EU as a whole
• European Parliament
o directly elected by EU citizens and takes part in discussing and adopting EU legislation
• Court of Justice
o Interprets EU law and settles legal disputes
• European Central Bank
o aims at maintaining price stability of Europe’s single currency, the Euro
• like federal state, it has tripartite division of powers
o executive: commission
o legislature: Council of the EU (representing member states), European parliament
(representing citizens)
o judiciary: CJEU
• EU also represented internationally
o EEAS: European External Action Service
• Aspects in which EU is not a state
o EU lacks critical powers of statehood
o EU lacks sovereignty, unable to define own powers
o Legitimacy more precarious than in federal states
Theme 3: From economic to democratic legitimation
• Output legitimacy: Legitimacy that derives from polity’s performance in safeguarding
and improving citizens well being
• EU is beneficial, BUT economic gains are not equally distributed
• input legitimacy: deriving from the participation of the citizens
• politicization of the EU
o emergence of more active questions about what EU is doing, questions about its
direction, active nat party pol discussion about EU politics, or vocal opposition to EU
• EU construction is built on the postwar assumption that by integrating gradually in
technocratic and economic areas, the rest of integration will automatically follow
Structure of the book
PART 1: INTEGRATION AND GOVERNANCE
, CHAPTER 2: Short history of the EU: from Rome to Lisbon
European integration: a historical overview
The first moves: The European Coal and steel community (1951), the European Economic
Community (1957), and the European Atomic Energy Community (1957)
• 1920s Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi established Pan European movement aiming
to unify European states
• 1st prominent move after the war: congress in The Hague in May 1948
o chaired by Winston Churchill
o achieved little to advance the federalist cause
o main outcome: May 1949 of consultative assembly → Council of Europe
▪ IO that continues to exist but is institutionally unrelated to the current EU
• Schuman Plan, made publicly May 1950s
o basis of negotiations on a future treaty btwn the representatives of 6 western
European states
• ECSC: Paris 1951
• Jean Monnet proposed establishment of European Defence Community (EDC)
o Aimed at containing any possible future rearmament of West Germany and preventing
it from becoming a NATO member
o It failed: produced a deadlock
• 1957: Treaty of Rome, entered into force 1958
o EEC
o EURATOM
o Common Market
o CAP
o CCP
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