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Summary Political Structures and Processes of the European Union
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- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
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Political Structures and Processes of theEuropean Union
Prof. Alexander Mattelaer
1. Introduction – 4/10
S1: 1989-90s: tumultuous years, the world afterwards, looked pretty different. That’s the period we’re
now living through as well.
S2: came into being right after fall of Berlin wall.
50% 10 MPC Q
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S10: today: world consists mostly of sovereign state.
The notion of the state is a historically European creation. → Peace of Westphalia 1648 treaties:
helped to stop the war, and from then on, EU powers started to consolidate statehood. The first
treaties were set up for what it actually means to be a state.
Sovereign state: right to non-interference (should all mind your own business) = before that:
intertwining of political & religious life.
Collect taxes → used for a the state’s ability to act: ministry of the interior + security force + ministry
of justice + diplomats in foreign affairs + ministry of defense. = that’s what almost all states have in
common.
What goes on within the state, then varies extremely from each other.
= this moment a bit as the start of international relations.
S11: before, there used to be more or less one level: intra-countries: If France was against the UK,
then Belgium probably was too, because it was a French ally, etc.
Today: much more complex:
Global = international organizations. E.g. UN: 200 members: 5 feel most powerful. China & Russia
against UK, US, French.
EU = special, hybrid creature in PS: it is in between national and global; it makes laws that the national
level applies. EU much stronger than e.g. UN → it has direct legal impacts on the citizens. It has citizens
= communal passports, etc. = conceptual confusion: it is state-like, but also not really.
S12: Germany consolidated as a nation as a result of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. So these wars
(French vs Germans mostly) that became most destructively increasingly over time, caused almost the
entire continent to collapse, e.g. WWI. SO up to the 20 thC, EU is violent. But, suddenly, something
starts happening:
→ France & Germany as largest countries enter into a process of conciliation mid-20C. = the process
we now refer to as the most important for European integration. = this picture shows that: top 2
political leaders who spent their youth fighting each other, and here come together.
This process began very cautiously, now, it is almost impossible to imagine that 2 powers withing EU
would wage war within one another.
= historical argument why it is important to study EU integration.
,S13: from a governance, policy POV: we have all grown up in crises. Especially economic, but also
migration, etc. overall takeaway from that: EU level of governance plays an important role in that; not
necessarily solves it, but at least makes states agree on things in order to take decision together.
I.e. policy response to crisis is almost always through the EU level.
S14: if you look at today’s war, Kremlin claims it is all NATO’s fault; many intellectuals in the west
would actually agree to that. NATO is increasingly coming closer to Russia since the post-Cold War
period; it has attracted more allies (member states), what is shown on the map. → Finland and
Sweden is since recently also joining.
This is not exactly the same as EU, but in the big picture: both EU + NATO have enlarged enormously.
From western view, this is framed as a success story (e.g. fall of Berlin wall and the reunification of
Germany, etc. West and East EU united, unifying economy, etc.).
CEE, central and Eastern EU: most states were keen to plug into EU institutions to strengthen their
own security = they had bad memories of SU-period.
➔ SO: NATO & EU are two sides of the same coin, NATO provides the security umbrella under which
the process of EU economic integration has been able to flourish.
→ for Kremlin POV: former SU territories running away to free market economies → so they say that
the west is imposing a lot of rules, not listening to them. → that is why they fight this ‘holy’ war.
In hindsight, agreeable that policymaking indeed has not made the best decisions in NATO, etc.
In short, the process of EU integration exercised such a gravitational pool to Ukraine particularly,
explains a lot to where we are today.
S15: final argument to study EU integration:
If there’s crisis, there’s political contestation, in crisis, radical policy options are often put to the table.
→ often have ideological connotations; values: freedom, democracy, etc. E.g. Ukraine vs. Russia:
Democracy, economic opportunities, freedom, which values do you put atop? → that gives different
results. = contestation cannot avoid becoming political. ➔
S16: the essence of EU integration: agreeing to sort out discussions around a negotiating tables. It can
be endless, tedious, bureaucratic, technocratic, etc. YET it is nonetheless essential in understanding
politics.
2. Short History European integration
S2: up until mid 20C: EU war. Suddenly, France & Germany start to cooperate, to pacify. = that switch
to another state of affairs is part of a puzzle.
2 stories to be told:
1) historical threat to security cooperation
2) parallel historical threat to economic integration
= can’t be seen independently from each other. All about politics.
Starting point: late 1940s = right after WWII.
Context: severely impacted by wars. Every individual state has its own history how it experienced the
wars, but overall: 1945: all over the place: destruction all-over. → prompted political soul-searching.
S3: the map of EU enlargement. Becomes increasingly larger. 27-28-27 → now decreased.
All about spreading a shared economic & political model = single market.
Yet, we often forget that this process was faced with gridlock; e.g. 1960s something similar like Brexit
but with France = the empty chair crisis.
, I.e. EU has never been a single trendline, it has been a long, hard history. Brexit in that sense, is not
that special as much as we are led to believe.
= why it is interesting to look at wider historical EU process.
S4: influential roles in the creation of EU, the proverbial founding fathers:
- Adenauer: first post-war German chancellor
- Marshall: US army general and became secretary of state after WWII.
- Monnet: civil servant, but almost more influential than all the others = intellectual father of
the EU.
- Schuman: read his declaration. French foreign minister.
- Spaak: Belgian, PM, held first pens of first EU treaties.
→ the point: all are old men: when they were young, went through many wars. Scarred generation
of political leaders, literally and mentally.
WWI: Monnet was general and convinced British to have all soldiers align on the frontline together =
this was just about coordination, but could have influenced WWI but also how the French, British
thought about the war: about integrating, working together. In many ways, idea of integrating efforts,
goes back to winning WWI.
→ Monnet as civil servant is so congratulated, that he’s sent to League of Nations (former UN) in the
US: he learns there: politically it’s most important to integrate resources, but at the same time you
don’t want to take power away from nation states; like League of Nations used to do at that time:
needed full consensus to make decisions.
→ Monnet saw it collapse and learnt that: international organization that functions purely on basis of
consensus is likely to fail → need supra-nationality; something that functions above the nation state.
What these men shared was a collective memory of the war that they sought to overcome in their
later lives. That is how we come to 2 story lines:
S5: strange paradox: the economic integration storyline beginning with the US providing ideas with
the Marshall speech. process of security cooperation starts oppositely: terrified after WWII, really
beginning among the Europeans, trying to convince US to plug in and stay involved in US.
So even if we think that US & EU politics is different, actually US inspired EU fundamentals very closely.
It started with a US Marshall speech: reading of this class, and it became process in with Europeans
took ownership.
other way around for 2nd storyline: post-WWII: Nazi Germany; is EU again safe? → French & British
not sure: agree through Dunkirk treaty: to (re-)commit to each other’s defense. Year later: Brussels
treaty: Benelux countries joined that security pact; that would ultimately grow into the Western EU
(pre-EU).
After WWI, all US troops retreated from EU continent and everything went wrong again → so EU now
wanted to secure their staying, which happened through the Washington treaty: creation of NATO
and the article 5 commitment. Further evolutions are described in strategic concepts: deterrence
(theory of massive retaliation). Famous Belgian wrote the Harmel Report.
After Cuban missile crisis, NATO changes concept again: flexible response. After CW, again few
strategic concepts, until today, 2022.
S6: after WWII: it wasn’t a time of peace & positive relations. Dive into the Cold War; need to see 2
storylines in that light:
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