INTRODUCTION TO EUROPEAN GOVERNANCE
Lelieveldt, H., & Princen, S. (2015). The Politics of the European Union (2e editie). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Part I – Setting the Scene: origins, analytical perspectives and institutions
Chapter 1 – The historical development of the EU
European history has been marked by an almost infinite sequence of conflicts. The aftermath of the
Second World War provided unusually fertile ground for new ideas for international cooperation.
Europe was divided into two spheres of influence. An Eastern zone was dominated by the communist
Soviet Union, with countries such as Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria and the eastern part of
Germany. The western part of Europe consisted of liberal democracies that were strongly supported
and protected by the USA. Fears that the Soviet Union might try to expand its sphere of influence west-
ward necessitated swift rebuilding of Europe. Three types of organization emerged: 1) Military cooper-
ation: The Western European Union (WEU) was founded through the Brussels treaty in 1948 by the UK,
Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. It was set up to provide for common defense in
case of an attack on any of its members and prepared the ground for the foundation of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which originated in 1949 with twelve Western countries including
the USA, Canada, the UK, France and Italy. The activities of the WEU have now been incorporated in
the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy and the Treaty was terminated in 2011. 2) Political
cooperation: the Council of Europe was founded in 1949 to achieve greater unity between its members
by maintaining and developing the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms. It’s home to
the European Court of Human Rights. 3) Economic cooperation: the Organization for European Econo-
mic Cooperation (OEEC) was set up in 1949 in order to administer the Marshall Plan, a US-funded pack-
age for economic recovery of Europe. In 1960 it was succeeded by the Organization for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD), which focuses on analyzing and forecasting the economic policies
of its thirty-four members. Other forms were the Benelux and the European Coal and Steel Community
(ECSC). In April 1949 the western part of Germany regained independence » Federal Republic of Ger-
many (FRG). French fears were dealt with by putting Germany’s coal industry under the supervision of
the International Authority for the Ruhr (IAR). This wasn’t a huge success. Jean Monnet, Commissioner-
General of the French National Planning Board, came up with an idea to pool the coal and steel produc-
tion to create a common market. On 9 May 1950 Monnet’s scheme was presented by the French Minis-
ter of Foreign Affairs, Robert Schuman. This plan was innovative, because it proposed a supranational
organization (an organization in which countries pool their sovereignty on certain matters to allow
joint decision-making), as opposed to an intergovernmental organization (an organization in which
member states work together on policies of common concern but retain their full sovereignty. Another
important feature of the plan was its limited scope. This was deliberate, because the time was not ripe
yet for a full federal state. Six countries joined the negotiations: France, Germany, the Netherlands,
Luxembourg, Belgium and Italy. Negotiations took almost a year. On 18 April 1951 the countries signed
the Treaty of Paris which formally established the ECSC. The Community’s four main institutions were:
1) Council of Ministers: representing the member state governments, to co-decide on policies not
provided for in the Treaty. 2) High Authority: consisting of independent appointees, acting as a daily
executive making decisions on the basis of the Treaty provisions. 3) Court of Justice: consisting of
independent judges, to interpret the Treaty and adjudicate conflicts between member states and the
High Authority. 4) Common Assembly: drawn from members of national parliaments, to monitor the
activities of the High Authority. A treaty then has to be ratified (ratification: procedure through which
a member state formally commits itself to a treaty, in most countries via a majority vote by its parlia-
ment). The German border had to be protected but France was against a German national army. In
April 1952 the member states agreed on a European Defense Community (EDC). Soon thereafter the
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,European Political Community (EPC) was installed to provide an appropriate institutional framework
that would give political guidance to the activities of the EDC. In the Treaties of Rome the member
states agreed on two new communities: the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) would
strive for the development of nuclear energy, whilst the European Economic Community (EEC) would
focus on establishing the free movement of goods, services, workers and capital between the member
states. The EEC was very successful. The elimination of custom duties (or tariffs, are charges levied on
imports or exports, resulting in higher prices for consumers buying those products) was an important
development. In 1963 the member states signed the Yaoundé agreement, a preferential trade agree-
ment with the EEC’s former colonies. In a preferential trade agreement countries agree on lowering
the tariffs they charge for importing goods. In 1965 the Commission represented the six member states
in negotiations for the Kennedy round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Finally,
in 1962 the Council agreed on the organizational features of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). As
a result of two major rulings in the 1960s, individuals could invoke European legislation directly (direct
effect: a major legal principle in EU law holding that individuals can directly invoke EU legislation in
cases before national courts) and European legislation assumed precedence over national legislation
(supremacy: a major legal principle in EU law holding that if national legislation is in conflict with EU
law, EU law overrides national legislation). Several member states initially objected to this, citing the
rulings as a deliberated strategy of the Court to increase its own powers through judicial activism (type
of judicial behavior where judges take a broad and active view of their role as interpreters of law). The
success of the EEC didn’t go unnoticed. Other countries soon made applications for membership. The
empty chair crisis: French President De Gaulle’s vetoes (on the UK’s application, the CAP-financing, the
qualified majority voting (decision-making rule in the Council which requires a majority that’s substan-
tially larger than a simple majority (of 50% + 1), but doesn’t require unanimity), etc.) resulted in France
no longer showing up. This resulted in the Luxembourg Compromise: agreement allowing a member
state to block a decision in the Council if it declares the matter to be of ‘vital national interest’. The
early 1970s were difficult, because of the economic crisis. Some small developments would provide a
foundation for more integrative steps. In 1970 the Treaty of Luxembourg was signed, which granted
the Community its own resources and gave the EP the right to approve part of the budget. From 1979
the members of EP were directly elected. In 1973 the UK, Ireland and Denmark joined. Norway stayed
out after its citizens rejected membership in a referendum. The European Council was founded in 1974.
It provided political guidance to the Community by identifying new areas of cooperation and surveying
the possibilities for developing policies in these domains. It also discussed and tackled the major
problems the Community faced. In the second half of the 1970s Greece, Spain and Portugal applied for
membership. The end of their autocratic regimes provided an opportunity to consolidate democracy
and boost economic development by joining the Community. A major impediment to the further
development of the Community had been the continued existence of non-tariff barriers (all kinds of
conditions, restrictions or regulations that don’t consist of tariffs, but still make the import or export
of products difficult or impossible) to trade. The SEA (Single European Act, signed in 1986) included
measures to advance the single market project and further broadened the EU’s sphere of activity by
including environmental policies, social policy and measures to increase economic and social cohesion
between member states. The Act also formalized some forms of cooperation which had already been
developed outside of the treaties: Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and Foreign Security Policy.
The Treaty of Maastricht broadened the areas that would be part of the Community policies, including
a timetable to introduce a single currency, the Euro. All member states committed themselves to
joining the Eurozone once their economies would meet all requirements. The UK and Denmark
negotiated opt-outs (specific exceptions that are granted to a member state when it’s unwilling or
unable to fully accept all provisions of a treaty or a law) and hence were enabled to keep their own
currency. The Treaty of Maastricht further increased the EPs legislative powers through the introduc-
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, tion of co-decision » ordinary legislative procedure: decision-making procedure that’s most commonly
used in the EU for adopting legislation, giving equal powers to the EP and the Council. The 1990s
witnessed important developments in terms of enlargement. Given the radically different background
of the applying countries, the Council formulated some additional rules: the Copenhagen criteria:
fundamental conditions regarding institutions, human rights and economic readiness aspiring member
states have to meet before being able to join the EU: a) stable political institutions that foster
democracy and respect human rights, b) a well-functioning market economy, c) the institutional
capacity to work towards political, economic and monetary union. Once these conditions have been
satisfied the EC starts a process called screening in which it outlines the acquis communautaire, or
acquis, the body of legislation and policies that every aspiring member has to incorporate as a
condition for membership. The acquis is divided into 35 chapters that each deal with a separate policy
area. Member states negotiate with the candidate country on a chapter by chapter basis. The first
decade of 2010 was characterized by a lengthy period of revision of the treaties. The Treaty of
Amsterdam left many issues unresolved and necessitated a new round of modifications that resulted
in the Treaty of Nice in 2001. It reassigned the voting weights of member states in the Council and the
number of seats for the member states in the EP, but only after long battles between member states.
As a result of these struggles there was a widespread feeling that the EU needed a major institutional
overhaul to become more democratic, transparent and effective. Instead of calling for a new
Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), in which member states would debate these issues, they agreed
on establishing a convention, with a much broader membership than an ordinary IGC, that would
recommend input to the IGC. The convention consisted of 207 delegates from national parliaments,
the EP, the EC and national governments. ‘The Draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe’
would do away with the patchwork of treaties that made the institutional set-up so complex. Although
very lengthy, it greatly simplified the legal structure of the EU. The delegates characterized the Treaty
as a constitutional document, which triggered a lot of opposition. The IGC adopted nearly 90% and
succeeded in agreeing on a final text a year later. The Constitutional Treaty streamlined decision-
making by bringing almost all decisions under the ordinary legislative procedure. It also introduced a
semi-permanent President for the European Council and a High Representative for CFSP who would
represent the EU in foreign policy matters. Referendums were held. Spain approved, French and Dutch
citizens rejected. After some reflection the European Council decided to redraft the treaty into an
ordinary amending treaty. In December 2006 the Treaty of Lisbon was signed. All member states
decided to ratify this treaty by parliamentary approval and not call referendums, except for Ireland, as
they were constitutionally obliged to do so. The Irish voted no. The European Council made additional
guarantees to the Irish. The most important concession was to refrain from reducing the size of the
EC, in order to enable every member state to appoint its own commissioner. The guarantees and the
economic crisis successfully turned around public opinion. After all member states ratified the text,
the Treaty came into effect on 1 December 2009. Following the bursting of the housing bubble in the
United States in 2008, a global financial crisis evolved. The European crisis essentially consisted of two
interrelated problems. First, a banking crises affected many systemic banks in the Eurozone,
necessitating large support packages from national governments or even nationalization of these
banks. Second, in what was known as a sovereign debt crisis the public budgets of many Eurozone
governments faced increasing debts and deficits – partly because of rescuing banks. This made it more
and more likely that countries wouldn’t be able to meet their debt obligations. While a superficial look
at the history may suggest a steady process of integration, every step involved difficult negotiations.
Member states have diverging opinions on the pace and scope of integration. Eurosceptic: term used
for people, member states or political parties that have been highly critical of European integration.
Decision-making has also been difficult because it required the cooperation and approval of many
different actors, with their own preferences and ideas. While major steps have been made via the
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