Politiek van de EU
- Literatuur HC1 (H2 + H3)
Hoofdstuk 2 – The post-war transformation of Western Europe
Divisions in Europe: language, religion, cultural traditions, historical experiences → led to
political divisions (see 2.1 (24)) and economic divisions. There were sharp and fluid inter-
state relations in Europe during the interbellum. Little came from proposals for greater
cooperation. The League of Nations was the embodiment of lack of interest in European
cooperation.
Post-WW2 → relations between states transformed: three new principal aspects:
1) Unbroken peace: hostile relations → friendly relations. Possibly common destiny.
2) Transformed agenda: high policy / politics ↓ → low policy / politics ↑.
3) New channels and processes: traditional diplomatic means of interstate-
communications (ministries of foreign affairs / embassies) ↓.
Four explanations for Western European cooperation and integration:
1) Deep roots of European integration:
o Idealism (not realistic) or economic history: inter-state cooperation to
promote trade and growth in the 19th century led to integration, but
increasingly closed economics in the end of the 19th century led to sharper
political tensions. Economic history does not have an inevitable integrationist
logic.
2) Impact of WW2: post-WW2 radical change in opinion and perception of integration.
o Political factors:
▪ Combatting nationalism → Council of Europe.
▪ New political map of Europe → ‘Iron curtain’. There was anti-
communist concern in West-European (W-EUR) liberal democracies.
The USA helped integration through Truman Doctrine, Marshall Aid
and NATO.
▪ New International power balance → W-EUR wanted a voice.
▪ German problem → Germany (GE) was seen as innately aggressive,
which led to a divison (W-GE and E-GE). A pacifying approach was tried
through incorporation and integration.
o Economic factors: founding of IMF, World Bank and GATT inspired the
political, security and economic interest in a strong united Western Europe →
organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and European Coal
and Steal community (ECSC, sometimes supranational).
3) Increasing importance of interdependence: economic interdependence as a
consequence of:
o Increased volume of world trade
o Internationalisation of production
o Fluctuations and uncertainties associated with currency exchange rates and
international monetary arrangements.
, - European states must consult, cooperate and integrate with one another in the
interests of international and national economic stability → Single European Market
(SEM) programme and Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
4) Differing positions of Western European states: considerable variations in ambitions,
motives, intentions and perceptions between EUR states. Each came cautiously to
the view that the benefits of integration (instead of cooperation) outweigh a loss of
sovereignty.
There can hardly be said to have been a common and coherent integrationist force at work
in Western Europe in the post-war years.
Hoofdstuk 3 – The creation of the European Community
Monett and Schuman: ‘when anyone can be exempted from a decision in an IGO, there is no
necessary impetus for European communities.’ Schuman Declaration: ‘ECSC is the first step
in the realisation of a vision of a united Europe.’ ESCS was established through the Treaty of
Paris in ’51 (in effect in ’52). It broke new ground in two principal ways:
1) Laying foundations for a common market for basic materials in an industrialised
society.
2) First European inter-state organisation with significant supranational characteristics
through some main institutions (see box 3.1 (42)).
Perceived success ECSC → impetus for further integration. One of which was the European
Defence Community (EDC), focussed on German rearmament (much unease in EUR). After
the rejection of this proposal → Western European Union (WEU): loosely structured,
essentially consultive, primary defence-orientated organisation that permitted W-GE
rearmament and NATO-membership.
On the basis of Schuman: ‘political union can best be achieved through economic
integration' → Treaties of Rome (’57): European Economic Community (EEC) and European
Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).
1) EEC: policy guidelines under two broad headings. Policy was the EEC’s main concern
and there was a clear ideology: free-market, liberal, non-interventionist capitalism.
o Guidelines concerned with the establishment of a common market: free
trade, customs union, free movement.
o Guidelines concerned with making the Community more than just a common
market: vague and implicitly long term.
2) Euratom: policy confined to the atomic energy field. Differences between states led
to exceptions and loopholes.
EEC and Euratom tilted away from supranationalism to intergovernmentalism, yet it formed
a launching pad for supranationalism. There were four principal institutions (see box 3.4
(46)).
- Hoorcollege 1 (Introduction to the course)
Knowledge on how the EU works, is expert knowledge and is thus very valuable. But, what is
the EU? Terms that are associated with the EU are bureaucracy, cooperation, peace, (loss of)
,sovereignty, free movement. Your assumptions will probably be strengthened or
contradicted at the end of this course. Two subquestions:
- Is the EU a state? Why?
- Is the EU an IO? Why?
There is a debate about these questions. The EU doesn’t fit any of these two categories. For
example, the EU doesn’t have a monopoly on violence like sovereign states have. It could
thus be argued the EU is less than a state. But it’s also more than an IO, because of the
democratically elected EP and a degree of transferred sovereignty. Around 80% of Dutch
laws have an EU origin.
So is the EU then an ‘unidentified political object’? → ‘ … in 30 or 40 years Europe will
constitute a UPO – a sort of unidentified political object – unless we weld it into an entity
enabling each of our countries to benefit from the European dimension and to prosper
internally as well (…) externally.’ (Delors, ’85).
Many people have strong opinions about the EU, but few people have detailed knowledge
about the EU. Make sure your opinion is based on facts. VB: ‘the EU was bad for the
organisation of vaccinations.’ This could actually be explained as a lacking capacity of the EU
because the member states didn’t want to transfer full decision-making authority.
There are three levels of politics:
1) Domestic: politics within the member states.
2) EU: mainly the politics in Brussels.
3) International: VBen: EU in the UN, EU-Japan strategic partnerships.
These boundaries are blurred. The EU in our lives: does it actually matter? VBen: financial aid
to Ukraine, air quality, collective internet service, Erasmus student exchange funds, privacy,
rules for international trades.
- Literatuur HC2 (H4 + H5)
Hoofdstuk 4 – The deepening of the integration process
Two types of integration:
1) Deepening: vertical integration → more intense nature of integration. The main
features of the deepening process are the development of:
o Treaties
o Policy processes
o Policies.
2) Widening: horizontal integration → growing geographical spread. See chapter 5.
Treaty development: the founding treaties have been amended and supplemented by
subsequent treaties, see table 4.1 (48).
- 1986 Single European Act (SEA): mixed bag, altering aspects of decision making. The
Council of Ministers (CoM) got more capacity for taking decisions through qualified
majority vote (QMV) and the European Parliament (EP) was formed.
- 1992 Maastricht Treaty: new organisations → European Communities, Common
Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and Cooperation in the Fields of Justice and Home
Affairs (JHA). Also, a procedure was founded for the EMU.
, - 1997 Amsterdam + 2001 Nice: institutional deepening, positions of EU institutions,
votings strengths, voting procedures → enabled the EU to absorb applicant states.
- 2007 Lisbon Treaty: advances in policy and institutional integration. Much longer
period of preparation, negotiation and ratification (due to referendums NL, FR,
Ireland).
Development of policy processes: the usual pattern → commission proposes, EP advises,
CoM decide (usually unanimously), Court of Justice (CoJ) interprets. Five additions and
amendments:
- Blurring of responsibilities led to a more general sharing of powers. Instead of a
linear decision-making process, there is a CoM-Commission-EP triangle.
- Participants not associated with the institution became more involved in decision-
making → Heads of goverments assumed key agenda-setting and decision-taking
respobilities.
- Policy processes have become more varied and complex as they come to function in
many different ways at many different levels.
- Policy processes have become more democratic and efficient thanks to QMV and a
more influential EP.
- Policy processes have become more supranational in character.
Development of policies: the EU policy portfolio has expanded steadily over the years.
- Internal market: free movement of goods, services, capital, and people. Common
front in trading relations. Policies with direct implications for the operation of the
market includes product standards, liberalisation, criteria for trade and regulation
about subsidizing domestic industries.
- EMU: harmonised macroeconomic and financial policies, a single currency, and the
Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) → stability would not be threatened by national
imbalances or ‘irresponsible’ national policies. After assuming EU-membership, there
are still convergence criteria for the EMU.
- Other policies: there is a proportionally low amount of EU spending, because EU
policy is regulatory in character and has limited involvement in policy areas that
account for he bulk of public expenditure. The main exception is the Common
Agriculture Policy (CAP). Nowadays there is also policy for development, growth,
research, energy, employment promotion, foreign and security, defence, and JHA.
Hoofdstuk 5 – The widening of the integration process
Widening of the integration process means enlargement of the EC / EU. There have been
four enlargement rounds, see table 5.1 (57).
1) UK, Denmark, Ireland (‘73): UK wasn’t initially interest in membership, because the
relation with W-EUR was seen as less important than the relationship with the
commonwealth and the USA. Furthermore, the intergrationist organisations had few
attractions and the government didn’t accept the loss of sovereignty. De Gaulle (pres
FR) opposed UK membership. UK changed viewpoint because of political (no longer a
world power) and economic reasons. Denmark and Ireland paralleled the UK’s
application, because of historic and economic links.
