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
High Representative the face of the EU on the international and geopolitical plane
Council of Europe: 1949 product of a failed attempt to construct a federal Europe, invention of
the European Charter of Human Rights and Eurovision
European Council: 1974 body of the heads of MSs government
Blueprints for European Integration (pre-war)
1923: Coudenhove Kalergi’s Pan-Europa
- Response to the spread of communism
- Economic union common external tariff
- Pan Europa included the European colonies (not the British ones)
1930: Briand Plan
1940: Nazi Funk Plan
- Walther Funk proposed this plan
- Economic and monetary union
Schuman Declaration 1950 = Advocated for a Supranational cooperation in a ‘sectoral community’
European Integration Plans (post-war)
‘German Problem’ what to do with Germany after WW2, it lay in a prime spot for either Western
or Eastern influence
After the formal division of Germany in 1949, the political leaders of Western Germany began their
pursuit of ‘Westbindung’ (integration with Western Europe)
The European integration process of the late 1940s was pushed forward by the need to keep
Western Germany in Western influence, so as to profit from German industrial potential whilst
keeping their political potential low
Establishment of European Institutions
The deliverance of Marshall Aid can be seen as the official start of the European integration process,
and the fixing of exchange rates to the American dollar through Bretton Woods can be seen as
setting this condition
,Poverty was seen as the cause of WW2, so there was a surge of plans/ideas to create a economic
rationalisation protocol on the European continent so as to prevent an economic depression, thus
totalitarianism internal tariff barriers on the European continent were seen as a threat, then, to
national social stability
1951: Treaty of Paris creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
The ECSC is seen as the first supranational organisation, as the High Authority, Parliamentary
Assembly, Court of Justice and Consultative Committee were supranational in character
1957: Creation of the EEC and Euratom
Forms of European Integration
Intergovernmentalism: different countries cooperate and keep sovereignty
Federalism: the development of European federal state with a supranational government
Functionalism: pooling sovereignty sectorally, which would eventually lead to deeper cooperation
down the line
Conclusions
- Early EU integration plans (pre-war) focused on creating political stability by increasing
national prosperity
- European integration was seen as a geopolitical move to tie Western Germany to Western
Europe
- Monnet Method was an answer to the failure of the federalist narrative of the Council of
Europe
Lecture 2: Empty Chair Crisis
Decolonialisation of the French, Belgian, Dutch and Italian colonial empires
Schuman’s declaration included the spirit of European colonialism – he stated that with more
resources within the European continent, Europe could then continue to pursue the development of
the African continent
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 Eurafrica
was a concept in which African countries would deliver the raw materials that would be
manufactured in Europe
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 France, the UK, and Israel 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
During the EEC negotiations (1955-56), France and Belgium pushed for their conditional entry to the
EEC based on the accession of their colonies, and so that these countries could access the European
, Development Fund the other MSs were hesitant to accept this proposal, however West Germany
accepted this
The Establishment of the EEC
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 and from the fear that a united European defence
unit would ward away US financial and military support
Treaty of Rome:
- Lay the foundations for an ever closer Europe
- Roadmap for the establishment of the customs union / free trade zone
- Free trade zone: elimination of taxes, tariffs and quotas
- Common external tariff
- Article 8 stipulated that ‘the Council shall make such a statement acting by means of a
qualified majority vote’ [within six years]
- Common agricultural policy
One of the key problems to solve, was the negotiation of the common external tariff (as France had
had this at a high level, and the Netherlands the opposite)
The EEC-Euratom communities were still hybrid (supranationalism vs intergovernmentalism)
however, in comparison to the ECSC, the Council held much more power than previously as they
were the only body that was able to determine laws that had direct effect
European integration strengthened the national legitimacy of the national political elites and
provided the means for national welfare states
The Empty Chair Crisis
De Gaulle was a staunch supporter for intergovernmentalism, as clearly indicated in his 1962 Speech
Walter Hallstein believed that within the CoM, qualified majority voting should replace unanimous
voting – this would mean that some member states could be outvoted entirely
Charles De Gaulle took a firm stance against what he believed to be a supranational move from the
Commission, and withdrew the French representative in the CoM halting all decision making
The ECs after the Luxembourg Compromise was a blend between the supranationalism of Monnet
and the intergovernmentalism of De Gaulle
Europe in the 1960s
Merger Treaty: 1965 streamlined institutions into the Commission and the Council of the EC
Pompidou replaced De Gaulle in 1969 this is seen as the beginning of a new spirit in the European
integration process, because of his pro-UK mindset
The German Question resurfaces at the end of the 1960s because of the new Western German
‘Ostpolitik’ imaginings, (taken up by Willy Brandt) in which they began to contemplate a
normalisation of relations with Soviet Eastern Germany To relax Western European suspicions,
Brandt agreed to the accession of the UK to the EC
