SUMMARY THE POLITICS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION – EUROPEAN GOVERNANCE
CHAPTER 1 – THE HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE EU
Introduction
9 May 1950 a plan was laid for the foundation for today’s European Union by proposing
to set up a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). Also called the Europe Day.
Instead of conquering new territory by force as the old superpowers used to do, the EU
has been able to expand because countries have been very eager to join and share in the
assumed benefits of membership. This took 70 years.
The origins of European integration
The roots of the EU lie in the years following the Second World War. Churchill wanted to
recreate the European family in a regional structure, called the United States of Europe,
and wanted to set up a federation. Three types of cooperation emerged: military
cooperation, political and economic.
Supranational organizations-> organizations in which countries pool (bundelen) their
sovereignty on certain matters to allow common decision-making.
Intergovernmental organizations-> organizations in which member states work together
on policies of common concern but retain their full sovereignty.
In 1951 the six countries (Belgium, German, Netherlands, Italy, France, Luxembourg)
signed the Treaty of Paris, which formally established the ECSC. They Community’s four
main institutions were:
1. Council of Ministers, representing the member state governments, to co-decide on
policies.
2. High Authority, consisting of independent appointees (aangestelden), acting as a
daily executive making decisions based on 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 brief historical survey of European integration
In the understanding of the historical developments, three concepts are central:
developments in policies, institutional framework, and membership.
- In a formal sense steps in integration are characterized by the adoption of treaties in
which member states agree to cooperate in certain areas as well as by subsequent
amendments to such treaties.
THE 1950S: FROM ONE TO THREE COUNTRIES
Ratification-> procedure through which a sovereign state formally commits itself to the
obligations that arise from the signing of an international treaty.
After the six founding members had ratified the Treaty of Paris, the ECSC started
operation in 1952.
The European Economic Community would focus on the free movement of goods,
services, workers, and capital between the member states.
THE 1960S: PROGRESS AND SETBACKS
Customs duties-> charges levied on imports or exports, resulting in higher prices for
consumers buying those products.
Preferential trade agreement-> countries agree on lowering the tariffs they charge for
importing goods.
Direct effect-> a major legal principle in the EU law holding that individuals can directly
invoke the EU legislation in cases before national courts.
Supremacy-> a major legal principle in the EU law holding that if national legislation
conflicts with EU law, EU law overrides national legislation.
,Judicial activism-> type of judicial behaviour where judges take a broad and active view
of their role as interpreters of the law.
Qualified majority voting-> decision-making rule in the Council which requires a majority
that is substantially larger than a simple majority of 50% +1 but does not require
unanimity.
Unanimity voting-> decision-making rule in the Council in which requires all member
states to support a proposal. This gives every member state the possibility to veto a
proposed decision.
Luxembourg Compromise-> informal agreement between the member states allowing a
member state to block a decision in the Council if it declares the matter to be of ‘vital
national interests’.
THE 1970S: MOVING OUT OF GRIDLOCK, SLOWLY
The Treaty of Luxembourg was signed.
Non-tariff barriers-> are all kinds of conditions, restrictions or regulations that do not
consist of tariffs, but still make the import or export of products difficult or impossible.
Think about national laws and regulations.
THE 1980S: MOVES TOWARDS A SINGLE MARKET
There were so many barriers between member states that a truly single market did not
exist yet. There was made a proposal in which it sketched a timeline that would remove
all barriers by 1992.
THE 1990S: THE ROAD TOWARDS THE EUROPEAN UNION
Treaty of Maastricht: laid down the foundation for the European Union. The agreement
established greater cooperation between member states through economic, social, and
legal channels. Also, the Euro was introduced.
Opt-outs-> specific exceptions that are granted to a member state when it is unwilling or
unable to fully accept all provisions of a treaty or a law. For example, the UK and
Denmark regarding to the Euro.
Ordinary legislative procedure-> decision-making procedure that is most commonly used
in the EU for adopting legislation, giving equal powers to the Europees Parlement and the
Council. Uses co-decision.
Copenhagen criteria-> fundamental conditions regarding institutions, human rights and
economic readiness aspiring member states have to meet before being able to join the
EU.
Stable political institutions that foster democracy and respect human rights.
A well-functioning market economy.
The institutional capacity to work towards political, economic and monetary union.
THE 2000: FURTHER ENLARGEMENTS AND DIFFICULT TREATY REVISIONS
( HERZIEN INGE N )
European Economic Area (EEA)-> area that comprises (bevat) the EU member states and
Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein. Through the EEA agreement these three countries
take part in the EU single market and commit themselves to applying all applicable EU
legislation.
Intergovernmental Conference (IGC)-> meeting of the member states to discuss and
decide a revision of treaties. Involves only representatives of the member state
governments.
Treaty of Lisbon: gives the EU full legal personality. Therefore, the Union obtains the
ability to sign international treaties in the areas of its attributed powers or to join an
international organisation.
THE 2010S: A STRING OF CRISES TESTS THE EU RESILIENCE ( VEER KR ACHT )
The Union was confronted with five crises that had a big impact on its functioning. With
one of the problems:
Sovereign debt-> refers to the public debt of a country which it finances through issuing
bonds. (verwijst naar de overheidsschuld van een land die het financiert door obligaties uit te geven)
,Euroscepticism-> term used to describe people, member states or political parties that
are highly critical of European integration. Think about the UK before leaving the EU.
The integration of the EU was not a steady process, every step along the way involved
difficult and lengthy negotiations. Also, the outcomes of different crises have always
resulted in further integrative steps.
CHAPTER 2 – ANALYSING THE EU
Introduction
Integration theories seek to understand
how the EU has come about and which
factors have made it what it is today.
Theories of EU politics focus on the
actual functioning of the EU: how does
political decision-making work in the EU?
Which actors and factors affect these
decisions? What are the effects of the
policies?
Explaining integration
This approach finds its origin in the study of international relations. It wants to
understand how sovereign states interact with each other and what forms of conflict and
collaboration may be the result of this.
NEO-FUNCTIONALISM
Neo-functionalism-> integration theory which states that member states will work
together to achieve economic benefits, setting in motion a process in which ever more
tasks are delegated to the supranational level.
This approach is rooted in the pluralist school; pluralist consider politics to be a group-
based activity and believe that all interests will eventually organize to affect decision-
making. According to pluralists, politics amounts to a clash of different interests, with
every group trying to lobby the government for as much political support as possible.
- The process of integration and its results reflect the relative success of different
groups in advancing their interests. In the case of European integration this means
that groups are not restricted to the boundaries of their country but can forge
(aangaan) transnational alliances with like-minded groups in other countries in order
to further advance their interests.
Transnational-> when an organization connects subnational levels of governments or
brings together any other type of organization from different countries.
In addition, European integration was primarily an elite-driven process and shows
that ordinary people were not very well informed or concerned about it. So, the
activities are focused on political elites: people at the top of a political system who
exercise considerable influence or power over political decisions.
Four steps which drive integration
1. Recognizing the possibility of mutual economic gains, governments decide to start
cooperation in a specific policy area, by setting up a supranational body which is
responsible for administering and implementing their arrangement.
2. After the arrangement, all parties realize that further economic gains can be
arrived at only if adjacent (aangrenzende) sectors are integrated as well, spurring
(aanzetten tot) additional integrative steps.
, 3. The creation of a new centre of authority fosters the emergence of new
transnational interests that put additional pressure on governments to move
towards further integration. Making new supranational institutions, who take up
new responsibilities to advance their status as policymakers.
4. The increased complexity of several functional arrangements will lead to a further
institutionalization at the supranational level in order to coordinate policy-making.
The result is a form of policy-making somewhere in between that of a purely
intergovernmental organization and a fully federal state.
So, economic motives start the process of integration only to take more and more policy
areas on board once it is moving ahead. This approach understands integration as a self-
perpetuating process (zichzelf staand houdend), once the first integrative steps have been
taken. Spillovers play a central role:
Spillover-> the phenomenon where an integrative step in one policy area take further
integrative steps in other policy areas so that steadily more competences ( bevoegdheden)
are shifted towards the EU level.
Functional spillover: based upon the insight that the full benefits of integrative
steps can be attained only if further moves in neighbouring fields are made.
Political spillover: the result of deliberate (bewuste) pressure exerted by national
interests because they expect to benefit from further integrative steps.
Cultivated spillover: points to the role of supranational actors such as the
Commission, EP, and Court of Justice. In this conception supranational institutions
are not simply implementing and administering the agreements between the
member states but play an active role in encouraging (and hence cultivating)
further integration. They can for example act as a policy entrepreneur: when it
successfully influences decisions made by others, by skilfully mobilizing support,
building coalitions and proposing solutions in the direction of an outcome close to
its own preferences.
One spin-off of neo-functionalist theory is the theory of SUPRANATIONAL
GOVERNANCE. It’s not about the steady pace of integration in all areas, but they point
out that some policy sectors are more prone to integrative steps than others. Integrative
moves are more likely in those sectors where there is a considerable amount of trade
between member states. In those areas trade interest groups will demand further
integrative steps and lobby their national government as well as seek support from
supranational actors.
INTERGOVERNMENTALISM
Intergovernmentalism-> integration theory which holds that member states are fully in
charge of cooperative steps they take and collaborate only with a view to their direct self-
interests. Has his roots in the realist approach of international relations (IR) theory, which
suggests that issues of sovereignty and security are dominant in explaining the behaviour
of states. Governments are the only players in the international political arena and act
with a view to maintaining the vital interests of the nation-state, which are political rather
than economic.
- It can be seen as ‘a factor of non-integration’: question marks may be raised by the
willingness of governments to actually transfer sovereignty to a new centre.
The theory of intergovernmentalism makes a distinction between:
Logic of integration-> based on low politics (such as economics) which can lead to
collaboration because nations share the same interests.
Logic of diversity-> which expresses itself in the diverging preferences of the different
countries with respect to issues of high politics (such as territorial security and
sovereignty).
The theory compares the process of integration to a grinder that comes to a halt as soon
as the member states stop providing it with something to grind.
LIBERAL INTERGOVERNMENTALISM : is a follow-up on intergovernmentalism. It argued
that national governments were significantly influenced by domestic( binnenlandse) interest
