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History of the European Union

History of the European Union. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c Wichard Woyke. Which Europe?. in post-war Europe the idea of Pan-Europa (Coudenhove-Kalergi 1922/23) was heatedly discussed even the British were in favour of European Unity Churchill: United States of Europe (Zurich 1946)

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History of the European Union

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  1. History of the European Union Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c Wichard Woyke

  2. Which Europe? • in post-war Europe the idea of Pan-Europa (Coudenhove-Kalergi 1922/23) was heatedly discussed • even the British were in favour of European Unity • Churchill: United States of Europe (Zurich 1946) • Congress of Europe (The Hague 1948) • Unionists vs. Federalists • Result: Council of Europe (1949)

  3. European integration is closely obliged to the names Jean Monnet & Robert Schuman Jean Monnet (1888 - 1979) • responsible for the French economic modernisation (Monnet Plan) • author of the Schuman Plan and by this ‘architect’ of European Unity • assuming that integration does not follow grand logics but functional necessities • peace and prosperity only in a federal Europe

  4. Robert Schuman (1886 - 1963) • French Foreign Minister from 1948 - 1952 • presented the Schuman Plan and announced the Schuman Declaration on May 9, 1950 • formed by this the first supranational European institution

  5. Monnet: peace and prosperity only in a federal Europe • close economic cooperation in specific sectors is the key to overcome national separation and to achieve European federation • elite approach: leading politicians, not huge assemblies would determine the way • only a great crisis would provide the necessary push for European integration • destruction in post-war Europe emerging of Cold War (east west conflict) • threat of internal communist subversion in Western Europe • none of these crises challenged sufficiently the nation-state

  6. Marshall Plan (European Recovery Plan - ERP) • announced by General George Marshall, US Secretary of State, Harvard 1947 • social situation in Europe • containment of USSR influence • US-fear for economic recession in the US • leading position in Europe (isolation led the US into two wars) • economic health to avoid communist subversion • Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was to diverse to push European integration (1948) • US-engagement and cooperation for security reasons • NATO strongly dependent on US

  7. German Economic Recovery and the Ruhr Area • the western parts participated in the Marshall Plan and gained rapid economic success • US and UK acknowledged the important role of the Ruhr Area for economic recovery of the entire continent and loosened restrictions • political/military threat to France (Germanophobia) • economic threat (Monnet’s modernisation plan for France relied on the assumption, that coal from the Ruhr would fuel French economy) • US requested France to change their policy towards Germany • the above mentioned Franco-German tensions proved to be the catalytic crisis according to Monnet’s strategy

  8. Motives of European Integration • Overcoming of nationalism • Solving the German problem • Building new structures of security • Reconstruction at an accelerated tempo • self-assertion of Europe and the attempt to win influence in the international policy

  9. The Schuman Plan • Monnet’s idea was to subordinate parts of the energy and heavy industries sector to a joint and legislative authority • common regulations should create a common market for related goods • politically, the supranational approach promised control over all important military industries • economically, France could benefit from the transnational, common market and the availability of energy, and improve its economic modernisation • no alternative intergouvernemental approach was that auspicious

  10. mainelementofMonnet’sidea was theEuropean Coaland Steel Community (ECSC), controllingthe war-makingpotentialsof heavy industriesandestablishing a commonmarketforrelatedgoods • addressedpossiblemembers: F, G, Benelux, Italy • Britain was atthat time reluctanttoinvolveitself in European integrationandleftittothecontinent • intergouvernemental negotiationsbegan in August 1950 andended April 1951; theratificationby national parliamentstookanotheryear • ECSC beganoperatingfinally in August 1952

  11. EDC – European Defense Community • parallel to the ECSC negotiations Europe was confronted with the US demand for a German rearmament (context: Korea War 1950) • due to French hostility towards this idea Adenauer stressed that, if shared sovereignty is good enough for industry, it can also be a frame for rearmament • in October 1950 French Prime Minister Pleven announced the plan to rearm Germany within a supranational approach comparable to the coal and steel sector: European Defense Community

  12. Paris Accords 1954 • Protocol on the Accession of the Federal Republic of Germany to the North Atlantic Treaty (Paris, October 23, 1954) • At the end of August 1954, the French National Assembly failed to ratify the European Defense Community Treaty. But this only represented a brief setback for the project of integrating a West German defense contribution into European structures, since the French voted instead for the formation of a Western European Union (WEU) with an arms control system that included the Federal Republic..

  13. Paris Accords 1954 • They also opened the door for West Germany to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). On October 23, 1954, the following protocol was signed in Paris. For the Federal Republic, the Bonn-Paris Conventions meant an end to the occupation regime and the acquisition of expanded sovereignty vis-à-vis the Germany Treaty of May 1952. Within the framework of its accession to the WEU and NATO, the government of the Federal Republic accepted restrictions on rearmament, including the renunciation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons

  14. The WaytoRome 1957 • The failure of the European Defence Community (EDC) and the European Political Community, brought the process of European integration to a standstill in 1954. At that moment Johan Willem Beyen (Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs) took the initiative to revive an idea, based on the Ouchy Convention of 1932, he had already put forward in December 1952 and February 1953 for the European Political Community (EPC).

  15. The WaytoRome 1957 • Beyen proposed that the member states of the European Coal and Steel Community would develop a common market without customs duties or import quotas instead of a sector-based integration which had been the option taken by the ECSC. Beyen sent a memorandum to his BeNeLux colleagues Paul-Henri Spaak (Belgium) and Joseph Bech (Luxembourg) on 4 April 1955 in which he proposed his idea of a customs union.

  16. The Benelux-Memorandum 1955 • The BeNeLux-memorandum proposed the establishment of an Economic Community based on a general common market and a sectoral approach for transport and energy, especially nuclear energy (the last was in the line of the approach taken with the ECSC). The common market was to be achieved by a gradual reduction of trade restriction and custom tariffs. Besides the economic domain the memorandum proposed an integration also at the social and financial domain. In addition they proposed the creation of a joint (supranational) independent authority.

  17. Messina 1955 • The six ECSC countries turned after the failure of the EDC their attention to the idea of a customs union, which was elaborated at Messina. The final resolution of the conference, largely reflecting the point of view of the three Benelux countries, formed the basis for further work to relaunch European integration. s.

  18. Rome Treaties, March 25, 1957: • European AtomicEnergy Community (Euroatom); researchanddevelopmentforcivilandsafeuseofnuclear power • European Economic Community (EEC); creationof a commonmarket [freemovementofgoods, persons, servicesandcapital; customsunion, commontradepolicy … ] • inclusionof a commonagriculturalpolicyapproach was a concessionmadetoguaranteeratification in the French national assembly • theinstitutionalarrangementofthe Community was negotiated in Brussels

  19. This common market is founded on the famous "four freedoms", namely the free movement of persons, services, goods and capital. It creates a single economic area establishing free competition between undertakings. It lays the basis for approximating the conditions governing trade in products and services over and above those already covered by the other treaties (ECSC and Euratom).

  20. Customs Union • The EEC Treaty abolishes quotas and customs duties between the Member States. It establishes a common external tariff, a sort of external frontier for Member States' products, replacing the preceding tariffs of the different states. This customs union is accompanied by a common trade policy. This policy, managed at Community level and no longer at state level, totally dissociates the customs union from a mere free-trade association.The effects of dismantling customs barriers and eliminating quantitative restrictions to trade during the transitional period were very positive, allowing intra-Community trade and trade between the EEC and third countries to develop rapidly.

  21. common policies • Certain policies are formally enshrined in the Treaty, such as the common agricultural policy (Articles 38 to 47), common trade policy (Articles 110 to 116) and transport policy (Articles 74 to 84).

  22. Treaty developments alternative approachof EC non-members: European Free Trade Association (EFTA/1960) • Merger Treaty (April 1965, in forceJuly 1967) • Treaty establishing a Single Council and a Single Commissionofthe European Communities • European Political Cooperation (EPC, 1970): intergouvernemental cooperationofforeignpolicyministers + Helsinki process: Commission on Security andCooperation in Europe - weakposition in theaftermathofSU’soccupationof Afghanistan

  23. establishmentofthe European Council (non-treatybody) forcontinuousmeetingunderalternatingpresidencyof MS (Summit, Paris 1974) • members: headsofstatesandgovernments; foreignministers, presidentofthe European Commission, onefurthermemberoftheCommission • codifiedbythe Maastricht Treaty (TEU, Art. 4)

  24. decisionfordirectelectionsofthe European Parliament (intendedfor 1976, firstelection in 1979) • betterlegitimacyfor EP members • severalproposalsforinstitutionalandpolicyreform • AltieroSpinelli: Draft Treaty Establishingthe European Union (passedthe EP withvastmajority in 1984) • European Monetary System 1978 • Single European Act (1986/87) • based on a White Paper by Jacques Delors (political Union byeconomicintegration) • Single Market asvehicleforfurtherandfasterintegration • compulsoryconsultationbetween Council and EP • cooperationprocedurefordecisionsrelatedtomarketharmonization • majorityvoting in the Council formostinternalmarketpolicies • Introductionofnewpolicies: environment, development, research, cohesion

  25. Enlargement & Economy • monetary crisis (1971, cancellation of US commitment to exchange USD into gold) • oil price crises 1973 and 1979/80 • economic recession, increasing unemployment, inflation • British budgetary question • Europessimism • Eurosclerosis

  26. Southern Enlargement 1981 (Greece) • Southern Enlargement 1986 (Spain, Portugal) • all enlargementsimplementedwithoutformallyagreedpoliticaloreconomiccriteria

  27. Charles de Gaulle • sceptical about supranationalism, but good performer of economic integration • reluctant to law from Brussels, but main advocate of CAP as Community policy • kept Britain out, but initiated - together with Konrad Adenauer - Franco-German reapprochement and the axis Paris-Bonn (Elysée Treaty 1963)

  28. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing & Helmut Schmidt • established a privileged partnership between F & G by close and intense communication in order to avoid political frictions • both preferred the intergouvernmental approach and mistrusted Commission’s proposals • their close friendship alienated other national leaders • Giscard and especially Schmidt advocated the European Monetary System (and reanimated the Community’s development)

  29. Margaret Thatcher • perceived EC as complementary but subordinated to NATO • enforced in 1979 renegotiation of British budgetary contribution ( I want my money back) • “Thatcher’s tactics were to grind her enemies down by endlessly repeating her main arguments and keeping everyone up late after dinner. Infuriated, the Danish prime minister hurled insults; bored, the German chancellor feigned sleep; disdainful, the French president ignored her; embarrassed, the Irish prime minister wished it weren’t happening.” (Dinan, 82) • the dispute was settled with a compromise in 1983 • obstructed further integrative steps for a couple of years • forced the Community to rethink the distributive monster called CAP

  30. Francois Mitterrand & Helmut Kohl • deeper economic integration - Single Market • closer political cooperation – Union treaty

  31. The Single European Act 1987 • the first profound and wide-ranging constitutional reform of the EU since the 1950s. The SEA introduced measures aimed at achieving an internal market (for instance, harmonisation) plus institutional changes related to these (such as a generalisation of qualified majority voting and a cooperation procedure involving the European Parliament). It also provided legal form for European Political Cooperation (EPC). The SEA was signed in February 1986 and came into force on 1 July 1987

  32. SEA 1987 • In the institutional field, it ratifies the European Council, that is to say, the periodical meeting of Head of State and Government, as the organism where major political negotiations take place among the member States and  great strategic decisions are taken. The competences of the European Parliament were lightly reinforced.

  33. SEA 1987 • The main compromise agreed was to adopt measures guided to the progressive establishment of a common market over a period that would conclude on 31 December1992.This would mean an area without obstacles to free movement of goods, people, services and capitals. This ambitious goal, summed up in 282 detailed measures, was broadly reached in the foreseen term. The common market became a reality.

  34. SEA 1987 • Different procedures were passed to coordinate the monetary policy of the member States, paving the way toward the objective of economic and monetary union. • The Single Act included diverse initiatives to promote integration in the spheres of social rights (health and the workers' security), research and technology, and  environment.

  35. SEA 1987 • To achieve the objective of a greater economic and social cohesion among the diverse countries and regions of the Community, reform  and  financial support to the denominated Structural Funds, European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), European Social Fund (ESF) was settled. 

  36. Establishing a Union • SEA 1987 – little concern about loss of power or sovereignty; ratification was rather no problem [exception Denmark: Parliament – No; Referendum - Yes] • main goal: completion of Single Market in 1992 • Delors: Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) • Commission sponsored report: enormous costs of non-completion • accompanying social measures were required • need for economic, social and political coherence • reducing the democracy deficit & improving transparency and subsidiarity • Intergouvernmental Conference (IGC) • Political Union (EU) • Monetary Union (EMU)

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