As
we approach to present time it is more difficult to set up the lines of the
history of European integration. Especially because it is a very complicated
unfinished process, which is narrowly linked with the ongoing World history.
Nevertheless we will try to understand why the European Union appeared and
which are the main obstacles that prevent its 27 Member States to become a
World Power in the present complicated international situation due, among other
circumstances, to the Wars in Ukraine and in Palestine. And now with the
fierce attacks of Donald Trump.
In
teaching guide 10 we saw how evolved Communitarian Europe before the Fall of
the Berlin Wall and the disappearance of the Iron Curtain. After De Gaulle's
retirement form the French Government in 1969 there was a relaunching of
the European integration in which important steps were taken. But
what really changed things was the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the
disappearance of the Soviet Union that opened up European integration to the
Central and Eastern European Nation States (CEE).
1. The birth of the European Union: The Maastricht Treaty.
As
you can see European integration was on its way when the 9 of November
1989 the Berlin Wall fell. And this crucial event not only changed
international equilibrium at the World level but opened wide perspectives for a
stronger European Integration, starting with an expansion towards Central and Eastern
Europe countries that since 1948 were beyond the “Iron Curtain”.
Communitarian
Europe was lucky to have a great President of the European Commission, Jacques
Delors (1985-1994). He was already responsible for the signing of the Single
European Act (1986) but after 1989 he had the idea of substituting the three
European Communities (ECSC, EEC and EAEC) by a single Community: the European
Union.
ç
Jacques Delors (1925-2023), President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995.
As
Delors was well aware of the importance of the end of the Cold War he decided
to re-found the Communitarian Europe through a new Treaty that was signed in
the Dutch city of Maastricht on the 7th of February of 1992. It became
effective on the 1st of November 1993. The European Union was born.
The signing of the Maastricht Treaty
The
Treaty of the European Union (TEU) or Maastricht Treaty (1992) did not abolish
the previous treaties of Communitarian Europe corresponding to the three
previous communities: ECSC, EEC and EAEC. But the new circumstances called for
a reorganisation of the European Integration process. Tle legal organisation of
the new EU was crucial.
2. Community law as an
integrating instrument
Law
is very important in the European Union, as Communitarian Europe does not stand
together by political reasons. We do not have a Federal Constitution for Europe,
we have treaties that bind together the member states of the European Union. A
treaty is a contract that depends on the acceptance of the parties. The Law
that binds member states of the EU is “conventional”, not constitutional. And
this is a big difference with the United States of America.
Not having a constitution means that we do not
have a supra state superior to all the member states. That makes things far
more complicated in terms of running the EU. The only link that keeps the
states together is Community Law imposed by the Judiciary of Communitarian
Europe: the Luxembourg Court. We are not a constitutional federalism, but we
are a “Judicial Federalism”. This is the European “Sonderweg”, our peculiar way
of integration. It deserves to be explained. Though here we need to explain
some basis legal concepts.
Community Law is formed by the treaties
(Primary Law) and by further
rules intended to guarantee their
implementation (Secondary Law).
The basic treaties of the EU are: the “Treaty of the European Union” (TEU)
approved in Maastricht in 1992, and the “Treaty on the Functioning of
the European Union” (TFEU), which is basically the Treaty that created the European
Economic Community (EEC) agreed to in Rome in 1957. The first one deals with
the principles of the Union, the second one describes how it works.
Secondary Law includes all the community rules necessary to
put into practice the treaties of the Primary Law. Some of these rules called "regulations,"
can be enforced directly, as soon as they are approved, while others, named
"directives," before entering into force, needed to be implemented by
the states.
This “ensemble” of
Community rules, which have been expanding enormously over the years,
constitute what has been termed the acquis communautaire. This huge and diverse body of legislated Community Law
constitutes a framework that any country that wishes to join the Union must
accept, en bloc.
3. A common Europe
created by judges
Community Law integrated by all the
norms that form the acquis
communautaire, is opposed to
the national legislation of the respective member states. Think that European
Integration does not abolish the preexisting Member states. Like in the US the
Federal State does not abolish the previous states. So in every state there are
two types of legal norms: National and Communitarian.
Of course this raise
the question of how does Community Law interact with the respective national
legal systems of the different Member States? This is a question that seems
simple to answer: Community Law applies to Community matters, while State (or
″national″) law applies to State matters. In practice, however, things are more
complicated, as a European norm can enter in conflict with a national rule.
What happens when these rules (European and
national) clash? Which norm
prevails: the communitarian or the national? The quick answer is that today ,
in principle, Community law prevails over State law. But this
raises the $64,000 dollar question: who ever
established the supremacy of European law?
And the answer is: certainly
not the European political authorities, as the European Union is not a Federal
State. The supremacy of EU law was not imposed directly by the Community powers
over national governments because, as you can
imagine, the governments of the different EU member states are very jealous of
defending their legal independence, and they tend to resent Community rules taking precedence
over national legal norms,
even if they are limited to the spheres covered by the EU's foundational
treaties.
So, who dun it?
In fact, Community
Law did not come to prevail over national (state) law just because European
bodies or national governments and legislators said so. Rather, the
European Community's legal system came to prevail after the first conflicts
between the European Community and its member states arose ... and the courts
resolved them.
Our present European Union is,
therefore, not the product of federal integration at the political
level, but rather the
result of the work of judges who have managed to limit the sovereignty of the
EU's member states simply by applying Community Law.
The judicial restrictions imposed on states’ sovereignty
will be nothing something new to you, dear reader, because here
the European Community largely follows precedents set by the United States. As you may recall from TG 10, the American
federal state survived and flourished in large part, thanks to the
jurisprudence of the US Supreme Court, initially
overseen, during its initial three decades, by the fervent Federalist
(advocate for a strong federal government) Judge John Marshall.
The Luxembourg Court of Justice of the European Union
I remind you of
this because in Europe the equivalent of the
US Supreme Court is the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)
in Luxembourg, an institution that has played a key role in
bringing about European integration, just as the US Supreme Court furthered the effective integration of the
USA. The CJEU has had several names
over the course of its history: in 1952 it was called the Court of the European
Coal and Steel Community, in 1957 it became the Court of Justice of the
European Communities, and in 2009, after the approval of the last major
Community Treaty (Lisbon), it became the Court of Justice of the European
Union.
The Judges of the Court of Justice of the European Union
The question now
is: when did it happen? WHEN this European Court of Justice started proving
crucial for consolidating European integration.
4. The Flaminio Costa v. E.N.E.L. case (1964)
And here, our story begins in the middle of the 1960s,
when the judicial construction of an integrated Europe started with one,
specific lawsuit: Flaminio Costa v.
E.N.E.L. (Judgment of July 15, 1964, Case 6/64), the first judicial decision that clearly established the supremacy of Community Law.
The most astonishing thing is that the suit that led to the ruling was over a mere pittance. In the case an Italian citizen opposed to the nationalization of the electricity sector in Italy initially refused to pay the nationalized entity a bill for some 20-odd Euros on the grounds that the true creditor was the prior company, Edison Volta, of which he was a shareholder before its nationalization. The Luxembourg Court ruled in his favor, pointing out that the nationalization of electricity production in Italy was approved by the Italian state, leading to the creation of the Ente Nazionale per l'Energia Elettrica” (ENEL), after having signed Community treaties endorsing and ensuring free competition. The Italian government had no choice but to back down. Ever since Community Law has taken precedence over National Law.
Judges of the Costa ENEL Case
This pivotal ruling established the key principle that member states can haggle and negotiate when it comes to the passage of community rules, but, once approved, they are binding and permanent, such that they are compelled to observe and apply EU rules, the reason being that, otherwise, member states could abrogate community rules simply by subsequently passing national rules allowing them to do so.
The fact that such an economically insignificant case paved the way for the Community's judicial federalism illustrates the extent to which the survival of the Union is really an ongoing miracle. Without the stubbornness of an everyday citizen, Flaminio Costa, the European Union might no longer exist.
5. The Legal inconvenience of not having a common European
Federal constitution
This Achilles’ heel of the Legal European
integration process is that EU
Law cannot contravene any of the 27 constitutional texts of the member states
making up the Union. As you can imagine, the problem arises when national
governments contend that EU Law contravenes the constitutions of any of the
Member States. What happens then? Let’s see a concrete case.
The conflict between Community Law and a
national constitution was brought to light by the German Constitutional Court
in Karlsruhe, which, on May 5,
2020 judged partially unconstitutional the EU program for the purchase of
national public debt by the European Central Bank (the body overseeing the Euro
Zone's monetary policy), implemented since the crisis of 2008 upon the
initiative of Mario Draghi, who in 2012 told the whole world that he would do anything and everything necessary to save
the Euro. As a result, in 2015 the ECB started spending a fortune to buy up the
growing public debt issued by the EU countries... until the Karlsruhe Court ruled that this
practice was unconstitutional.
The German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe
The judges in Karlsruhe cannot prohibit the ECB from
continuing to buy bonds, because it has been authorized to do so by the CJEU
itself, but it does have the power to stop the German government from
spending their taxpayers' money on purchases of those bonds. The real problem
lies in the fact that, legally speaking, Germany’s constitutional judges stand over EU judges, who could
jeopardize the legal principle that keeps the EU together: the supremacy of
Community Law over the national laws of the Union’s different states.
The question does remain up in the air, it is clear
that things can get even worse, as other
constitutional courts of EU member states have followed the German precedent;
Poland’s highest court, for example, ruled, on October 7, 2021, that parts of
the EU treaties are incompatible with the Polish Constitution.
Having said
that, the two mentioned rulings did not stop a European Integration process
that has advanced considerably since the approval of the Maastricht Treaty and
the creation of the European Union. Let’s see the main legal steps of Legal
history of this integration
6. The legal
history of the European Union
The main steps of the Legal History of the European
Union have been: 1) the passing from the Unanimity Voting imposed by the De
Gaulle in the Luxembourg Compromise of 1966 to the principle of the Qualified
Majority Voting. 2) The integration of the European countries that between
1948 and 1989 were on the other side of the Iron Curtain. 3) The
reorganisation of
the decision making procedure in a large EU through the Lisbon Treaty (2009).
The European leaders that signed the Maastricht Treaty (1992)
a). Unanimity Voting vs Qualified Majority Voting
and the Maastricht Pillar Structure The strengthening of the integration process required on the first
place to push for the restriction of the Unanimity Voting approved in the
Luxembourg Compromise (1966) and get back to the Majority Voting with the
restriction of Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) a mechanism used to take
decisions without the need for unanimity but which go beyond a simple majority
of members, that is it requires the approval of a certain number of
States representing a minimum percentage of population.
In order to convince the Governments to accept the
QMV, Delors invented the “PILLAR STRUCTURE”. QMV was the rule in the First
Pillar (Community Pillar) corresponding to the three existing Treaties in 1992.
The other two pillars (The second pillar dealt with Common Foreign and Security
Policy, and the third addressed Police and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal
Matters) followed the Intergovernmental principle, which meant that in these
areas the decision-making procedures essentially followed the Unanimity
Principle.
The Maastricht pillar structure
b) Towards the East
The second difficulty for strengthening European
integration was the relationship with the European countries that had been for
decades on the other side of the Iron Curtain. The big problem that
European Integration faced after the Fall of the Berlin Wall was what to do
with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEEC) that suffered from
underdeveloped economies resulting from being almost four decades under
communist regimes controlled by the USSR. Some EU Member States resisted to the
idea of a rapid integration with the argument that it would affect seriously
the balance of an integrated Europe. For some it reminded the old idea of Mitteleuropa that pursued consolidateçing German pre-eminence.
Mitteleuropa
This is why some countries were reluctant to it. Some others, led by Germany, wanted at any
cost to integrate these States as new Members. In fact the process started with
the early recognition by Germany of Croatia as an independent State since
January 1992.
The Maastricht Treaty, which was the consequence
of the end of the Cold War was initially signed by 12 Member States. But soon
new States were lining up to join. In 1995 the EU had 15 members (with the
integration of Austria, Finland and Sweden). But 9 years later, in 2004, this
number was raised to 25 Members with the integration of 10 new States, most
from Eastern Europe: Poland, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. In 2007 Bulgaria
and Romania joined, bringing the number of Member States to 27. And in 2013 the
peak of 28 Member States was reached with the integration of Croatia. This
number was brought down to 27 again since January 31, 2020 with the leave of
the UK.
The EU in 2026
c) Reorganizing the decision making procedure in
a large EU through the Lisbon Treaty (2009)
The acceptance of this huge enlargement put the EU in
serious trouble as it badly needed a profound reorganization in terms of
decision making for avoiding collapse. Because having 27 Governments to agree
on something was not a piece of cake. So the Treaties had to be
renegotiated and amended. This is what happened with the Amsterdam Treaty
(1997), the Nice Treaty (2001) followed by the failure of the Treaty called “A
Constitution for Europe” (2005). Finally the restructuration of the EU was made
possible by the approval of the Lisbon Treaty in 2007 (that entered into force
on 1st December 2009).
The heads of Government of the EU after signing the Lisbon Treaty
7. The Institutional Mess of the European Union
The European Integration process did not end
with the enactment of the Lisbon Treaty. The European Union is still not a
strong World Power because we have not been able to agree on the creation of a
Federal European State, commanding over the 27 Member States. The EU states
together because the Judicial Power of Communitarian Europe since the early 1960's
(concretely since sentence on the Costa vs. Enel Case 15 July 1964) have
created a "Legal Federation." We are not a political federation but a
judicial one, because the Luxembourg court declared that Communitarian Law is
superior to National Law. Thanks to this "judicial decision" the EU
stays together.
As you can imagine a Judicial Union is far less strong
than a political federation. And this is why the EU has a lot of trouble for
becoming a real World Power. Because, to start with, it has not a strong
Executive. And this is a big difference with the powerful Presidential system
of the United States Federal Union.
The US has three powers: Legislative Power (the
Congress integrated by the Assembly of States -Senate- and the Assembly of
Citizens Representatives -the House of Representatives), the Supreme Court and
the President (POTUS). The EU has also three powers but they are much weaker.
The reason is that there are two Legislative powers (one representing the
integrated Europe: the European Parliament and another that represents the
Member States: the Council of Ministers), and two Executives (one
representing the integrated Europe: the European Commission, and another the
Member States: the European Council. The only unique power is the Judicial
represented by the Court of the European Union in Luxembourg, and this is why
it is the most powerful of the three.
In fact the institutions of the European Union
are not only quite complicated to deal with but they are not very efficient in
terms of decision making and implementing these decisions. In the US President
Trump in a few weeks it has been able to turn the World upside down. The EU
Executive cannot do that.
You might tell me that the European Union is a joke compared to the United States of America and its
federal union. To begin with, there is no binding European constitution that
ties together the member states. The most that European governments have been able to
do is agree on a "treaty" by which a "community" of states
is constituted. It is, therefore, a legally weaker union since, unlike the supreme law set down in a constitution,
a treaty, like a contract, can be rescinded by any of its signatories, as the
Lisbon Treaty (2009) expressly recognizes in its Article 50, a provision that
allowed the UK to leave the EU. This is why the European Union does not have a
common army, and its presidency is weak.
On top of this
complex decision-making machinery, over the years, the EU has become an opaque
and impenetrable bureaucratic administrative fortress, with staff working in icily impersonal facilities of
glass and metal, such as the Berlaymont Building, headquarters of the Commission.
The Berlaymont Building
As you can imagine, this complex and convoluted apparatus is not easy to run, as
it is designed to strike and maintain an ongoing delicate balance between the
powers of the EU, as a community, and those representing its member states,
which continue to jealously covet and defend their sovereignty, even if they
recognize the need for the Union. The confrontation between the different states
and Community interests spawns permanent debates between the institutions that represent national interests
(the European Council and the Council of Ministers) and those striving for
further European integration (The Commission and the European Parliament).
Thus, rather than a government of the European Union, perhaps we should speak
of a kind of "governance" that regularly grapples with Community
politics in dramatic negotiations that drag on late into the night.
The European Parliament (Strasbourg Seat)
It is not
surprising that the European Union looks decidedly wimpy compared to the
Americans' government, whose president is the most powerful man on Earth.
Hence, the United States continues to throw a lot more weight around the world
than Europe's vague and often faceless central authority. And it is also
understandable that many take a look at our apparently anemic union of European
states and wince, concluding that only economic interests unite us and that we
cannot muster even a modicum of political accord, and, far less, strength
through unity.
Having said this, I
think it ought to be pointed out that this "great big market" that
the European Union basically boils down to, has ultimately morphed into something much
stronger than the different
nations' politicians had initially signed up for, as the EU’s tough reaction to
the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on 24 February, 2022 demonstrated. Reaching this point, we have to ask
ourselves: what is it that keeps this hodgepodge of competing interests
together? And the answer, as you already know is … Law!
8. Could the EU become a World power?
The
complexity of the functioning of the EU have developed a lot of Euro sceptics
that think we should get rid of Communitarian Europe and recover the full
sovereignty of its Member States. Especially after Brexit occurred.
But
on the other hand other think that UK leave is a great opportunity for a
closer integration as the British had never been fair players in the European
Integration game. Now, they say, it is the time for moving forward a closer
integration, aiming at a federal type of integration. If we look to the
facts, the future of the EU might not be so dark, as the COVID-19 and the
Ukrainian War crisis have just proven. Now the hostile attitude of
President Trump is creating a great opportunity for reinforcing the cooperation
between the 27 EU Member States.
The scary 47 POTUS
The vaccination policy of the EU was slow but
now population of EU Member States is the best protected in the world. And the
EU has granted important economic aids to relieve Member States
Economies. Things are however different concerning the Communitarian
response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Initially there was certainly a
strong and quick unified response of EU Member States to Russian aggression on
Ukraine. EU Member States reacted sending weapons to Ukraine, and approving
packages of sanctions against Russia, especially towards oligarchs that
surround Putin. In some weeks European integration advanced more than in
the last 30 years.
But
as the War goes on some Member States have started to become reluctant to keep
on helping Ukraine to the point that today Putin is quite close to win the war.
Once again Ukrainians would not be helped by Europeans but by the United
States, which Congress approved in April 2024 an aid of 60.000 Millions dollars
for Ukraine.
Presidents Zelenski and Von der Leyen in Kiev
The
second arrival of Donald Trump to the US Presidency
and its decision to stop US aid to Ukraine has however changed the situation
completely and has pushed the more powerful EU member States and the UK to
provide direct European military aid to Zelenski On the Brussels table again is
the creation of a common European Army. And in the immediate future the
sending of troops to Ukraine by France, Germany and the UK. Should the EU be
grateful to Donald Trump. “MEGN” Make Europe Great Now. For stopping a
situation in which Europeans we are at the mercy of Trump, Putin or Xi Jiping.
Finally
the anti-Europeanism of President Trump in his second mandate, not only
concerning European policy in Ukraine,
but with the rising of customs duties,
or US pretentions of integrating Greenland, or pushing Europe to participate in the Iran War, could also be seen as a great opportunity to force member states of the EU to develop their
autonomy at the world level, aside from the US.
Does the European Union have any possibility
of becoming a World Power? Honestly I think the moment is extremely
favourable. Let’s hope our leaders won’t screw it up. A concrete example
moves us to be optimistic. The last Hungarian Legislative election
on the 12 of April 2026 is in any
case a very positive advance as Hungarian electors decided to get rid of the
pro Russian Viktor Orban, after 16 years of control of Hungarian politics by
his party Fidesz-KDNP. The new Hungarian Prime
Minister the Pro-European, Peter Magyar won
both the largest numbers of votes and the largest percentage of seats that a
Hungarian political party has ever won in a free election. Among other things
it would change things in the War of Ukraine, in which defeated Orban opposed
to any help from the EU to the Ukranian Army. It is certainly a sound defeat for
Putin inflicted by European electors. The victory of Democracy against
Dictatorship.
Peter Magyar, the new Hungarian Prime Minister
CHRONOLOGY
a) The end of the
Iron Curtain
1989, 9 November Fall of the Berlin Wall.
1990
12 September.
Signing in Moscow of the Two Plus Four Agreement. England, France, the United
States and the Soviet Union renounce the rights they had vis-a-vis Germany
since 1945.
3 October.
Reunification of Germany.
b) The Dissolution
of the Soviet Union.
1991,
9 April
Georgia declares Independence.
24
August Ukraine Act of Independence. Approved by referendum 1st
December (92%).
25 August
Declaration of Independence of Belarus.
1991,
8 December:
Belavezha Accords.
Rejection of
the Treaty of Creation of the USSR (signed 29 December, effective 30 December
1922). The Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus declare that the
Soviet Union had ceased to exist and decide to establish the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) in its place.
21 December.
Alma-Ata Protocol.
The
representatives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan. Moldova, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan agree to join Belarus, Russia and Ukraine in the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)..
Turkmenistan and
Ukraine never ratified. Ukraine ceased to participate in CIS in 2014 as a
result of the Russian occupation of Crimea, and withdrew representatives from
all statutory bodies of CIS in 2018 as a result of the War in Donbass.
25 December :
Retaining the Soviet Union's UN’s seat as permanent member of the Security
Council
Boris Yeltsin
inform the UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of the dissolution of
the Soviet Union and that Russia would, as its successor state, continue the
Soviet Union's membership in the United Nations with the name of Russian
Federation.
1992,
January 31
After the UN
Secretary-General circulated Yeltsin’s request, and as any UN Member State
formulated any objection, the Russian Federation took the Soviet Union's UN
seat as permanent member of the Security Council. On January 31, 1992, Russian
Federation President Yeltsin personally took part in a Security Council meeting
as representative of the Russian Federation.
Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin
c) The Creation of
the EU (1992-2002)
1992, 7 February.
Signing in Maastricht (Netherlands) of the European Union Treaty.
It comes into force, once all ratification procedures are
finalized, on 1 November 1993.
1994, 20 July
Alexander Lukashenko becomes President of Belarus. Still in Office though the
2020 election is widely contested.
1995
1 January.
Austria, Finland and Sweden join the EU. The Europe of the 15 is born.
1997
2 April: Creation
of the Commonwealth of Russia and Belarus.
8-9 July. Madrid
Summit. 15th NATO Summit. The Organization invites Hungary, Poland and the
Czech Republic to join the alliance. The Russian Federation agrees.
2 October. The
foreign ministers of the 15 sign the Amsterdam Treaty. It enters into
force on 1 May 1967.
1998, 1st
June Creation of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt.
1999,
19 June. Bologna
Declaration. European education ministers approve the creation of the European
Higher Education Area, to be fully implemented by December 31, 2010.
8 December:
Creation of the Union State of Russia and Belarus. New Confederation.
31st
December Putin is named head of the Russian Federation.
2000, 7 December.
Ratification of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,
adopted on 2 October.
2001, 26 February.
The Treaty of Nice is signed, setting the majorities necessary to make
decisions after the successive expansions carried out. It comes into force on 1
February 2003 after the ratification procedures are finalized.
2002
1 January. The
euro enters into force. On February 28 it becomes the sole, official currency,
the day that Spain occupies the presidency of the European Council (previously:
1989, 1995) for the third time.
23 July. The ECSC
is dissolved.
d) The EU’s
expansion to the East
2004, 1 May.
The disappearance
of the Iron Curtain and dissolution of the USSR enables an important expansion
of the EU to the East. Besides the integration of Cyprus and Malta, 9 States
that were under the Soviet influence join the EU: Poland, the Czech Republic,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. The EU
has 25 Member States.
29 October. Rome.
The heads of state and government and their respective ministers of foreign
affairs sign a treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. Despite its name
it is not a Supranational Constitution, but only a rearrangement of former
Comunitarian Treaties.
22 November:
Orange Revolution in Ukraine (Until 23 January 2005). Pro EU and pro NATO
leaders Victor Yushchenko and Yulia Timoshenko to power.
2005
29 May. In a
referendum the French reject the Constitution Treaty.
1 June. The people
of the Netherlands also refuse to ratify the Constitutional Treaty.
2007
1 January.
Another two former
countries that were under the influence of the Soviet Union join the EU:
Bulgaria and Romania. The Europe of the 27 is born.
10 February:
Munich Speech. Vladimir Putin’s Speech in Munich Security Conference in which
he explains his position on the International politics of Russia. He criticizes
the United States monopolistic dominance in global relations. He accepts that
Ukraine can join the EU but not NATO.
Putin speaking in Munich
3 December.
Signing of the
Treaty of Lisbon, which replaces the Constitutional Treaty from three years
earlier.
A version of the
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is officially promulgated
on 12 December 2007 in Strasbourg. After the signing of the Lisbon Treaty the
Charter becomes binding upon all states
2008
August:
Russo-Georgian War. On August 26 Russia recognizes Abkhazia and South Ossetia
as separate republics. Georgia Government consider both as occupied
territories. And break Diplomatic relationships with the Russian
Federation.
2009
1 December. The
Treaty of Lisbon enters into force after the 27 ratification processes are
completed.
2013,
1 July. The EU
keeps expanding East as Croatia joins the EU as its 28th member state.
So far the EU
enlargement concerned European States beyond the Iron Curtain. So the Russian
Federation was not happy but accepted. The problems began when Member States of
the CIS tried to get closer to Communitarian Europe.
Ukraine crisis
began. In February 2013 the Ukranian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) approved
by an overwhelming majority a political agreement and a free trade agreement
with the EU. Ukrainian President Yanukovych refused to sign the agreement and
prefer to set closer ties with the Russian Federation and the Eurasian Economic
Union.
21 November:
Beginning of the Maidan Revolution (Independence square) in
Kyiv. “Revolution of Dignity”. Until 23 February 2014. 130 killed on both sides
(including 13 police officers)
The Maidan Revolution
2014
20 February :
Russia invades Crimea. (Annexation 18 March 2014).
22-25 May: 8th
election of the European Parliament. For the first time the European parties
have named a candidate for presiding the European Commission. The European
Popular Party wins the election and his candidate Jean Claude Juncker becomes
President of the Commission (1st November).
5 September: First
Minsk Agreement searching for ending the war in the Donbass Region between
Ukraine and Russia with the mediation of France and Germany. Minsk II was
signed on 12 February 2015
e) The Brexit,
Covid-19 and the 2016:
June 23:
Brexit referendum. The UK votes for leaving the EU. 51.9% of UK voters
(17.410,742 votes) were for leaving and 48.1 (16.141.241 votes) for remaining
in the EU. By territories the result was: England 53,4% for Brexit and 46,4%
for Bremain; Northern Ireland 44,2% for Brexit and 55,8% for Bremain; Scotland
38% for Brexit and 62% for Bremain; Wales 52,5% for Brexit and 47,5% for
Bremain. Gibraltar 4% for Brexit and 96% for Bremain. London: 39.1% for
Brexit 59.9% for Bremain.
2017
October:
Independentists fail to declare the Independence of Catalonia.
2020:
January 31: The UK
leaves the EU.
March: COVID
Pandemic extends all over. The EU centralizes vaccination. It is slow but it is
free for citizens of the EU Member States.
July: The European
Council of the EU agrees to a massive recovery fund of 750 billion called “Next
Generation EU” (NGEU) to support member economies states hit by COVID-19
Pandemic. The NGEU fund goes over the years 2021-2023 and is tied to the
2021-20227 budget of the EU(MFF). The comprehensive packages of NGEU and MFF
will reach the size of 1824,3 billion euros.
Also the European
Investment Bank Group decides to establish a 25 billion euros Pan-European
Guarantee fund, that could grow up to 200 billion euros.
26 November the
European Parliament votes massively againts recognizing the right to self
determination of Regions (487 no v. 170 yes).
2021:
January COVID
Crisis: Ursula von der Leyen is criticized for EU’s response to the Covid
crisis. She says that the EU was late to authorize vaccines , but it was the
wise and prudent thing to do.
7 April: Sofa Gate
Crisis. On an official visit of the EU to Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan that put
the first Woman President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen in an
humiliating position with Charles Michel the Belgian actual President of the
European Council, as there was just one seat close to President Erdogan, and
von der Leyen had to sit in a sofa.
June: Nearly half
of the Population of the EU had received at least one dose of COVID-19
vaccination.
f) Russo-Ukrainian
War Crisis
2022
21 February:
Russia recognizes the Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics. On the following
day Vladimir Putin declare that the Minsk Agreements (of 2014) no longer
existed.
24 February:
Russia invades Ukraine. Since then the EU has been adopting 5 packages of
sanctions (23, 25, 28 February, 2 15 March and 8 April) against Russia,
especially against 217 individuals and 18 entities.
27 February: German
Chancellor Olaf Scholz sharply increases Germany spending on defense to more
than 2% of its economic output. Russia’s Gross National Product in December
2020 was 4.036 USD billion (146 million people) and Germany’s 4.597. (3 million
people).
June Ukraine is granted “candidate statute” for
integrating the EU.
26 September Giorgia Meloni wins the general elections in
Italy. She is the first woman head of Government in country’s history. Despite
its hard right wing program, she is surprisingly no longer against European
Integration, and certainly not in the line of Hungary and Poland.
2023
April Former Belgian Prime Minister and
current President of the European Council Charles Michel faces growing backlash
over his "excessive" travel expenses, after EU budgetary officials
asked for a 27.5% budget increase for his office from 2023 to 2024.
2024
November 5 Donald Trump is elected 47th
POTUS
g) Donald Trump and the deterioration of European relationships with the
US
2025
21 January Donald
Trump takes office. Immediately he decides to withdraw US aid to Ukraine and
decide to rise tariffs on European products as part of his World Trade
War.
28 February Ucranian President Zelensky is publically
humiliated in the White House by President Trump and Viceoresident Vance.
25 December Donald Trump says publically his intention of
annexating Greenland from Danemark.
2026
January Right after the United States intervention in Venezuela on 3 January, which led to the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores and their subsequent extraction from the country, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller stated that the US has the right to take Greenland.
February 28 The US and Israel attack Iran without previous
warning.
April 12 Victor Orban, an ally of Trump and
Putin, isc clearly defeated in the Hungarian elections after 16 years in power.
April 13 Donald
Trump attacks the Pope Leo XIV, as the head of the Catholic Church condemns the
Iran War. The Pope answers Trump saying he has no fear of speaking out. Italian
Prime minister Georgia Meloni, a former unconditional ally of Trump considers
“unacceptable” US President’s comments on Pope Leo.
The European Parliament in Brussels
+2.+Pillar+COMMON.jpg)
.jpg)
