A SHORT HISTORY OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION: PART 3. THE EUROPEAN UNION (TG. 11)

 

 

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. 

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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 1^st 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 47^th 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