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, that is narrowly linked with the ongoing history. Nevertheless in Teaching Guide 12 we 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 COVID-19 pandemics and the Russo-Ukranian War.
A. The ECSC or the basis of Communitarian integration
So far we have seen in Teaching Guide 10 the amazing story of Jean Monnet and the “narrow” beginnings of European integration with the Schuman Declaration (9 may 1950), the Treaty of Paris (April 1951) and the Creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), that set up the principles of Communitarian integration and created a basic institutional structure: An Executive (High Authority), an Assembly (Common Assembly) and a Court of Justice. To counterbalance the High Authority (Supranational) was created a Special Council of Ministers (National-Intergovernmental) with a function of scrutinizing the action of the High Authority.
Institutions of the ECSC
B. Towards a Common Europe: the EEC appears
On Teaching Guide 11 we saw the failure of the European Defense Community (EDC) in 1954, that reorientated the Community approach to less political issues at the Messina Conference (1-3 June 1955) that opened the way to the Treaties of Rome (25 March 1957) that created two new European Communities: the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC) or “Euratom”. That brought three important innovations in the organization of Communitarian Europe:
1) The extinction of the Common Assembly of ECSC and the creation of the European Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg (19 March 1958).
The EPS ended up becoming in 1962 the European Parliament in 1962. The EP has its seat in Strasbourg where the twelve monthly part-sessions -including the session for budget approval, are held. But it also have an aditional seat in Brussels where additional part sessions are held, and where ordinarily EP committes meet.
Since 1979 the European Parliament is elected by the citizens of the Member States. The EP does not only control the government of the EU, as it approves the nomination of the President of the Commission, and could proceed to a vote of no confidence, but also exercises with the Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers) the Legislative Power of the EU.
2) The transformation of the 1952’s Court of Justice of the European Coal and Steel Community by the Court of Justice of the European Communities in Luxembourg (7 October 1958) that will become in 2009 the Court of Justice of the European Union.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has 1 judge by each EU country, that is actually 27, plus 11 advocates general.
3) The signing of the Executive Merger Treaty (8 April 1965) that entered into force on 1 July 1967 and opened the way to create a single Executive in Communitarian Europe integrating the High Authority of the ECSC, and the “Commissions” of the EEC and EAEC. The three bodies, collectively named the European Executives, co-existed until 1 July 1967 when, under the Merger Treaty, they were combined into a single administration: the European Commission, that has his seat in the Berlaymont Buiding in Brussels.
Since December 2019, the president of the Commission is the German Medicine Doctor Ursula von der Leyen (1958).
The European Commission has 27 Commissioners, one by each EU Country.
To counterbalance the action of the European Commission the councils of ministers of the three European Communities (ECSC, EAEC and EEC) merged into a single “Council of European Communities”.
Since Maastricht (1992-1993) it became the Council of the European Union, also named “The Council”, and informally “The Council of Ministers”.
It is now the counterpart of the European Parliament in terms of legislation (50%), especially after the institutionalization of the European Council (UCO) that is the meetings of the European leaders. Beware that the Council of the European Union and the European Council, though they have the same logo, they are not at all the same institutions. These confusing denominations, make the EU even more complex and confusing.
C. The De Gaulle parenthesis and the origins of the EUCO
You already know that the arrival to power of General Charles De Gaulle in France (1958-1969) opened up a parenthesis in European integration with the Empty Chair Crisis, in which France boycotted all the meetings of the “councils” of the European Communities, that was only solved after reaching the Luxembourg Compromise (30 January 1966), that brought back the principle of the Unanimity voting, instead of the Qualified Majority voting principlethrough the Luxembourg Compromise (January 1966).
It was precisely De Gaulle’s resentment at the domination of supranational institutions in the European Commission brought the principle of informal summits of the leaders of Communitarian Europe. After the Luxembourg Compromise European leaders started to meet on summits. The first one was held in The Hague in 1969. Informal Summits became formalized as the European Council (EUCO) for the first time in the summit held in Dublin (10-11 March 1973). It received official recognition in the European Treaties for the first time in the Single European Act (17-28 February 1986, entering into force 1st July 1987). The role of EUCO was regulated for the first time in the Lisbon Treaty (2007-2009) that established a minimum of 2 meetings per year (the average being 3).
After the implementation of the Maastricht Treaty (1993) the European Council was presided by the Head of the government of the Member State holding the presidency, rotating every six months. In the Treaty of Lisbon (approved 2007, enter into force on 1st December 2009) was created the figure of the Permament President of the European Council, today the belgian politician Charles Michels.
The result is that, to make things even more complicated, the EUCO has two presidents. And the wonder is that this mess works. Though not allways smoothly as a result that as you already know the EU has in fact two governments: One representing Integrated Europe (Communitarian method), with the European Parliament as Legislative Assembly and the Commission as Executive, and another representing the States (Intergovernmental method) with the European Council of Ministers now called the European Council as an interstate Legislative Assembly and an Interstate executive the Permanent President of the European Council, created by the Lisbon Treaty.
This is why we had the clash of the Sofa Gate (7 April 2021), provoked by male chauvinist Islamic President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan that put the first Woman President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen in an humiliating position, as he put only one seat besides him for Charles Michel the Belgian actual President of the European Council, leaving Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the Commission to sit in a distant sofa.
Besides this unacceptable patriarchal approach, the problem is to decide who represent the EU: the executive of integrated Europe or the executive representing the Member States.
Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel
On top of that 2 years later Charles Michel was tackled by the European Parliament because he had been spending too much money in his official travels. The 47 year old forme Belgian prime ministers was concretely criticized for spending too much time and money traveling and too little on preparing and running the EUCO's, the core function of his job.
May be his ego is excessive. In any case it is quite expensive. Can we afford so many presidents of the EU?
D: Relaunching the Integration Process
After De Gaulle abandoned the Government in France on 28 April 1969, the mood in Europe was again favorable to Communitarian integration, as proved by:
1) The first enlargements of the European Communities: 1973 (UK, Ireland and Denmark), 1981 (Greece) and 1986 (Spain and Portugal) that brought Communitarian Europe from 6 to 12 Member States.
2) The creation of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) that established a direct relationship between Communitarian Institutions and the European Regions (without the intervention of the Member States).
3) The democratization of European Integration through the election by European citizens of the European Parliament (since 7-10 May 1979), and thereafter every 5 years.
4) The elimination of borders and customs between Communitarian Member States through the Schengen Agreement (14 June 1985. Effective 26 March 1995).
5) The relaunch of the European Common Market by the Single European Act (1986-1987).
E: The Communitarian Reaction to the end of the Cold War: 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 equilibriums at the World level but opened wide perspectives for a stronger European Integration, starting with an expansion towards Eastern Europe countries that were since 1948 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) and after the end of 1989 he had the idea of substituting the three European Communities (ECSC, EEC and EAEC) by a single Community: the European Union.
Jacques Delors (1985-1994)
As Delors was well aware of the importance of the end of the Cold War he decided to refound the Communitarian Europe through a new Treaty that was signed in the dutch city of Maastricht on the 7th of February of 1992. The European Union was born.
Today the Treaty of the European Union (TEU) or Maastricht Treaty constitute with the Treaty that created the EEC, now called Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the legal basis of Comunitarian Europe, the closest we have got so far to a European common constitution.
The brand new European Union had a conventional legal tool to advance on European integration. The problem was how to make it effective. The first step was to pass from the Unanimity Voting imposed by the De Gaulle in the Luxembourg Compromise of 1966 to the principle of the Qualified Majority Voting.
F. Unanimity Voting vs Qualified Majority Voting and the 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.
There are two forms of qualified majority: standard and reinforced. For the former, decisions are adopted if at least 55% of member states – meaning 15 out of 27 – representing at least 65% of the EU population, approve. For the latter, at least 72% of member states must approve, representing the same proportion of the EU population. Abstention counts as a vote against.
A standard qualified majority is the ordinary procedure used for most EU legislation, whereas a reinforced qualified majority is used if the Council is acting on proposal that has not come from the Commission or High Representative for Foreign Affairs, or when electing key posts like the President of the European Central Bank or the High Representative for Foreign Affairs
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.
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The Maastricht Pillar Structure
G. Towards the East
The second difficulty for strenghtening European integration was what to do 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) with underdeveloped economies resulting from being for more than four decades under Communist regimes controlled by the USSR. Some resisted to the idea of a rapid integration with the argument that it would affect seriously the balance of an integrated Europe. Some others, led by Germany, wanted at any cost to integrate these States as new Members as proved with the early recognition of Croatia as an independent State since January 1992. It was the old idea of Mitteleuropa that would consolidate the German pre-eminence. This is why some countries were reluctant to it.
Mitteleuropa
The Maastricht Treaty, that was the consequence of the end of the Cold War had been 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 of the 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 May 2021T
H: Reorganizing the decision making procedure in such a large EU: 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 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 reestructuration of the EU was made possible by the approval of the Lisbon Treaty in 2007 (that entered into force on 1st December 2009).
G: Could the EU become a World power?
The complexity of the functioning of the EU have developped a lot of Eurosceptics that think we should get rid of Communitarian Europe and recover the full sovereignty of its Member States. Especially after Brexit.
But others think that UK leave is a great oportunity as the British had never been fair players of the European Integration game. Now, they say, it is the time for moving forward a closer integration, aming 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 Ukranian War crisis have just proven.
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.
On the other hand the strong and quick unified response of EU Member States to Russian aggression on Ukraine sending weapons to Ukraine, and approving packages of sanctions against Russia, especially towards oligarchs that surround Putin is proving effective to sustain the brave reaction of Ukrainians. In some weeks European integration has advanced more than in the last 30 years. On the Brussels table is the creation of a common European Army.
On the other hand a deglobalization movement has started, which affects deeply China that was producing 95% of manufactured goods before the COVID-19 Crisis. European investments in China are receding and industries are coming back to Europe, in part due to the drastic rise of the cost of transportation. The movement has increased since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Does the European Union have any possibility of becoming a World Power? Wait and see.
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.
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.
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)
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 Russo-Ukrainian War Crisis
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 Van 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.
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.
INSTRUCTIONS: First read the text included in your Materials (pages 292-310) before proceeding to answer the Concrete Questions, the Concepts and the General Questions.
Concerning the Basic Chronology (pages 314-316) you should get familiar with the dates from November 1989 to Russian invasion of Ukraine (24 February 2022).
TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION IN CLASS: Would European States be better off without the European Union in a multipolar World?
Please consider the following aspects:
1. Consider what were the historical circumstances that led to the creation of the European Union in 1992.
2. Take into consideration why were signed the Treaties of Amsterdam (1997), the Treaty of Nice (2001) and the Lisbon Treaty (2007-2009).
3. Why the Treaty A Constitution for Europe failed in 2005? Was it really a “Constitution”?
4. Is the European Union a Legal Person distinct from the 27 Member States?
5. Is there such a thing as a European Citizenship?
6. In what measure the creation of the Creation of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt in 1998, and .of the Euro in 2002 has created some strong financial difficulties for some Member States?
7. Is the UK going to be better off out of the EU? And the EU without the UK?
8. Could European countries individually would be able to face a Russian invasion?
9. Is it possible that the EU reach the Federal Stage? Which are the main obstacles on your opinion?
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