Understanding The European Union

William Nicoll, Trevor Salmon

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781317904991
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This is an up-to-date account of how the European Union works, including developments since the introduction of the Treaty on European Union, the modifications introduced since the Treaty of Amsterdam and the preparations for economic and monetary union and enlargement. It focuses on how the EU is structured and operates, and has a review of the nature and operations of the major policies.

PART 1

CHAPTER 1

THE PATH TO THE TREATIES OF ROME

‘EUROPA’, daughter of the King of Tyre, was abducted by Zeus and taken to Crete to become queen and found a dynasty. The kingdom of Tyre was seen as the ancestor of European civilisation and the womb of different religions and cultures. The Greeks came to apply the name not only to their own territory, but also to the lands situated to the north and west. Europe was originally little more than a predominantly geographical construct, but the Roman legacy of language, culture and values gave the concept of Europe a wider foundation, as did Charlemagne’s empire (founded AD 800), the Holy Roman Empire (962–1806) and Christianity. The divisions of Christianity, the Reformation and Counter Reformation weakened the concept of Europe, as did the concomitant theories of state, state sovereignty and, later, nationalism.

Nonetheless, the idea of Europe remained as a political and cultural entity, although it clearly possessed both diversity and unity: diversity in geography with rivers and mountains dividing territory, diversity in language despite the Grecian Roman inheritance, and diversity in political authority as states sought and pursued their own interests leading to wars, destruction and death. But there was unity too in certain values and a religious, cultural and philosophical inheritance. This tension between diversity and unity persisted. Questions still arise as to what is Europe; this uncertainty has taken on a new importance with the potential enlargement of the European Union from its current fifteen to twenty-one early in the new century.

This issue has also arisen in other European organisations like the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which has fifty-five members, including Canada and the United States, as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Moldova, Turkmenistan and Izbekistan.¹ This poses the question of where does the boundary of Europe lie; and is it a geographical or some other boundary? ‘Europe’ has often been referred to as if it were synonymous with the EC or EU, but this was and is not true. It is worth recalling that there were only six original founders of the EC/EU: Belgium, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

EARLY MUSINGS

The idea of some form of common ground among Europeans can be traced back to Dubois in the fourteenth century who argued that there could only be peace if there were institutions to preserve it with arbitration. Suarez, in 1612, wrote of the human race as part of a universal community requiring law to direct it; Grotius, in 1625, sought some sort of body to adjudicate between parties and to try to force them to come to some agreement; Crucé, in 1623, was the first to emphasise trade; the Duc de Sully, writing at the turn of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was the first statesman to make proposals for: (a) the creation of a Conseil très chrétien, with full powers to arbitrate in disputes between members, and supported by an army of over 125,000 to enforce its decisions; (b) a Europe divided into more or less fifteen equal states; and (c) a Europe with preferably one religion and no more than three. Other schemes followed: William Penn, Montsequieu, the Abbé de Saint-Pierre, Rousseau, Bentham, Kant, the Comte de Saint-Simon, Mazzini, and Proudhon. But these ideas were of negligible influence. Napoleon was not so philosophical and suggested that he had ‘not succeeded to the throne of Louis XIV, but to that of Charlemagne’. Mazzini in the nineteenth century was an interesting ardent advocate of both Italian and European unity.²

The roots of action

It was not philosophies that made the difference but the impacts of practicalities, and in particular the impacts of the industrial revolution, the French Revolution, and Napoleon. Prior to the first there was limited mass production and communications were poor and dangerous. The industrial revolution instigated a major increase in the flow of people, goods and services between states, and began the informal integration of the European and world economies. The French Revolution and the legacy of Napoleon created trends pushing in the opposite direction – pressure for national self-determination and, consequently, nationalism and the decreasing permeability of state boundaries. The first led to transnational ties and functional co-operation and the latter gave states a greater role as ‘gate-keepers’ with regard to the movement of people, goods and services.

To resolve these apparently contradictory tendencies, where both freedom of movement and control of it were desired, international organisations were invented, providing for freedom of movement under a set of rules which were negotiated, determined and enforced by the governments of states. Therefore, the first international organisations were developed to help the state to fulfil its functions, not to do away with them.

In addition to these pragmatic responses to national and international developments, the nineteenth century saw an increasing awareness that war was gore as well as glory. The inadequacies of the international system were also becoming more and more apparent, fuelling a growing perception that there was a need for new bodies to (a) serve state interests and (b) serve the interests of the system as a whole; although there was to be no attack on sovereignty.

The Concert of Europe and the Zollverein

The twin tracks of focus upon economic relationships and concern with peace are reflected in the examples of the Concert of Europe and the Zollverein in the nineteenth century. The Concert of Europe came about after twenty-two years of war. The origins of system lay in the alliance against France, and the 1814 Treaty of Chaumont that symbolised the alliance of Austria, Prussia, Russia and Britain. In the Treaty it was agreed that they should ‘concert together … as to the means best adapted to guarantee to Europe, and to themselves reciprocally, the continuance of Peace …’.³ The Congress of Vienna (1814–15) sought to find ways of implementing the Chaumont agreement. The participating states agreed to build upon the connections that existed between them for the purpose of pursuing their common interests and of finding ways of providing for the repose, peace and prosperity of Europe. In fact, after a short time there were no regular meetings and no real system, but nonetheless a certain pattern, level of expectation and habit of consultation were established. This was not always successful and could not, for example, prevent the Crimean War of 1854–56. By the end of the century, however, the hardships of war and the costs of war and preparations for war were being taken much more seriously, and in 1899 and 1907 the two Hague Conferences attempted to mitigate the costs and increase the possibilities of prevention. Their limited success can be seen in the fact that the third Hague Conference scheduled for 1915 did not take place because of the Great War of 1914–18.⁴

The Prussian-based Zollverein of 1834 was a customs union among 23.5 million ‘Germanic’ people. It played a part in the unification of Germany, although again its primary purpose served national interests and the pursuit of national economic advantage for most participants. Several states only joined because of economic depression and empty exchequers, and the perception that resistance to Prussia was difficult if not impossible.⁵

Practical steps

The other initial tentative moves to create international organisations were in very specific mundane areas which were not overtly political or controversial, what came to be called later ‘low polities’, in the areas of river navigation, posts and telegraphs. The International River Commissions on the Rhine, Danube, Elbe, Douro, Po and Pruth, the International Telegraphic Association and the Universal Postal Union, were all rooted in genuine need, and laid the foundations of experience, expertise, formats and institution-building that were crucial precursors to twentieth-century developments.

The nineteenth century laid the foundations of permanent international secretariats manning the network of technical, administrative functional agencies; the periodic, almost institutionalised meetings of the great powers; the introduction of the notion that the other powers should also meet together to discuss matters of common concern; the growth of arbitration; and an economic integration. These seeds laid the foundations for the League of Nations, albeit that there was no direct line of descent.⁶

War

A major impetus, of course, in that next century was the horror of the First World War. The carnage of that war saw 8.5 million dead [5 million Allies and 3.5 million of the Central Powers] and 21 million wounded. But it was not just the scale of the deaths, it was their manner: the trench warfare, the gas attacks, the mass slaughter of conscripts for the advance of metres that might be lost the next day. It became difficult to argue any longer that ‘bloodshed is a cleansing and a sanctifying thing, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• List of boxes
• List of tables
• List of figures
• List of abbreviations
• Part 1 Building European Union
• Part 2 The Institutions of the Union
• Part 3 First Pillar Policies
• Part 4 Second and Third Pillar Policies
• Part 5 The Attitudes of the Member States and Applicant States to the Issues of European Integration, and the Question of Enlargement
• Conclusions
• Extended glossary
• Appendix
• Index