Changing Europe

Identities, Nations and Citizens

David Dunkerley, Lesley Hodgson, Stanislaw Konopacki, Tony Spybey, Andrew Thompson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781134497942
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

Europe has changed significantly and is now facing even more dramatic transformations with the enlargement of the European Union, the introduction of the euro and its increased role as a global actor in world affairs. This clear and accessible textbook provides an introduction to the key issues now shaping the new Europe and its citizens.The book features:
* a history of the idea of 'Europe' and the development of the European nation state
* analysis of European identity and the challenges posed by citizenship, migration, human rights, regionalism and nationalism
* examination of the enlargement process and the impact of globalisation
* key learning points, text boxes and guides for further reading to help students

Chapter 1
Introduction

‘Europe’ is changing. While this may seem a statement of the obvious, it is nevertheless one that arguably more accurately applies to the present state of affairs in the European Union than to any time since the 1957 Treaty of Rome established the European Economic Community. Since the 1951 Treaty of Paris created the European Coal and Steel Community, the first step in the process of European integration, the membership of what we now recognise as the EU has expanded in size from its original six founding countries to its current fifteen member states. The scope of the EU has changed too during this period; from the original, limited concerns relating to the coal and steel industries to the broad, and expanding, portfolio that includes, among other areas, environmental policy, transport, regional development, education and training, cultural affairs, and significantly enhanced control over economic matters. Almost daily, new policies and directives are emerging from Brussels in areas as diverse as the environment, crime, justice systems, transport and consumer issues. Today, however, the EU is on the threshold of some of the most dramatic changes in the history of European integration.

At the time of submitting this manuscript, for example, the European Council in Laeken is about to debate ‘the future of Europe’ with a view to generating a common foreign and security policy. Moreover, the European Union was within days of introducing a European currency – the euro – to be used by the majority of its member states. With an eye on the very near future, the European Commission was making considerable progress in the negotiations to admit possibly ten new member states by 2004. The process of eastward enlargement holds numerous serious implications for the EU, not least that its institutions will have to undergo substantial restructuring in order to cope with the pressures of expanded membership (this matter was addressed in the 2001 Treaty of Nice).

The enlargement of the EU also raises issues relating to the meaning of ‘Europe’. As we show in this book, in the post-1945 era what ‘Europe’ symbolises has become increasingly linked to the EU. During this period many of the countries currently applying to join the EU were on the other side of the ‘Iron Curtain’, allied with the USSR. Enlargement has therefore prompted discussion of what the common bonds between Europeans in an expanded Union are, as well as of where the external borders of ‘Europe’ now lie. Enlargement, and more particularly the possibility that increased size might mean increased distance from EU citizens, has also given rise to calls to reform not just the institutions of the EU, but also how the EU links with its citizens. The White Paper on European Governance, released in July 2001, notes that the ‘Union is often seen as remote and at the same time too intrusive’, and advocates a process of wide-ranging reform – including linking with citizens via local and regional democracy – in order to connect EU citizens better to the EU. Change, then, refers not just to the mechanics of the processes driving the EU forward but also to the way in which what ‘Europe’ – as represented by the EU – means is evolving.

A changing ‘Europe’ therefore has a bearing on, and raises issues relating to, the identities of the inhabitants of the EU and the applicant countries. This volume addresses these issues at various levels – the region, the nation, the state, and the EU itself. How identities, as much as government, operate at different levels is a key concern for politicians and public alike as ‘Europe’ evolves.

Extracts from Tony Blair's speech to the European Research Institute, University of Birmingham, 23 November 2001

The instability of the world today makes a successful Europe more necessary than ever . . . The benefits delivered by the European Union and its forerunners have been enormous. The network of interdependence has helped countries across the continent develop stable and prosperous democracies . . . Europe has enlarged to include new democracies and now is opening to the former Communist bloc. We have a common foreign and security policy which offers hope to troubled regions like the Balkans and Afghanistan . . . Europe is in the forefront of world trade liberalisation and better help for developing countries. And now most of this new market of 380m people has a common currency. Yet Europe now faces huge challenges as it integrates and expands: how to make the single currency work well; economic reform; development of a common defence policy; and fundamental reform of its institutions . . . we must be whole-hearted, not half-hearted, partners in Europe . . . as a union of nations working more closely together, not a federal superstate submerging national identity . . . I want a sovereignty rooted in democratic consent. Rooted in being, in this century, not just a national power in shifting alliances, but a great European power in a lasting Union. A Union of nations, of democracies with shared goals, delivering shared peace and prosperity for our citizens.

The extract from the UK Prime Minister's speech encapsulates many of the changes and challenges currently confronting the EU, including the perennial matter of the relationship between national identities and European integration. While Tony Blair's vision is a positive one, it is not as committed as those of many other European leaders who would argue for more fundamental changes of both the Union itself and its institutions. The President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, speaking two weeks earlier at the College of Europe in Bruges, argued forcefully for an enlarged and more united Europe.

Extracts from Romano Prodi's speech to the College of Europe, Bruges, 12 November 2001

We have the recipe for a form of integration which is both supranational and also respectful of the nations and states that it is composed of, however large or small: the Community method. Only this method, based on common institutions, allows member countries, large and small to contribute on an equal footing to carry out a joint project. We shall shortly have a Convention that will bring together the representatives of the European and national institutions to prepare the future of the Union . . . From the very beginning, this Commission's priority has been enlargement. We have already made extraordinary progress along the road . . . In a year's time, we shall be giving our assessment of each country's ability to take on the rights and obligations of membership of the Union. We are confident that at that time we will be able to conclude the negotiations with the countries that have complied with the accession criteria. In line with the objectives set by Parliament and the European Council, the necessary ratifications can be completed and these countries can enter the Union before the elections in June 2004. The determination with which we work for enlargement must not, however, make us blind or deaf to the fears that accompany this process. The foremost preoccupation is security. This is a legitimate concern to which we must give concrete answers. With enlargement, the European Union is faced with the problem of controls at its own external borders. Europe does not consider itself a fortress under siege, nor does it want to erect new walls . . . However, at this particular moment in time effective border controls are essential to internal security and public confidence . . . Europeans have constructed an area of wellbeing, development, stability and social justice and have achieved economic and monetary union . . . Europe has the resources and capacity to become a global player in the search for a new multipolar balance in the new century. An enlarged Europe working with the Euro will, above all, have the size and demographic, economic and financial weight to constitute a fundamental component in world equilibriums . . . Although each country has its own particular characteristics, European societies share a vision of human rights and the rights and duties of citizens and institutions that is based on a sense of solidarity . . . What does it mean to be European today, in Europe and the world? Trying to answer that question in practical deeds and proposals has been the guiding principle of our work . . . Europe is at a turning point in its history.

Both speeches address issues of central concern to this book, namely enlargement, the nation-state, integration, identity, sovereignty, immigration, human rights, citizenship, globalisation and so on. These are the issues confronting Europe at its ‘turning point in history’. How the EU should proceed from this point is the subject of considerable debate. European politicians themselves appear as unsure as anyone, with Tony Blair calling for a ‘superpower not a superstate’, Jacques Chirac wanting ‘not a United States of Europe but a United Europe of States’, and Joschka Fischer supporting the idea of a ‘European Federation’.

At the same time, it is questionable whether the citizens of Europe are actually welcoming these changes whatever and wherever they may be. A situation has developed where fewer people have been known to vote in European elections than in television game shows, where European-wide opinion polls show apathy if not outright opposition, where citizens express their feelings of alienation, exclusion and powerlessness to changes at the European level and where results of recent referenda (for example, in Ireland and Denmark) show citizens expressing their hostility to proposed changes. The European Commission is aware of the need to harness support at the grass-roots level and, indeed, the 2001 Governance White Paper is one such attempt to alleviate the ‘democratic deficit’ and the grand ennui especially in relation to European Union policy-making.

Against this backdrop, this volume addresses both the changes within institutions and developments relating to the identities of the citizens of the expanding EU. The structure of the book has a clear pattern in addressing change at different levels, starting with past changes that explain the present, examining the issue of contemporary change at the national and sub-national level, moving to the impact of change on the individual whether as a citizen or a migrant or an asylum-seeker, and then broadening out to understand the institutions of the EU, including just what is being proposed with the candidate countries and, finally, to recognise that the EU is a player on the global stage, influencing and being influenced by global forces.

Our discussion of these issues begins with a consideration of an issue that is central to the debate on the future of Europe: citizenship. Within western Europe the growing interest in the idea of citizenship has been a result of the increased ‘power gap’ between governed and governments, raising in turn the question of rights and the potential for subjects to become ‘citizens’. Furthermore, the deficiencies of welfare states and their questionable continuing ability to provide citizens with social conditions that have been enjoyed for the past fifty years have become more poignant in recent years.

Chapter 2 examines the idea of citizenship within the context of the tradition of European political thought. The starting point is Aristotle, where, in his Politics, ‘man’ is treated as a political animal whose identity is determined by participation in the polis. From here, the development of the idea of citizenship is briefly discussed within the traditions of the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Special attention is given to the notion of ‘modernity’, starting with Marshall's ideas as an important reference point for all contemporary discussions of the problem. The four modern philosophical doctrines that focus on the idea of citizenship – liberalism, republicanism, communitarianism, neo-republicanism – are also discussed.

Chapter 2 also addresses the issue of European citizenship. There has been a growing interest in the idea of European citizenship over the past decade largely as a result of four political developments. First, the liberation of east central Europe and German reunification; second, the issue of European integration marked by the Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty of Amsterdam; third, the increasing number of immigrants coming to Europe from different parts of the world; and fourth, the challenge of further EU enlargement. The discussion therefore examines the objectives behind EU citizenship, the main purposes of which are to enhance the rights and freedoms of member states’ nationals, to reduce the so-called democratic deficit, to create a European identity and to delimit those belonging to the EU. The provisions regarding European citizenship within the Maastricht Treaty, the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Treaty of Nice are central here.

The development of a transnational form of citizenship holds implications for the relationship between citizens and their national states, as modern citizenship rights have developed within the framework of the nation-state. Across the world there is speculation about the future of the nation-state; in the EU, and for those states which are in the process of applying to join the EU, this is an issue that is arguably of greater significance than for states elsewhere in the world. As most commentators, and even national politicians, recognise, membership of the EU comes at some cost with respect to the degree of control that national governments may exert over affairs within the territory over which they have de jure control. The introduction of the single currency zone for some member states has advanced this process qualitatively. Chapter 3 therefore discusses the changing fortunes of the nation-state in Europe. It asks what is meant by ‘nation-state’ before exploring the development of the idea of the nation-state from the late eighteenth century to the contemporary period. The overall aim here is to consider why people have to position themselves as ‘belonging’ to a national community and assess whether there is any likelihood that this identification is likely to diminish in the future.

Chapter 4 continues this discussion of national identity. Political developments unfolding across Europe in recent years testify to the continuing salience of nationalism and national identity as major political forces. From the war in Kosovo and more recent disputes in Macedonia to the ongoing disputes about the implications of European integration for national identity, it is evident that nationalism remains a powerful force in European societies. Chapter 4 begins by examining how we can define ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism’, before moving on to discuss what factors have contributed to the rise and development of nationalism in Europe. The chapter finishes by evaluating some of the strategies employed to resolve conflict between nation-states, as well as between national groups.

Chapter 5 moves the discussion away from nations and nation-states to a more local form of attachment: the region. Over the course of the post-1945 period, and particularly since the late 1970s, a number of those states now incorporated within the EU have sponsored processes of regionalisation. There are nevertheless considerable disparities between the powers exercised by regions across the EU and the applicant countries. At one end of the scale, the federal systems in Belgium and Germany, for example, give elected regional politicians the right directly to participate in the EU policy-making process. At the other end, the Republic of Ireland, Greece, and many of the countries of central and eastern Europe do not possess a regional tier of government. Pressures to devolve more executive and legislative powers to regions are growing, however. In part, these pressures come from domestic political movements, as was the case in the reforms that led to the creation of a new constitution in Spain in 1978 and the changes in the UK in the late 1990s. The EU has also been a major influence in bringing regions more firmly into the limelight. From the beginning of EU regional policy in the 1970s to the European Commission's recent calls for greater involvement of regional governments in developing and implementing EU policy, the EU has helped the region to step out of the shadow of the nation-state.

Chapters 6 and 7 discuss the complementary issues of migration, asylum-seeking and human rights in Europe. Although migration to many European countries has occurred consistently since the end of the Second World War, it now has a changed and changing face. Economic migration has given way to political migration; the source countries of migrants have shifted from former colonial countries to a more global setting but especially from eastern and central Europe and North Africa; the sheer numbers have become almost overwhelming for some countries. In view of the changing nature of immigration, Chapter 6 looks specifically at how the situation has unfolded in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden and some Mediterranean countries. No consistent picture emerges given that national rather than European policy has tended to prevail. This is as true for asylum-seekers, although a clearer European strategy is beginning to emerge.

Chapter 7 argues that human rights have traditionally been bound up with national sovereignty, and that moves to internationalise rights have largely been hampered by a lack of commitment and implementation at nation-state level. The wide disparity between proclaimed ideals, expressed intentions and the actual situation is therefore emphasised. The role of the nation-state in the implementation of human rights treaties is analysed, as is the growth, in the post-1945 era, of various supranational mechanisms in Europe for advancing human rights.

Chapter 8 continues the focus on Europe as a transnational space, although here the focus is on the broader issue of a European identity. As this chapter argues, ‘Europe’ and ‘European’ are ideas, and as such the manner in which they have been defined has altered since the Middle Ages, when, as we will show, interest began to grow in them. How these ideas have been given form has always held important implications both for those who have been defined as belonging to ‘Europe’ and those defined as non-‘European’, and have been informed by changing political currents. In exploring the idea of ‘Europe’ and, more particularly, ‘European identity’, this chapter addresses three main issues. First, it considers the development of the idea of ‘Europe’ in order to demonstrate how the borders of this entity, and the cultural substance it supposedly embodies, have altered since the Middle Ages. Second, it examines the efforts of the EU, and the European Commission in particular, to give form to the idea of European identity. The final concern of the chapter is to point to the diversity within ‘Europe’.

Part of the concern in Chapter 8 is the extent to which EU citizens identify with EU institutions. In recent years, and most recently within the 2001 Governance White Paper, concern has grown within the European Commission that EU citizens are unclear about the functions of the main institutions of the EU. Chapter 9 discusses the role of these institutions along with the process of European integration. Of the main institutions, arguably the most powerful is the intergovernmental institution of the Council of Ministers. By contrast th...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Tables
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: European citizenship
• Chapter 3: The nation-state in Europe
• Chapter 4: Nationalism in Europe
• Chapter 5: Regions in Europe and ‘a Europe of the Regions’
• Chapter 6: Migration and asylum-seeking in Europe
• Chapter 7: Human rights – the European experience
• Chapter 8: ‘Europe’ and European identity
• Chapter 9: European nation-states Institutions and integration
• Chapter 10: The enlargement of the European Union
• Chapter 11: European nation-states and globalisation
• Notes
• References