Transcript The basics of the EU - Riverside City College

The basics of the EU
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What is the European Union?
An economic and political partnership between 27 democratic European countries.
What are its aims?
Peace, prosperity and freedom for its 495 million citizens.
What results so far?
Frontier-free travel and trade, the euro (the single European currency), safer food
and a greener environment, better living standards in poorer regions, joint action
on crime and terror, cheaper phone calls and air travel, etc…
How does it work?
EU countries set up bodies to run the EU and adopt its legislation. The main ones
are:
the European Parliament (representing the people of Europe);
the Council of the European Union (representing national governments);
the European Commission (representing the common EU interest).
Historical Overview
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1951:
France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands sign a treaty to tie
their coal and steel industries so closely together that they could never again go to war
against each other.
1957:
these six countries sign the Treaty of Rome, creating the European Economic
Community (EEC, later the European Union) with its 'common market'.
1968:
the EEC eliminates all quotas and 'tariffs' - duties on imported goods - from trade in
goods within it. However, there remain 'non-tariff barriers' - such as differences
between the Member States' safety and packaging requirements or between national
administrative procedures. These differences in practice prevent manufacturers from
marketing the same goods all over Europe.
Early 1980's:
progress towards a single market is virtually halted, the main reason being simply that
Europe's increasingly uncompetitive national economies are too rigid and fragmented,
and the European countries cannot reach the unanimous agreements necessary to
change the situation.
History cont…
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1985:
European Commission publishes a comprehensive blueprint for welding together
the fragmented national markets to create a genuinely frontier-free single market
by the end of 1992.
1986:
EU adopts the Single European Act. This makes it possible for certain necessary
decisions to be taken by a majority vote in the Council of Ministers. This is vital for
the meeting the 1992 deadline.
1986 - 1992:
EU adopts nearly 280 separate items of legislation prising open hitherto-closed
national markets to complete the single market. In many areas, 12 sets of national
regulations (there were only 12 members then) are replaced by one common
European rule, which vastly reduces the complications and costs for any business
trying to market a product throughout the Union. In other areas, to avoid having to
adopt new legislation, the Member States simply agree to give each others' laws
and technical standards the same validity as their own (the 'mutual recognition'
principle).
History cont…
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1993:
the single market becomes a reality.
1993 - present:
the single market helps to bring down barriers, create more jobs and increase
overall prosperity in the EU. The Commission presents and regularly updates the
“Internal Market Strategy,” which sets out a long-term strategic vision and
framework for improving the functioning of the Single Market.
The Founding Father
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Jean Monnet (1888 – 1979): “We are not forming coalitions of states, we are
uniting men”
Jean Monnet was born on 9 November 1888 in Cognac, France, into a family of
cognac merchants. At the age of sixteen, after passing only the first part of his
university-entrance examinations, he abandoned his formal education and moved
to London. There, he spent two years learning business and the primary language
of commerce, English. In 1906, his father sent him abroad to work for the family
business. Do not bring any books,” his father advised him. “No one can think for
you. Look out the window, talk to people...” Subsequently, Monnet made many
business trips worldwide, travelling to Scandinavia, Russia, Egypt, Canada, and the
United States.
“I am not an optimist or a pessimist; I am determined”
Monnet cont…
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In 1914, discharged from the military for health reasons, Monnet sought to serve his
country in other ways. In his mind, the only path that would lead to an Allied victory lay
in the fusion of France and England’s war efforts. However, he observed that, in reality,
the Allies were acting independently rather than collectively. He proposed a plan that
would co-ordinate the Allies’ war resources; the French President of the Council agreed
that it should be implemented.
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Due to his effectiveness during the war, Jean Monnet was named Secretary General of
the League of Nations upon its creation in 1919, at the age of thirty-one, by
Clémenceau and Balfour. He resigned from this position in 1923 in order to devote
himself to managing the family business, which was experiencing difficulty. As an
international financier, he proved to be instrumental in the economic recovery of
several Central and Eastern European nations, helping to stabilize the Polish Zloty in
1927 and the Romanian Leu in 1928. In 1929, his experience in international finance led
him to found and co-manage the Bancamerica-Blair, a large U.S. bank in San Francisco.
From 1934 to 1936, at the invitation of Chiang Kai-shek, Monnet lived in China, assisting
with the reorganization of their railway network.
Monnet cont…
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Initially commissioned in 1938 by Edouard Daladier to negotiate an order for French
military aircraft with the United States, Jean Monnet was sent to London in December
1939 by the French and British governments. There, he oversaw the collectivization of
the two countries’ production capacities. When the French were defeated in June 1940,
Monnet’s influence inspired de Gaulle and Churchill to accept the plan for the total
union of France and the United Kingdom — a fusion which was to enable the two
countries to stand up to Nazism — whereas Pétain accepted the defeat of France and
signed the armistice.
In August 1940, Jean Monnet was sent to the United States by the British government
as a member of the British Supply Council, in order to negotiate the purchase of war
supplies. Soon after his arrival in Washington, he became one of President Roosevelt’s
most trusted advisers. He persuaded the President to launch a massive arms production
program to supply the Allies with military material. Indeed, America was to become the
“arsenal of democracies.” In 1941, President Roosevelt, with Churchill’s agreement,
launched the Victory Program, which represented the forceful entry of the United
States into the war effort. According to the economist Keynes, this “shortened the war
by one year.”
Monnet cont…
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In 1943, Monnet became a member of the National Liberation Committee - the
free French government in Algiers. On 5 August, he addressed the Committee:
“There will be no peace in Europe if the States rebuild themselves on the basis of
national sovereignty, with its implications of prestige politics and economic
protection (...). The countries of Europe are not strong enough individually to be
able to guarantee prosperity and social development for their peoples. The States
of Europe must therefore form a federation or a European entity that would make
them into a common economic unit.”
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“To create Europe is to create peace”
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Following the Liberation, at the request of General de Gaulle, Jean Monnet
designed and implemented the national modernization and development plan
that helped revive the French economy.
Monnet cont…
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In 1950, in the face of rising international tensions, Monnet felt that the time had
come to attempt an irreversible step toward uniting the European countries. In his
house in Houjarray, he and his team conceived the idea of the European
Community. On 9 May 1950, with the agreement of Chancellor Adenauer, Robert
Schuman made a declaration in the name of the French government. Prepared by
Jean Monnet, this declaration proposed placing all the Franco-German production
of steel and coal under a common High Authority open to the other countries of
Europe.
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“Through the consolidation of basic production and the institution of a new High
Authority, whose decisions will bind France, Germany and the other countries that
join, this proposal represents the first concrete step towards a European
federation, imperative for the preservation of peace.” Robert Schuman (French
Foreign Minister)
Monnet cont…
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Soon the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the
Netherlands replied favourably. Thus the European Coal and Steel Community
(ECSC) was born, laying the foundation of the European Community. In 1952, Jean
Monnet became the first President of the High Authority.
“Make men work together, show them that beyond their differences and
geographical boundaries there lies a common interest.”
Retired in his house at Houjarray, Jean Monnet devoted his final energies to
writing his Mémoires, in which he recorded the lessons of his experience and his
mode of action for generations to come. He died on 16 March 1979 at the age of
ninety-one.
Jean Monnet liked to quote this saying from Dwight Morrow “There are two
categories of men: those who want to be someone and those who want to do
something.” He was said to have added… “There is less competition.”
Other pan-European antecedents
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Roman Empire; European Christendom; Charlemagne, Napoleon, Hitler?
For the majority of Europeans, World War I meant the beginning of the end of the
European civilization. A minority, however, drew the conclusion that Europe’s capacity
to transcend war depended on its ability to overcome the aggressive nationalisms that
had dragged the continent to the catastrophe of 1914 -1919 and to adopt the ideal of a
united and peaceful Europe as a common project.
In 1923, the Austrian Count Richard Coudenhove Kalergi founded the Pan-European
Movement. In 1926, he managed to bring together diverse political figures in the First
Pan-European Congress, held in Vienna.
"Europe as a political concept does not exist. This part of the world includes nations and
states installed in the chaos, in a barrel of gunpowder of international conflicts, in a
field of future conflicts. This is the European Question: the mutual hate of the
Europeans that poisons the atmosphere. (....) The European Question will only be
solved by means of the union of Europe's nations. (...) The biggest obstacle to the
accomplishment of the United States of Europe is the one thousand years old rivalry
between the two most populated nations of Pan-Europe: Germany and France...“
(Kalergi, Pan-Europa, 1923)
Pan-Europeanism cont…
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In 1929, Aristide Briand, the French Prime Minister, gave a speech before the
Assembly of the League of Nations at which he formulated the idea of a federation
of European nations based on solidarity and on the pursuit of economic
prosperity and political and social cooperation. The speech was greatly welcomed
by the German government. Many economists, among them John Maynard
Keynes, applauded Briand's view.
"I believe that a sort of federal bond should exist between the nations
geographically gathered as Europe countries; these nations should, at any
moment, have the possibility of establishing contact, of discussing their interests,
of adopting common resolutions, of creating amongst themselves a bond of
solidarity that allows them, on suitable occasions, to face up to serious
circumstances, in case they arise. (...) Evidently, the association will take place
mainly in the economic domain: this is the most pressing question...“ (Sept. 5,
1929)
Pan-Europeanism cont…
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The League of Nations asked Briand to present a memorandum with a detailed
project. The French politician submitted a Memorandum on the organization of a
system of European Federal Union in 1930. It was too late. The economic
depression had begun to sweep away the ideas of solidarity and cooperation in
international relations. People who went on advocating the European union, such
as the French politician Edouard Herriot who published The United States of
Europe in 1931, were a minority. Adolf Hitler's rise to the post of German
chancellery in 1933 involved the definitive end of the European harmony and the
rebirth of the monster of nationalism in its worst form. Europe and, with her, the
world were heading for a new catastrophe.
Europe had to witness a second catastrophe, World War II (1939-1945), before it
became fully aware of the suicidal absurdity that nationalist rivalry had led the
continent to.
WWII and European intergration
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Three realities were crucial in this new awareness of the necessity of European
integration:
Firstly, the Europeans' awareness of their own weakness. WW II put a definitive
end to the traditional European hegemony in the world. The two new
superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, had a superior economic,
political and military might than the heterogeneous group of European States.
Secondly, the conviction that it was necessary to avoid, by all possible means, a
new confrontation between European States. The two world wars had begun as
European civil wars and the continent had been the main battle field in both.
Essentially, it was a question of searching for an accommodation between France
and Germany. A compromise that would be endorsed by the USA. European
integration would pave the way to a guaranteed peace.
Thirdly, the extended desire among many Europeans to create a freer, fairer and
more prosperous continent in which international relationships were developed in
a framework of concord.
Post WWII Europe
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In 1946, the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a celebrated
speech at Zurich University (Switzerland). It’s considered by many people as the
first step towards European integration in the postwar period.
"I wish to speak to you today about the tragedy of Europe. (...) Yet all the while
there is a remedy which, if it were generally and spontaneously adopted by the
great majority of people in many lands, would as if by a miracle transform the
whole scene, and would in a few years make all Europe, or the greater part of it, as
free and as happy as Switzerland is today. What is this sovereign remedy? It is to
recreate the European Family, or as much of it as we can, and to provide it with a
structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. We must
build a kind of United States of Europe. (...) The first step in the recreation of the
European Family must be a partnership between France and Germany." Winston
Churchill, Speech at Zurich University, 19th September 1946
The US and Early European integration
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The United States, unlike after First World War, didn't opt for isolation and
assumed its responsibility as a Great Power by adopting a policy based on resolved
intervention in European matters.
The American government was convinced that obstacles to free trade, spread after
the 1929 slump and rise of Nazism and Fascism, had been largely responsible for
the international tensions that led to the Second World War. The implementation
of a free trade policy became a basic condition for any country to receive American
economic aid.
Moreover, this was the period when the world witnessed the beginning of the
Cold War. The United States, applying the “Truman Doctrine” to curb the
expansion of communism and of the Soviet Union, launched the Marshall Plan to
alleviate the difficulties of European countries. It was to foster economic
development in a destroyed Europe with the political objective of impeding the
extension of the communism.
The US and Europe cont…
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The US promoted the foundation of a centralized European organization that
administered and organized the delivery of the massive economic help of the
Marshall Plan. In 1948, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation
(OEEC) was established with this aim. This was one of the first institutions that
involved a great part of Western European countries. The OEEC helped to liberalize
trade among the member States, introduced ideas in favor of monetary
agreements and enhanced economic cooperation.
In 1949, following another American initiative, most of the Western European
democratic States founded, alongside the USA and Canada, NATO (the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization), in order to confront the Soviet Union’s military
power.
Europe cont…
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One year before, in 1948, the Benelux (Customs Union between Belgium, the
Netherlands and Luxembourg) had started working by introducing a common
external tariff. This Union had been created in 1944, before the end of the Second
World War.
The setting up of the Council of Europe, in 1949, meant another major step
forward. The Council tried to incite political cooperation among European
countries. However, its statutes did not claim as an objective neither the union,
nor the federation of States, and no sort of surrender of sovereignty was expected
from the member States. Their main function has been to reinforce the democratic
system and the human rights in the member States.
The British “Problem”
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Given it’s history, recent and ancient such as suspicion of French motives and
German power, there was no “Eurocenter” in the British political party system in
the 1950s. So, they didn’t choose to join the ECSC but were invited to the Messina
conference where plans were laid for the Treaty of Rome.
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Brits were skeptical observers and assumed that nothing very much would be
decided. They were wrong.
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Brits offered a broader plan for a European free-trade area without the federalist
and politically integrationist aspects of the ECSC.
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When the Treaty of Rome was signed and ratified in 1957, creating the EEC, the
Brits took their free-trade area to other countries – Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
Austria, Switzerland and Portugal – and the European Free Trade Association
(EFTA) was formed in 1960.
The British “Problem” cont…
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The prevailing view in Britain during the late fifties and beyond was that
membership of the EEC would interfere with economic and political links with the
US and the Commonwealth countries. They also believed their political system was
superior to continental ones.
The dilemma for the original six EEC countries was that if Europe was to become a
serious player in world affairs, they would eventually need Britain to join but as
they deepened their integration, it would potentially be more difficult to bring
Britain on board.
For the French under de Gaulle, who dominated the original six including
Germany, the British were not sufficiently in favor of French leadership and were
too US-centered for his liking. Apparently believing that the Brits would also object
to the very generous Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), he vetoed Britain’s first
membership application in January 1963 which also cancelled the entry bids of
Denmark, Norway and Ireland.
Britain joins EEC
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It wasn’t until 1970 that, with the Conservative Party in power again, this time led
by Edward Heath (who led negotiations in their first bid to join), the Brits seriously
tried again to join.
The succeeded in 1973 along with Denmark and Ireland (Norway failed to ratify
with a no vote in a referendum). By this time, France was concerned that Germany,
which was succeeding economically, was looking eastward under Willy Brandt’s
SPD leadership (Ostpolitik).