Sixty Years of European Integration and Global Power Shifts

Perceptions, Interactions and Lessons

Julien Chaisse

• Publisher: Hart Publishing
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781509954698
• eBook ISBN: 9781509933730
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: International Law
• Index: Law

This book focuses on a review of how sixty years of case-law and regulatory activity transformed the European continent and the world. It provides a critical analysis of the key features of EU integration and how this integration is perceived (internally and externally). In this context, this book also explores the EU's interactions with a number of other countries and organisations with the objective of assessing the EU's role in global governance.

1

The European Union: Achievements, Ongoing Challenges and Future Prospects

JULIEN CHAISSE

In recent years, crises have rocked the world, and the European Union (EU) has not been spared. While the EU was an exemplary model of prosperity and peace, seen as one of history’s greatest successes in regional cooperation just a decade ago, it is now seen as being in decline, with its leaders and institutions unable to solve the economic crises or appease the mistrust of citizens.¹ Sixty years after the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, the construction of Europe is going through a deep crisis which raises questions, criticisms, doubts and sometimes taunts.² The EU does not leave citizens and experts indifferent.

This book is about the 60 years of European integration which have transformed the European continent and the world. It provides a critical analysis of the key features of EU integration and how this integration is perceived (internally and externally). In this connection, this book also explores the EU’s interactions with a number of other countries and organisations with the objective of assessing the EU role in global governance.

The EU has the capacity to turn diverging interests into common policies.³ This observation can summarise in itself the relevance of the concept of ‘governance’ to analysis of the European political system.⁴ In fact, it is possible to identify three basic features of the decision-making process in Europe. First, the actors involved are multiple. They are both European and national, public and private. Second, political negotiation and compromise are the key words in the decision-making process. Third, the decision at the EU level is framed by a whole set of procedures, control mechanisms and legal norms which, if they guarantee a certain effectiveness of public action, undeniably contribute to the complexity of the EU system.

This complexity can therefore be analysed and modelled using the concept of ‘governance’.⁵ Indeed, this notion and its different characteristics allow to explain the dynamism as well as the uncertain, multi-actor and multidimensional nature of the EU integration.⁶ However, there is a great risk of seeing in the term ‘governance’ more a tool and technical procedures to respect rather than a utopia to achieve. To a certain extent, the use of the notion of governance could contribute to a certain depoliticisation of power in favour of technicality and the effectiveness of public action.⁷ It is up to scholars, in particular, to ensure that the reform of ‘European governance’ is not limited to the introduction of procedural tools and instruments, but that it can also contribute to the further integration of a Europe founded by law and based on collective preferences close to the interests of European citizens (protection of the environment, basic social standards and a role in the maintenance and protection of peace).⁸ It is only on this condition that the EU can fill its democratic deficit and move forward, in total harmony with the aspirations of its citizens.

I.The EU in Global Governance

The EU is a fantastic laboratory for building a new form of political unity. Despite its weaknesses, the EU has considerable value as an example to emulate. The EU is a true community of nations, dedicated to ensuring the security and prosperity of its members and projecting itself externally as a ‘soft power’, whose power is not expressed aggressively.⁹ The EU addresses problem solving in new terms, ones which are not expressions of ‘hard power’.¹⁰ The EU integration is not an easy project. In fact, it is undoubtedly a project constantly questioned, but it is a model of governance for the world. If things go well, global governance in a few decades may have achieved something on a planetary scale that looks like what the EU is trying to be. In this respect, the concept of the EU has a global vocation.

Despite its considerable economic weight, the EU plays a negligible role on the international scene. Often caricatured as an economic giant but a political dwarf, the EU seems to be struggling to turn its economic strength into diplomatic influence.¹¹ Indeed, there is no such thing as a European foreign policy, each EU Member State retaining full sovereignty in the conduct of its foreign policy.

This dichotomy between the economic weight of the EU and its place on the international political scene can largely be explained by its complex relationship with the very notion of power, which has its origins in the beginnings of European integration.¹²

When France proposed the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) on 9 May 1950, it did so in the name of peace and Franco-German reconciliation, but also with ulterior motives of power. For France, building a united Europe was a way to regain a role lost because of the two World Wars, and especially the second.¹³ Behind the project, France hid its ambition to take the leadership of a Europe able to have weight in the world.¹⁴ However, France’s partners were not at all aligned with this objective. For the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the EU construction was a vector of rehabilitation.¹⁵ But it was also a guard against power tendencies that could manifest themselves in the future. After the wars, Germany was afraid of itself, and a united Europe was a way to guard against its own demons. There is therefore distrust of power, which often leads to confrontation between nations. The Benelux countries share this feeling, as they have had to undergo the domination of their two great neighbours over the course of history. For them, Europe is a bulwark against the excesses of the French and German powers. They undoubtedly prefer American supervision, distant, less threatening and protective, than that of France and Germany in a political Europe. In fact, France is the only country for which Europe represents a vector of competition against the American superpower.¹⁶ These ambiguities and mistrusts largely explain the failure of political Europe to this day.

The end of the Cold War, however, marks a turning point. The threat posed by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) to Europe diverted the Europeans, French aside, from a desire for power. An organization of the ‘Old Continent’ based on a diplomatic and military agenda was likely to lead to an American disengagement in Europe. But no European defence could compete with Soviet power better than that of the US. The collapse of the Eastern bloc and its leader in 1989–91 instead raised doubts about maintaining a strong American commitment in Europe.¹⁷ Moreover, at the end of the twentieth century, wars reappeared on the continent, making it necessary to reflect on the creation of a political Europe. This partly explains the birth of the EU’s second pillar in the Maastricht Treaty (1992): the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).¹⁸ Intergovernmental co-operation is planned in the fields of diplomacy and defence, in order to allow Europeans to react when a conflict such as that of Yugoslavia (1991–2001)¹⁹ comes their way, and to be able to make their voice heard against the American hyper-power.

Since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, the EU has exercised its diplomatic muscle, notably through the European External Action Service (EEAS), its 139 delegations around the world and its 17 civilian missions and three continents (Europe, Africa and Asia).²⁰ The EU deploys a range of instruments, from peacekeeping and support for security sector reform, to humanitarian assistance, support for the rule of law and reconstruction. Nevertheless, almost 30 years after the end of the Cold War, the EU has still not become a major international power at the diplomatic level. It was able to impose sanctions against Russia during the 2014 Ukrainian crisis²¹ but remains divided on the Syrian issue and on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.²²

Yet, the EU has an opportunity to make its voice heard in the world through its multilateral approach, marked by its desire to uphold international law.²³ The EU was able to stand out from the United States during the presidency of G W Bush (2000–08) and has continued to do so since the election of President Trump (2016).²⁴ The US withdrawal in 2017 from the Paris Climate Agreement signed in 2015 offers the EU a leadership position in this area.²⁵ In addition, the EU offers third countries a model, that of regional integration, which other parts of the world can try to replicate (such as Mercosur in Latin America, for example).²⁶

The EU is a regional organisation with a unique integration model. With a solid institutional architecture, it benefits from significant transfers of sovereignty in a range of areas, particularly economic and commercial. Diplomacy and military affairs remain largely the preserve of the Member States. If the EU struggles to intervene in international crises (Syria, etc) and to carry weight in the international balance of power (for example against Russia), it is in fact not without influence. This is not exercised through coercion and military power but is based on the norms it promotes.²⁷ This particular form of integration into international relations is due to the very nature of the EU and its genesis.

II.The Evolution of a European Political Community

The current geopolitical context is conducive to a revival of European integration.²⁸ An exceptional opportunity is opening up for Europe to contribute to the international scene via its values of freedoms, the arts and sciences, and the economy, and its example of cooperation between States. Beyond Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, there is room for an alternative political and economic model which should bring European together. How can the integration of the continent be revived?

The dream of the founding fathers of the EU has been an ‘ever closer’ union, but also a ‘bigger one’.²⁹ From the beginning, their vision was continental in scope. Building a ‘community of law’ based on treaties and institutions breaks with a past based on power relations.³⁰ Extending the borders of the EU therefore means assuming this founding ambition, which also gives the EU a growing weight in the world.³¹

Faced with the challenge of enlargement to the East in the aftermath of the collapse of communist regimes, the EU established a more explicit link between respect for democracy and human rights, on the one hand, and cohesion, on the other hand. In addition, given the differences in economic development between the Fifteen and the candidate countries of central and Eastern Europe, the EU decided to impose economic criteria as well. Thus, in 1993, the Copenhagen European Council defined three sets of criteria, confirmed by the Treaty of Lisbon,³² that the candidate countries must satisfy: first, a set of political criteria: rule of law, stable democratic system and protection of minorities; second, a set of economic criteria: a functioning market economy and ability to compete within the Union; third, assumption of the obligations of accession: to subscribe to the objectives of political, economic and monetary union, to take up the ‘acquis communautaire’ (that is, to accept and transpose into national legislation all European force).³³

Article 2 of the Treaty on EU (TEU) specifies the values that the EU claims:

The EU is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.³⁴

For the EU, the geographical criterion disappears behind that of values, unlike the Council of Europe which, for its part, explicitly defined its architecture in 1989–91 and is based on the geographical borders of Europe generally accepted.³⁵ The EU combines values (democracy and rights), historic roots and the will to join.³⁶

No other continent outside Europe has experienced in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries so many reconfigurations of its internal and external demarcations or pushed so far the obliteration of part of its political boundaries. From six countries in 1957 to 28 today, the EU has experienced seven waves of accession of new countries, commonly called ‘enlargements’.³⁷ For the past 10 years or so, the debate on enlargement has focused on the question of the ultimate borders of the Union, and therefore on the nature and ambitions of European integration.

Finally, since its birth, the EU has been built according to a double logic: first enlargement, as its territory is growing and expanding with new memberships. Second, deepening, because the EU’s degree of economic and political integration is increasing and evolving towards more supra-nationalism. However, to widen, some fear that the Union has compromised, to a certain extent, its ability to deepen and realise the European project. Others envisage a more differentiated EU-Europe at different scales: an economic area of 32 countries (including the United Kingdom after 2019); the current Union, at 27 (common market, structuring policies, and values); a Eurozone Europe, more integrated in fiscal and budgetary terms; and a Schengen Europe, introducing internal mobility and controlling its external borders. Finally, there is the Europe of the founders, around France, Germany, Italy, etc. This is what the foreign ministers of the six founding countries expressed on 25 June 2016 in Berlin, the day following the British referendum on withdrawal from the EU: ‘We will have to recognize that there are different levels of ambition among the Twenty-Seven regarding the European integration project’.³⁸

III.Emerging Global Challenges and Shifting Paradigms

Global governance is a daunting task, and new challenges continue to emerge while some older problems are solved.³⁹ The Panama Papers (which uncovered more than US$1.28 billion held in tax havens and with the mechanisms of tax optimisation) show the way to go for real transparency of the financial flows.⁴⁰ Some international treaties are flouted, like that on non-proliferation by North Korea, and the san...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• 1. The European Union: Achievements, Ongoing Challenges and Future Prospects
• PART I: EUROPEAN LEGAL INTEGRATION: PROCESS, DIFFICULTIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
• PART II: THE EUROPEAN UNION AS A GLOBAL ACTOR: ISSUES AND PARTNERS
• PART III: EUROPEAN UNION’S TRADE POLICY: GLOBAL AND REGIONAL TRADE CHALLENGES
• Index
• Copyright Page