An Overview of Origins of the European Union

1. An Overview of Origins of the European Union From 1945

2. The Historical Context: • Post war Europe; • East West split – two hegemonic powers fighting over spheres of influence • Germany divided – • Disenchantment with the nation-state: the intergovernmental organisations of the past had not resolved conflict in the European territory

3. Mushrooming of International organisations, post 1945 • The Military dimension • The Economic dimension • The Political dimension

4. Truman doctrine: ‘America would aid free peoples to resist threats by armed minorities or by outside pressure. America would also help such free peoples maintain their national integrity against totalitarian regimes Brussels Treaty Organisation Atlantic Alliance ( April 1949), founded NATO EDC (plan for a European Army, a Treaty signed, but never ratified) WEU ( 1954, when Italy and Germany incorporated into the organisation Military Dimension

5. Marshall Plan: 1947 a recovery programme for Europe OEEC – Europeans distributing aid to Europeans through recovery programmes Schumann Plan (1950) ‘Europe must be organized on a federal basis. A Franco-German union is an essential element in it. The French government proposes to place the whole of Franco-German coal and steel production under an international authority … By the pooling of basic production and the establishment of a new high Authority whose dicision will be binding on France Germany and the countries that join them, this proposal will lay the first concrete foundation of the European Federation which is indispensable to the maintenance of peace Economic organisations

6. Europe Day! • Robert Schumann: 9 May 1950 • “ A United Europe will not arise overnight, or in one grand design. It will be built on practical achievements creating at first de facto interdependence”

7. 1950 – what kind of cooperation for European states • OEEC/Council of Europe not providing impetus required • something more practical and more ambitious needed- national sovereignty needed to be tackled more boldly and on a narrower front ( Jean Monnet) • national interest dimension: • satisfied specific and pressing national interest of the two central states: France and West Germany • the ‘United Europe’ vision: • its founding fathers - Monnet, Schumann, Adenauer at pains to underline that the importance of the project ‘is above all political and not economic’

8. Results of the Schumann Plan • April 1951, European Coal and Steel Community founded, Treaty signed, ratified by July 1952 • Innovative institutions, Jean Monnet, President of the High Authority, his determination ensured that the new institutions would have a political life independent of existing governments • An ‘inner six’, France, Germany, Italy, BENELUX, have decided to move to a new plane of co-operation between their respective nation-states through integration by ‘sector’ ( coal and steel)

9. ECSC: Treaty of Paris • ambitious policy aims which go beyond creating a free trade area, and, lay foundations of a common market in basic materials of industrialised society • the first European inter-state organisation to display significant supranational characteristics - find these in the new central institutions set up to • (a) see to abolition/prohibition of internal tariff barriers state subsidies, restrictive practices.. • (b) harmonise external commercial policy - set minimum and maximum rates of customs duties on coal and steel imports from third countries

10. ECSC: Institutions what were these institutions: • the High Authority ( the Commission in the EU) • the Council of Ministers • the Common Assembly ( European Parliament, 1962) • the Courts of Justice

11. ECSC: how did it work out? • ECSC: A QUALIFIED SUCCESS! • (a) early years: customs tariffs/quotas abolished non-tariff barriers to trade tackled... politicians/civil servants develop practice of working with one another and output and inter-state trade increase rapidly • this paved the way for further integration

12. ECSC: difficulties • (b) crisis, cheap oil imports, fall in energy consumption and so overcapacity in coal production • The High Authority’s proposals for a Community solution was rejected, and the states sought their own uncoordinated protective measures • Message: High Authority couldn’t impose a general policy on the states if they decided to resist.

13. ECSC- outcome? • (c) is there a truly integrated West European coal and steel industry where prices and distributive decisions are a consequence of an open and free market • No - restrictive practices, national subsidies still abound and in fact are now used by the Commission in the new era of managing the contraction of the coal and steel industries.

14. Post war, a flurry of activity towards the objective of European Unity 1948 : Hague Congress, out of which May 1949 ..the Council of Europe is established 1954 – European Political Community, this however perished in the French National Assembly, a step too far, the fast track to European Union is blocked Political Organisation

15. 10 original member states; there are now 49 How does it work: An executive body, the committee of ministers A consultative assembly Meetings: annual joint session in HQ in Strasbourg, France Achievements: 1950 establishment of a commission and 1959 Court of Human Rights Results: The Council of Europe

16. Hegemony of the two superpowers is now a thing of the past; Moved from bi-polar world to a multipolar world Germany: ‘the German Question’ Germany now firmly anchored in the European Union, the ‘euro’ but obviously its geo-strategic position in Central Europe remains pivotal An interdependant world where the nation-state does not reign supreme any longer; yet it remains the central administrative unit on the global stage Post Cold War Europe