EU-integration knowledges Prepared by Dr. Endre Domonkos (PhD)

1. EU-integration knowledges Prepared by Dr. Endre Domonkos (PhD) Academic Year 2012/2013 Autumn Semester

2. I. Preconditions of the European integration I. • The Roman Empire used to be the first integration endeavor. • During the Middle Ages behind the feudal division the Christianity and the Latin language played an important role. • In 1648 the Peace of Westphalia meant a new era in the modern interstate relationships. • The system of Holy Alliance in 1815. • After the World War I tighter cooperation form was created by the European states. • After World War II. an important endeavor was the promotion of interstate cooperation worldwide.

3. I. Preconditions of the European integration II. • Various idealistic concepts had been formulated before in the works of artist, philosophers and scientists, including Dante, Comenius, Erasmus of Rotterdam, or Immanuel Kant. • Dante: • Pierre Dubois: • George Podjebrad: • Prince of Sully: • Abbé de Saint Pierre:

4. I. Preconditions of the European integration III. • Immanuel Kant’s „Everlasting Peace” conception: • Saint-Simon’s conception: • In 1849, Victor Hugo used the term „United States of Europe” to indicate a goal to be aimed at by each European country. • During the interwar period we had to mention the plan of European Confederation by Aristide Briand. • In 1943, the so called Ventotene Declaration was adopted by Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi.

5. I. Preconditions of the European integration IV. • Yet, a basis for actually creating an institutionalised Europe was provided through the lessons learned from the destruction caused by World War II. • The Western part of Europe, split-up after World War II, realised quite early that the old continent would be able to increase its largely diminished political and economic weight and influence in the nascent bipolar arrangement of the world only through integration. • Economic cooperation was necessary for restructuring the world economy and provide the competitive advantage of the United States.

6. I. Preconditions of the European integration V. • After the World War II. politicians in Western Europe started to discuss the feasibility, rather than the necessity, or integration. • Main goals: to preserve peace in Europe and to enable the countries of Europe to recover. • The development of the idea of European unity is evidenced by the fact that parties belonging to differing political families started to set up their European organisations with the aim of creating a federalist Europe. • This was the approach taken in the setting up of the Council of Europe on 5 May 1949 by ten countries of Western Europe.

7. II. The international order after the World War II. • In 1944 conference was held in Bretton Woods that created the International Monetary Fund IMF) and World Bank (IBRD). • On 25 April 1945, the UN Conference on International Organization began in San Francisco, attended by 50 governments and a number of non-governmental organizations involved in drafting the Charter of the United Nations. • The UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five permanent members of the Security Council—France, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States—and by a majority of the other 46 signatories.  • The Charter of the United Nations is a collection of multilateral treaties that have got supremacy over any other international treaties.

8. III. The establishment of GATT I. • The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was established in 1948 to supervise and liberalize international trade. • The GATT was the only multilateral instrument governing international trade from 1948 until the WTO was established in 1995. • The main endeavors of GATT were the followings: to liberalize the international commerce and to eliminate the tariffs and non-tariff barriers. • The principles of GATT (now WTO) are the followings:

9. III. The establishment of GATT II. • Non-Discrimination. It has two major components: the most favoured nation(MFN) rule, and the national treatment policy. • Reciprocity: • Binding and enforceable commitments: • Transparency: • Safety valves:

10. IV. The establishment of the Council of Europe • The Council of Europe (CoE) was established by 10 countries of Western Europe on 5 May 1949. • The Council of Europe is a regional intergovernmental organisation. • The headquarters of the Council of Europe is in Strasbourg. • Its main bodies are the followings: the Committee of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly and the Secretariat headed by the Secretary General. • Decision-making in the Council of Europe: it needs a full consent of the Member States.

11. V. The integration process in the second half of 1940’s I. • Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg had decided to set up the Benelux Union in 1944, which was created in 1948. • Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden: intergovernmental political cooperation, collaboration among national parliaments for controlling national rules + evaluate common standpoint in international politics. • By 1949 dealing with the German issue had become a crucial problem.

12. V. The integration process in the second half of 1940’s II. • Considerable impetus for the acceleration of Western European integration was stimulated by developments taking place in Central and Eastern Europe. • In 1947, the economic division of Europe was institutionalised through the Marshall Plan. • The participating countries of Western, Northern and Southern Europe established together with the United States, the OEEC (Organisation for European Economic Cooperation) in 1948. • On 17 March 1948. Brussels agreement was concluded among the Benelux-states, United Kingdom and France.

13. V. The integration process in the second half of 1940’s III. • The creation Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECOM) in 1949 with the leadership of USSR and the communist Central and Eastern European countries. • The setting up of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) in 1949 represented political, military and defence security against the Soviet threat. • The North Atlantic Treaty, the document set up NATO, was signed in Washington on 4 April 1949 by 10 West European countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United Kingdom) and the United States and Canada.

14. VI. Establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community I. • Robert Schuman, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, put forward a proposal on 9 May 1950 that was prepared together with Jean Monnet, head of the planning department of the French government. • Dedicated to the idea of European unity and French-German reconciliation, Schuman and Monnet set the objective of creating a European federation along a French-German axis. • The main aim of the Schuman Plan:

15. VI. Establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community II. • On 18 April 1951, Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which entered into force on 25 July 1952. • The organisation was headed by the „High Authority”. • OTHER INSTITUTIONS: • The Council of Ministers: • The Assembly: • The Coal and Steal Community had got its own budget.

16. VII. From the failure of the European Defence Community to the Treaty of Rome I. • The European Defence Community (EDC): • The idea was based on the Pléven Plan named after the French prime minister and announced in October 1950. • The main target of the Pléven Plan was to set up a form of common European defence force. • Although six Member States of the ECSC and the United Kingdom created a defence organisation in 1954 to replace EDC, under the name Western European Union (WEU).

17. VII. From the failure of the European Defence Community to the Treaty of Rome II. • Once the EDC failed, federalists had to resort again to the field of economics to promote the process of integration. • Member states of the ESCS met on 1 and 2 June 1955 in Messina to discuss the issue of deepening and expanding economic integration, with institutional issues of possible cooperation in the area of atomic energy and a common market in general. • The committee was headed by the Belgian foreign affairs minister, Paul-Henry Spaak. • To realise a common market based on customs union.

18. VII. From the failure of the European Defence Community to the Treaty of Rome III. • The governments of Belgium, France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy signed the treaties establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) in Rome on 25 March 1957, known as the Treaties of Rome, which became effective on 1 January 1958. • Institutionial structure was established by the Treaties of Rome:

19. VIII. Provisions of the Treaty of Rome 1. The Commission: 2. The Council of Ministers: 3. The Assembly: 4. The Court of Justice: • The Treaty of Rome that established the EEC, set the establishment of a common market as the overall aim of the Community; • The overall aim was to be achieved by following main specific objectives (Article 3):

20. IX. The establishment of EFTA • Instead of supranational organisations the British government supported the intergovernmental cooperation and free trade. • Thus, the British had to realise their plan without the six states, so they set out to establish the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). • The agreement on establishing EFTA was signed in Stockholm on 4 January 1960. • Member States: Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and United Kingdom. (Later Iceland, Finland and Lichtenstein joined the Association).

21. Literature - Káldyné dr. Esze Magdolna (2010): Integrálódó Európa I. Perfekt Kiadó, Budapest, pp. 37-50. - Zoltán Horváth (2011): Handbook on the European Union, Hungarian National Assembly, Fourth Edition, pp. 25-35.