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Ivo Šlaus

From Ioannis Kapodistrias and Altiero Spinelli to EU - Is It a Success? How Well Will It Face the Challenges of the Future. Ivo Šlaus.

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Ivo Šlaus

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  1. From Ioannis Kapodistrias and Altiero Spinelli to EU - Is It a Success? How Well Will It Face the Challenges of the Future Ivo Šlaus

  2. United States of Europe is an idea originating in 18.c.:1728 - Abbot Charles de St. Pierre - creation of League of 18 states: economic union and no borders;After the American Revolution Marquis de Lafayette and T. Kosciuszko proposed United States of Europe;1795 - I. Kant proposed “Eternal peace congress”;1814 - Saint Simon and A. Thierry: European parliamentary federation;1828 - I.Kapodostrias first president of Greek Republic, stressed edu - founded University of Athens;1831 - Wojcieh Jastrzebowski “eternal peace among nations”;1843 - Giuseppe Mazini: federation of European republics;1923 - L. Trotsky: Soviet United States of Europe;1941 - A. Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi “Ventotene Manifesto”:“Towards a Free and United Europe”

  3. Important innovative ideas: peace among states + free and united Europe + republics/democracy + education:score = 5Jean Monnet (1888-1979): “There will be no peace in Europe if states are reconstituted on the basis of national sovereignity.”“Nothing is possible without men, nothing is lasting without institutions.” Original methodology:gradualist approach starting with R. Schuman’s plan Apr 18, 1951; 6 states (De, Fr, It, Nl, Be, Lx) to run their heavy industry - steel and coal (no one could quickly build weapons)Treaty of Rome: March 25, 1957: European Economic Unionscore = 5

  4. What is Europe?Two approaches: 1) European Physical Society, Academia Europaea - from Atlantic to Vladivostok. Mechanism to include also individuals beyond that domain, particularly Mediterranean + USA2) gradual enlargement based on acquis communautaire (total body of EU laws) - EU now 27 MS. Should Monnet’s gradualism in areas be repeated also in MS? Treaty of Maastricht - Nov 1, 1993 First European Parliament election 1979 (5 year terms) European Economic Area (EU + Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein + Bilateral Switzerland): free movements of people, goods, services and capitalscore = 4

  5. Realization:Problems: 1) Slow, divisive and inadequate response to problems at EU borders: 1.1) 1991-99 Slovenia, Croatia, B&H and Kosovo wars1.2) 2008 Georgia, S. Osetia and Abhasia wars2) European Constitution - failed in France and Netherlands3) The Dec 2007 Lisbon Treaty intended to overcome Constitution problem - rejected by Ireland4) Though EU is the strongest economy (total GDP =16.8 T$ in 2007), EU has minor political cloud5) While the founding fathers of United Europe showed remarkable inventiveness and courage, little now!

  6. Successes:1) social cohesion (European Social Fund founded 1960)2) flexicurity3) Euro zone4) European Research Area with 4 pillars: people, ideas, cooperation and capacity building (CERN founded in 1954, Euroatom in 1957, EMBO in1964 , ESA in 1975) - among Nobel prizes and most highly cited papers the USA dominates5) European Higher Education Area - among the leading world universities the USA dominates. The so called Bologna process is slow and mainly failing score = 3

  7. Facing the future challenges:1) Political issues:1.1) Mediterranean basin - Middle East unreasolved issues compounded by the issue of terrorism1.2) Eastern boundary - Ukraine and Caucasus1.3) Nuclear disarmament and WMD in general, weapons trade, nuclear trade1.4) UN structure and UNSC structure1.5) Political structure of EU is not designed for fast response and hardly for anticipatory action. Attempts to build such structure and create such a culture so far failed.1.6) There is no global leadeship role of the EU

  8. 2) Economic - Energy - Food - Environment issues:2.1) Financial instabilities becoming Economic problems:Though EU achieved economic and monetary integration, EU never developed parallel political and regulatory integration. Though EU is based primarily on economic integration, it appears that narrow selfish - nation-state - interests dominate at the time of an economic crisis as is the one of 2008.2.2) Dependence on oil, nuclear energy (ITER is very positive!!), R&D on renewable energy sources is still inadequate, various proposals as “CoR solar energy from Africa” are still underdeveloped and lacking integration of political,economic and R&D componenets2.3) Climate change ?!?

  9. 3) Social issues:3.1) Demographic transition - decreasing total European population, while percentage of young are decreasing, percentage of old are incresaing with LE ≈ 75-80  health isues, pension funds3.2) Immigration and brain drain3.3) Employment and education: Europe has significantly lower employment rate than the USA and lower number of HE graduates than the USA3.4) Threat to social cohesion coming from within a country and among countries inequalitiesexamples: EU and Croatia - candidate

  10. Towards full employment with flexibility (flexicurity), no age discrimination

  11. CROATIA • Employment Rate(%) Unemployment Rate(%) • 15-25 years 24,9 35,9 • 25-50 years 72,4 12,9 • 50-65 years 42,0 8,5 • Basic Education 37,0 16,1 • Secondary Edu 31,7 17,5 • University Edu 82,8 7,5

  12. 4) Culture and civilisation:Europe has several diverse cultures and several different languages. Obviously Europe will be exposed to massive immigration of people of different cultures with different languages. Civilisation is related to laws ↔ acquis ??5) EU is not even close to becoming knowledge-based society.Score = 2

  13. Conclusion Can EU be a role-model for other regional integrations? Can EU be a role-model for the world integration? Can EU achieve its goal to become most competitive knowledge-based economy by 2010, and sustainable knowledge-based society by 2025? my estimated score = 3

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