European Integration, 1945-2002

Young & Kent: International Relations since 1945

The European Experience• A divided continent:

– Languages and nationalities– Great Power rivalries– Economic competition

• Old ideal of unity: Christendom• Common culture/historical experience• Twentieth Century:

– Loss of world position: end of Empire– Between superpowers in Cold War

Proposals for Unity, 1929-45

• Inter-war schemes:– Franco-German steel cartel– Briand Plan, 1929: control rising

German power in European context• Impact of World War II

– Nazi ‘new order’– Resistance movements: hopes of

unity– Franco-British union proposal, 1940– Failure of nation-state?

Impact of the Cold War, 1945-49

• 1945-47: ‘Big Three’ co-operation– Benelux customs union 1946– Churchill’s Zurich speech

• 1947-9: US-Soviet division– Marshall Plan, 1947: US backs integration– Economics: Organisation of European

Economic Co-operation (OEEC), 1948– Military: Brussels Pact, North Atlantic Treaty– Political: Council of Europe, 1949– Intergovernmental not supranational co-

operation

The Schuman Plan, May 1950 • Factors at work: idealism or national

interest?– Control German power: Ruhr valley– Preserve French economic recovery– Yet offer West Germany equality– Role of Monnet, Schuman, Adenauer– US support, British doubts

• European Coal-Steel Community 1952– Supranational ‘High Authority’ under Jean Monnet– France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland,

Luxembourg (‘the Six’)

The EDC, 1950-54• The Pleven Plan, October 1950

– US pressure for German rearmament after Korean War starts

– Based on Schuman Plan: control German power in supranational body

• European Defence Community, 1952– Does not offer Germany proper equality– French fear loss of national army– Collapses 1954 in French parliament

The Treaties of Rome, March 1957

• Messina Conference June 1955– Revive integration after EDC– ECSC ministers agree to study further

economic integration

• Spaak (Brussels) Committee– Two alternatives: ‘sectoral’ co-operation

(like coal-steel); or full customs union

• Two Treaties– European Economic Community (EEC)– European Atomic Energy Agency (Euratom)

British Policy, 1945-61• 1950-57: British absent from Schuman

Plan and Treaties of Rome• Failure of vision?

– Favour intergovernmental co-operation– Ambitions of great power/world role– Separate from continent/wartime

experience

• Or national interest?– Part in Marshall Plan and Brussels Pact– UK is global trading power– Lacks French obsession with German threat

The EEC, 1957-84: signs of success

– Internal free trade achieved by the Six– Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and

Common Fisheries Policy– 1973 ‘Northern enlargement’ to Britain,

Ireland and Denmark; Greece joins 1979– 1979 direct elections to European

Parliament– 1979 ‘Exchange Rate Mechanism’ (ERM)

creates greater currency stability

EEC, 1957-84: hopes unfulfilled

• 1960s: the Gaullist challenge– De Gaulle opposes majority voting: empty chair

crisis (1965-6) and Luxembourg compromise– Vetoes enlargement in 1963 and 1967

• 1970s: ‘stagflation’– Monetary instability prevents Economic and

Monetary Union (planned in 1970 Werner Report)– ‘Northern enlargement’ fails to bring full

European Union (planned in 1972 Paris Summit)

• 1979-84: Economic depression– British Budgetary Dispute

The Mid-80s European Revival

• Factors in favour of growth, 1985– World emerging from depression– Monetary stability: strong Deutschmark– EEC expanding: Spain and Portugal 1986– Mitterrand’s socialist policies seen to

have failed in France by 1983– Chancellor Kohl’s European commitment– British Budgetary Question resolved

The European Advance, 1984-92

• 1985 Single European Act– Expanded Qualified Majority Voting– ‘Single market’ in 1992

• Jacques Delors, Commission President– Delors Plan on Monetary Union– Social Charter

• 1991 Maastricht Treaty– Single currency by 1999– ‘European Union’ created– Common Foreign and Security Policy ‘pillar’– Justice and Home Affairs ‘pillar’

Uncertain Decade 1992-2002• Post-Maastricht problems

– Initial defeat for Maastricht in Denmark– Virtual collapse of ERM, 1992-3– UK/Denmark opt-out of monetary union– 1997 Amsterdam Treaty modest in aims

• Continued advance– November 1993: ‘European Union’– 1995 enlargement: Austria, Sweden, Finland– 1998 talks on ‘eastern enlargement’– 1999/2002 single currency achieved