INTERNATIONAL
INTEGRATION AND THE
EUROPEAN UNION
April 30, 2013
INTEGRATION
In the 20th and 21st centuries, integration has been drive by two
sources: state actions and technology.
State actions:
 Often take the form of creating supranational
organizations: organizations that subsume a number of
states and their functions within a single entity. Examples:
UN, EU
 Are sometimes difficult to take because supranationalism is
opposed by supporters of state sovereignty and those who
wish to retain unique national identities.
ASPECTS OF INTEGRATION
The process of integration in general (whether through state action or
technology) also involves other factors:
 Transnational actors: actors that bridge national borders and thereby
create new avenues for interdependence: non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), MNCs.
 Transnational issues: problems or developments that cannot be
addressed by a single state because they also cross national boundaries
(global warming, terrorism, refugees, disasters).
E X P L A I N I N G I N T E G R AT I O N
It is difficult for some schools of IR (such as realism) to explain
integration because the process entails states giving up power and
sovereignty to transnational institutions.
However, it is also possible to see the continuing importance of state
sovereignty and nationalism at work because the existence of
transnational issues does not automatically result in integration.
Moreover, the level of integration that has arisen in response to those
issues is limited and uneven. Has never been the case that states have
completely given power to transnational organizations to deal with any
particular issue. Always have some voice as a state in the workings of
transnational organizations and have a way of exiting such organizations
if the judgment is made that costs of belonging outweigh the benefits.
E X P L A I N I N G I N T E G R AT I O N
 Functionalism: explains integration by holding that
particular issues and problems spur the development of
specialized technical organizations and structures that allow
states to perform particular functions that cross national
boundaries: delivery of mail, coordinate use of rivers, regulate
movements of airplanes and ships.
 But bare functionalism does not explain the rise and
development of the European Union, which includes more
than functional organizations and activities.
EXPLANATIONS
 To explain such entities as the EU, most move on to a more ambitious
explanatory model
 Neofunctionalism: more extensive integration, in the form of the
creation of transnational organizations that do more than perform narrow
functions, is the product of an added result of economic integration: the
generation of a political dynamic that pushes through further political
integration because higher level political organization is necessary for the
processes of economic integration to operate effectively. Thus economic
integration leads eventually to political integration.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
AS EVIDENCE
 In some ways, the development of the EU follows the pattern
predicted by neofunctionalism, in that economic integration was
followed by political integration because the latter was necessary for
the effective functioning of the former.
 However, note that the beginnings of economic integration in
Europe were not purely economic in nature: important political and
strategic factors played an important role in the beginnings of the
integration process that made that process acceptable to member
states.
R E S I S TA N C E T O I N T E G R AT I O N
 Also important to note that there is and remains resistance to
integration that stem not only from political elites attempting to
maintain national power, but other groups attempting to protect
regional economies, local cultures, and regional autonomy. Integration
provides benefits, but it also comes with costs, not all of which are
economic and political, and much of which is borne by those who are
not national elites.
COUNTERWAVES
It is also the case that integration has not always advanced such that
the future always contains more integration than the past. There have
been important waves of disintegration that have occurred over the
past 75 years that have devolved power away from transnational
entities back to national and regional entities:
 Decolonization that occurred in particular after WWII
 Breakup of the Soviet Empire after the Cold War
 Breakup of some post-colonial states due to inherent tensions
created by the drawing of state boundaries by colonial powers.
H I S T O RY O F T H E
E U RO P E A N U N I O N
The EU is the product of a long process; in this, it is different from
the UN, which has changed little since its creation after WWII.
The EU had its origins in the desire to coordinate reconstruction
efforts in Europe after WWII.
 Some of the initiative came from the US, which encouraged
cooperation in the use of Marshall Plan funds.
 Other parts came from France, and in particular Jean Monnet and
Robert Schuman, who proposed the integration of French and
German steel and coal industries, key components of European
reconstruction and growth.
ECSC
 Their efforts gradually spurred the creation of the European Coal and
Steel Community, which included not just France and Germany, but also
Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
• Reduce trade barriers in coal and steel
• Coordinate coal and steel policies
• High authority to do coordinating work and deal directly with companies,
unions and individuals
 A functional organization, though it also had political and strategic
overtones. Coal and steel were economically important, but they are also
strategically important. To control and coordinate coal and steel policies
was one way of reassuring European nations (along with the efforts of
NATO) that a revitalized Germany would not be a threat.
LATER DEVELOPMENTS
1952: attempt to move beyond technical cooperation to include political
and military coordination. Resulted in a treaty that created the European
Defense Community:
 One European military budget
 One European military command
But France failed to ratify treaty.
Also an attempt tin 1953 to come to an agreement on a European
Political Community, but failed.
TREATY OF ROME (1957)
Members of the ECSC agreed to create two new entities:
 Euratom (European Atomic Energy Community): coordinate
development and use of atomic energy through pooling research,
investment and management. An extension of principles regarding
coal and steel to this new energy source.
 European Economic Community: framework for further
economic integration:
•
•
Create customs union by 1969
Goal of creating common market, but with no deadline
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
 Treaty of Rome established the principle of unanimity with regard to
changes in its provisions, allowing any state to veto, for example, new member
applications (as France did with Great Britain in 1963 and 1967 in an
expression of continued Great Power rivalry).
 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP): reduce conflicts over agricultural
subsidies by stipulating that any subsidies given by a state to its farmers must
be given to farmers in any EU country. Results in the provision of costly
subsidies by the EU and the creation of important trade issues with non-EU
countries.
NEW EU MEMBERS
 Britain 1973
 Greece 1981
 Czech Republic
(2004)
 Spain and Portugal  Denmark (1973)
 Slovenia (2004)
 Sweden (1995)
 Hungary (2004)
1986
 Estonia (2004)
 Ireland (1973)
 Austria (1995)
 Finland (1995)
 Latvia (2004)
 Bulgaria (2007)
 Malta (2004)
 Lithuania (2004)
 Cyprus (2004)
 Poland (2004)
 Romania (2007)
 Slovakia (2004)
IMPACT OF NEW MEMBERS
Introduced more complexity into the system through new members,
and more problems as new members were economically, culturally
and politically different from the original members.
Necessitated change in nature of the system, in that with enlarged
membership, not all countries would join with all EU endeavors,
allowing for selective integration. Thus, for example, not EU
members are part of the common currency and monetary system.
S I N G L E E U RO P E A N AC T ( 1 9 8 5 )
 Target date of 1992 for the creation of a common market, which
would entail the elimination of nontariff barriers to free trade in
good, services, labor and capital within the EU
 Goal of creating a single European Bank
 Goal of creating a single European currency and monetary system
MAASTRICHT TREATY (1992)
Replace different currencies with a single European currency. This
took place 2002, with 17 countries eventually participating. Not every
country had to join, and there are strict membership guidelines for
admittance into the single currency:
 Budge deficit of less than 3% of GDP
 National debt of less than 60% of GDP
 Inflation of no more than 1.5% of the average of the lowest
inflation EU countries
 Stable interest rates and national currency values.
M A A S T R I C H T: P O L I T I C A L
I N T E G R AT I O N
 Creation of a European Policy Agency
 Understanding of EU citizenship that allows foreign national
residing in another EU country to vote in local elections.
 Commitment to work towards a common foreign policy and
establishing a joint military force.
R E AC T I O N S T O M A A S T R I C H T
 Revival of nationalism and national identity
 Controversies over measures needed to meet the financial
requirements to join the Euro
 More conflicts over trade with non-EU countries, as economic,
labor, health and safety and other regulations are standardized and
tightened.
 Complaints of unfair treatment regarding economic policies across
EU countries.
 Complaints by richer countries that they are subsidizing the loose
social policies of poorer countries.