Summary Politics of the European Union 

Goals:

• History of european integration

• Know how institutions work

• The main theories of european integration

• Be able to contextualize and analyze current events

Lecture 1: the history of the European Union 

Early 20th century

• Treaty of versailles

• League of nations

Ww2 caused:

• Economic devastation

• Political weakness

• Divided continent

• Failure of treaty of versailles is known

• Exploration of new interstate relations

Change of political climate:

• Combatting nationalism

• New political map of Europe

• New international power balance

• Division of Germany

Change of the economic climate

• Bretton woods monetary system:

• IMF

• World Bank

• General agreement on tariffs and trade

• European recovery program (marshall aid) 

Differences between the western European states

• All states joined for hard-headed national calculations always prevailed

• European integration helped the nation state

Institutional developments

• Organization for european economic cooperation > 1948

• The council of Europe > 1949

• NATO > 1949

• The European coal and steel community > 1951

• The European defense cooperation > western European union > 1954

• European Economic Community > 1958

• Organization for economic co-operation and development > 1961