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

The European coal and steel community

• 1950 Schuman Declaration

• 50 years duration

• Ambition to create a free trade area

• Coal and steel integrate: main resources for warmaking and industrialization

• Common market makes it harder to build weapons

Institutions of the ECSC

• High authority: nine members (prequel to european commission)

• Special council of ministers: ministers of porfolios coal and steel (precursor of the european council)

• Common assembly (precursor of the european parliament)

• Court of justice: settled conflicts between member states

Architects of european integration

• Jean Monnet (president of ECSC)

• Robert Schumann (french prime/foreign minister, schumann declaration)

• Konrad Adenauer (Chancellor of Germany, German entrance nato)

• Alcide de Gasperi (italian prime minister)

The European Defense Community (1950)

• Establish an European Army 

• Supranational organization

• Didn't pass by the French parliament, UK was not interested

• This failed

Western European Union (1955)

• 6 members + UK

• Forum for defense cooperation

• Permitted Germany to join NATO

• Did not exist long

• Not institutionalized

The European Economic Community 1957

• Refocus on economic integration

• Liberal capitalism

• Some protectionist elements: agriculture

• Creates a common market with a free trade area: removing all tarifs

• Creation of a customs union: creates a common external tariffs: creates a common external trade policy. The Common Commercial Policy

• Common rules: prohibits practices that prevent competition between member states

• Common Market: promotes free movement of persons, services and capital

• Mentioning a common currency (47 years)

• Messina declaration 1955 and treaties of Rome 1957

Institutions of the EEC

• Commission (initiates new policy and oversee implementation)

• Council of ministers (makes decisions on proposals from the commission)

• Parliamentary assembly (could question or censure the commission) (elected from 1979)

• Court of justice (responsible for respect to treaties)

EURATOM 1957

• European Atomic Energy Community

• Treaties of Rome

• Promotion of research

• Health and safety

• Nuclear common market

• Same institutions

• Did not do much, member states protected own market

These institutions form The European Communities

Lecture 2: History of the European Union part 2 1960s-present

Options to study

• Chronology

• Treaties

• Deepening of policies

• Widening of membership

Chronology:

• Grand steps: treaties, enlargement

• Incremental steps: economic, political decisions, court judgement

Treaties:

• Reflect, advance and unfold integration

• No rolling back

• 1966-1980s: gap 

• Eurosclerosis: no appetite for european integration: french resistance

• Luxembourg compromise of 1966: unanimity for all decisions

Treaty overview

• Treaty ECSC: 1951

• Treaty EEC & EURATOM: 1957

• Single European act: 1986 (Economic integration)

• Treaty of Maastricht: 1992 (formation of the European Union, EU gained power in more areas)

• Treaty of Amsterdam: 1997 (adjustments decision making procedure for eastern European Enlargement)

• Treaty of Nice: 2001 (preparation for eastern European enlargement decisionmaking)

• Treaty of Lisbon: 2009 (a real European Union legally)

Treaty of maastricht: pillar structures

• 3 pillars

• First pillar: EEC, ECSC, EAEC (majority)

• Second pillar: common security and foreign policy (unanimity)

• Third pillar: justice and home affairs (unanimity)

Other treaties:

• Merger treaty: merges institutions

• Schengen treaty: free movement

Deepening = vertical integration

• Institutional deepening: institutions above the state gain power, increased use of majority voting

• Policy deepening: growth of political power of the EU, new fields of policy areas

History viewed by economic integration:

In stages

• Free trade area

• Customs union

• Integrated internal market

• Economic and monetary union

Widening

• Denmark, Ireland, UK 1975

• Greece 1981

• Portugal and Spain 1986

• Austria, Finland, Sweden 1995

• Cyprus, Malta, baltic states, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia 2004

• Bulgaria, Romania 2007

• Croatia 2013

(Norway rejected twice after a referendum)

(Switzerland rejected once by referendum)

1960: EFTA, Competitor to the EEC but failed (UK as founder, becomes the EEA)

EEA: switzerland, iceland, norway, liechtenstein (no voting rights but part of the economic single market)

Changes in conditions (kopenhagen criteria)

• Stable institutions guaranteeing: democracy, rule of law, human rights, respect minorities

• Functioning market economy, ability to cope with competitive pressure and market forces, product standards

• Acceptance of the acquis communautaire: to be able to take on membership obligations, adherence to political economic and monetary union

Lecture 3: the european council

The main EU institutions

• Citizens represented in the parliament

• Member states represented in the european council and council of the EU

• EU interests represented in European commission

The European council: representing the member states at the highest level

• Heads of state or government

• Sets the EU political agenda

• Since 2009 officially, lisbon treaty (created in 1974)

• Recognition in the single european act (1986)

• Increased power 

• Before 2009 the HoS/G and president of the commission, but also included foreign ministers and one other commissioner

President of the european council

• Since 2009

• Appointed for 2.5 years, 1 time renewable

• Responsibilities: chairs EuCo meetings, ensure the continuity of the work of the european council

• Find consensus and cohesion within the EuCo

• Ensures the external representation of the EU on security and foreign policy

Former presidents of EuCo

• Herman van Rompuy 2009-2014 (low profile, looks for compromises, efficient)

• Donald Tusk 2014-2019 (high profile, strong positions, bold but biased)

• Charles Michael 2019-2024 (low profile, looks for compromises)

Frequency of meetings

• Varies according to changing needs and circumstances

• At least 4 meetings of 2 days

• Restrictions who can enter

• Extensively prepared and closely reported

• Formal: announced meetings, informal: meeting to discuss something, extraordinary: when something important suddenly happens. 

• Eurosessions: only for Euro-countries, since 2015, twice a year

• Functions: history making decisions are made in these summits, contentious matters are referred up to the EuCo, policy initiator, forum of exchanging ideas

• Topics: eu evolution, constitutional and institutional matters, appointing presidents, enlargement, external relations, specific internal policies,1 economic and monetary policies

Lecture 4: Council of the EU

Council of the EU

• Ministers of national government

• Negotiate and vote on legislation

• Since 1951

Council of the European Union functions:

• legislates together with the parliament 

• Also has executive functions (areas of high politics, euro area, migration, foreign policy)

• Forum of exchange: devising the big bargains that orientate future EU policy

key responsibilities

policy and law-maker actor

• Decision maker on binding legislation

  • Co-legislates with the EP, sort of upper chamber 

• Decision maker on nonbinding legislation

  • adopt opinions or recommendations

Executive actor  

• Single market: council committees

  • made of national representatives that work together with the commision on executive decisions

• Foreign and security policy: at the ministers’ level 

  • the council takes decisions with immediate executive implications 

• Economic affairs: at ministers’ level, sanction member state for exceeding budget deficit rules 

Mediator

• Find compromises on legislative proposals and future reforms 

• Mediates between:

  • national and ideological interests 

  • the council and the commission

  • the council and the EP

• Mediation is performed by the council presidency and the general secretariat 

• council configurations do exist to 

The European council consists of three levels of meetings

• Ministers

• Coreper: Committee of permanent Representatives

• Committees and working groups 

  • In practice the working party decides and the corper and ministers adopt it 

• The council meets around 4000 times a year

The ministers 

• Formations and membership

  • Ministerial meetings bring together all relevant people 

  • Consists of 100-150 people

• Powers: 

  • The ministers take all final decisions on anything adopted in the council’s name

    • Commission proposals for legislation

    • Common positions or actions in foreign & security policy

    • Noting progress reports

    • Requests to the Commission for information 

The Eurogroup

• Has a permanent president 

• Jeroen Dijsselbloem held the position from 2013-2018 

• ECOFIN adopts official decisions of the Eurogroup

COREPER: 

• Committee of permanent Representatives

  • COREPER 1, deputy permanent representatives, deal mainly with routine matters

  • COREPER 2, deals with difficult matters

  • There also exist senior committees which can be between coreper and the committees and working groups 

The council presidency 

• rotates every 18 months  between groups of 3 member states (so 6 months with every member state) 

  • In these 18 months the 3 member states can coördinate their topics

• The presidency has a lot of power because it decides the agenda

  • presidencies offer opportunities but can also create major problems for member states because it can be seen as a burden

  • The small EU countries have difficulties to man the institution 

  • Also during elections, presidency is hard because you can’t press your own issues 

• The foreign affairs council is always chaired by a high representative 

Decision making procedures

• formally there are three decision making procedures

  • Unanimity: for sensitive policy areas

  • Qualified majority

  • Simple majority

Lecture 5: the european commission

What is the European commission

• Looks like a EU civil service

• Also has executive powers

• A complex bureaucracy

• Supranational

• The heart of the EU political system

• Independent of the member states

Roles and functions

• Initiator and proposer of new policies (sole right of legislative initiative)

• Guardian of the legal framework (seeing if the member states follow EU law)

• Executive functions (for example imposing fines in competition policy)

• Manager of EU finances (administer cohesion policy (help offered by the EU when new members join)

• External representative and negotiator

Power resources

• Its powers of initiative: exclusive and non-exclusive

• Neutrality

• Access to information through: commission services, always present in all decision making forums, a lot of advisor and expert committees

The college of commissioners of the european commission

• Under the Lisbon treaty: one commissioner per member state, 5-year terms, nominated and accepted, and approved as a whole

The Spitzenkandidat

• Political groups in the EP appoint candidates for the position of commission president

• Group with the most votes becomes commission president

• Not always true, European council can intervene

Lecture 6: The European parliament 

Located in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg 

Key powers

• Legislative power 

• Budgetary power 

• Parliamentary control

• Enlargement decisions 

Legislative:

• not a normal parliament 

  • cannot initiate legislation only ask the commision

  • Does not adopt legislation on its own, always together with the council 

• Is part of an institutional triangle with the commission and the council where it can:

  • be on equal footing in oridnary legislative procedure 

  • give a non-binding opinion as consultation

  • say yes or no to legislation as a whole in the consent procedure 

    • makes it a take it or leave discussion where the EP can’t decide about the specifics 

Budgetary powers:

• The EP has co-budgetary authority with the council

  • considerable influence on the annual budget

  • propose modifications, or approve/reject the whole budget 

• The EP is however excluded from deliberations on the multiannual financial frameworks (MFF)

  • are agreed on every 7 years 

  • It can only agree/reject about the MFF as a whole

Scrutiniser of the executive

• The parliament can elect the commission president and the college

• dismiss the college (vote of no confidence, only came close in 1999)

• special and inquiry committees (no consequences)

• Budgetary control committee

• Written and oral questions to the commission, the ECB and other EU agencies

• They have however little control over the council and no control over the European council. 

Giving consent for enlargement and international trade agreements

• The EU parliament only comes very late in the process and can only agree or disagree

EP formal work 

• standing committees: eacht committee has 80 members, some more important, prominent then others 

Lecture 7: Decision making processes 

Factors determining EU policy processes 

• Treaty Base

  • This lays down the different decision making procedures and specifies the circumstances in which they are to be used

• Status of policies 

  • procedures tend to be more fixed when binding decisions is envisaged

  • Commission legislation which is often very specific and technical is usually subject to less political review and discussion than council and EP legislation

• Degree of generality

  • Policy making may not necessarily involve a specific procedure but can consist of exchanges of ideas by interested parties 

• Newness/controversiality/sensitivity

  • The more this applies, the more complex policy processes are likely to be

• Balance of responsibility 

  • Where the EU policy making role is supplementary to that of the member state

• Circumstantial and their perception

  • Some things evolve in time like crime and terrorist threats which became a more international problem 

Types of EU acts / decisions 

• Constitutional framework: the history making decisions 

  • Treaties 

  • revision procedure 

• Legally binding acts

  • EU secondary law: Policy setting decisions 

    • Regulations, directives and decisions

    • Ordinary legislative procedure & special legislative procedures

  • EU implementing law 

    • Delegated and implementing acts, executives and administrative decisions 

    • Adopted by the commission, the council or the ECB

• Non binding acts: Policy shaping decisions

  • Soft law

    • Recommendations, opinions, guidelines and joint actions

    • Mostly adopted by the council or the commission

Policy processes across policy areas

• Hard law 

  • Community method 

    • Single market 

    • Agriculture and fisheries 

    • migration and asylum

• Hard & soft law 

  • Intensive transgovernmentalism

    • Foreign and security policy 

    • Police cooperation

    • Treaty making 

• Soft law 

  • Open method of coordination

    • Economic policy

    • Employment 

    • Social inclusion

• Executive decisions 

  • Centralized decision making 

    • Competition policy 

    • Monetary policy 

The community method 

• Focus on hard law (1992) to binding decision (2009)

• From unanimity to more QMV in the council

trilogues: informal meetings between the Commission, the Council, and the EP

• Take place once the Council and the EP have reached initial internal positions 

• Agreement possible at any stage, but majority of compromises reached at first reading 

Consultation procedure: asking the EP what they think of a proposal 

• Key areas of application: 

  • Police cooperation 

  • Family law 

  • Harmonization of regulations regarding personal documents 

  • Harmonization of indirect taxation 

  • Expanding ECB authority in banking supervision

The consent procedure: EP has to agree with a proposal

• Areas of application: 

  • The multiannual financial framework (MFF) 

  • The ratification of international agreements signed with third countries (e.g. TTIP) 

  • The accession of new Member States to the EU (enlargement) 

  • withdrawals from the EU

Lecture 8: external relations and diplomacy

Why is EU unity in external policy difficult?

• A capability - expectations gap still exists

Potentially the EU is a major international actor because:

• Its size and resources

• How it can act as an united actor

The EU has one voice in the global trade stage

• It is called the common commercial policy

• Because it is a single customs union with a single trade policy and common external tariff for other EU countries

• The European Commission speaks for all member states in the WTO

• The EU concludes international trade agreements on behalf of the member states

The EU has the potential to pursue a liberal international trading system

• With that it can conclude a variety of different types of trading agreements (trade-, economic cooperation-, association-agreements)

• To increasingly incorporate political conditionality into trading agreements with non-democratic countries

• To defend EU interests, which could lead to disagreements with non-EU countries

The council of the European Union deals with the issues about trade

• Informs the commission and parliament

• Could also involve national parliaments when it has a lot of impact

Foreign and defense policies: size and resources

• The EU has a bigger army personnel than the US

• Modern military (second after the US)

• Extensive diplomatic experience and skills

• Special links with many parts of the world due to a colonial past

• EU only has one seat in the permanent UN council and only 1 nuclear power

• An extensive and developing institutional framework

Historical development

• 1950s and 60s nothing happened

• 1970s began developing a european political cooperation: characterized by flexibility, confidential and informal

• A treaty base was established 

• The maastricht treaty created the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) as second pillar of the newly formed EU

• The Amsterdam and Nice treaties strengthened the CFSP

The EU mostly succeeds in developing a shared view, even if it is in general terms on most foreign policy issues

There are a few problems however:

• Not all EU states are NATO members

• Differing views on Atlantic partnership

• Sovereignty question

• Differing interests in and perceptions of foreign policy theaters

The high representative

• Double hatted: chair of the foreign affairs council and vicepresidente of the European commission

• Steers the CFSP

• Implements decisions adopted by the european council and the council of the EU

• Builds consensus between member states

• Oversees operational conduct of EU missions and operations deployed as part of CSDP

• ensure consistency and coherence of the EUs external action

CSDP: common security and defense policies

• Smaller than CSFP

• Only involves defense

• Made it's first appearance in the maastricht treaty

• Amsterdam treaty specified EU's main external security concerns

Lecture 9: the economic and monetary union and the euro crisis

Stages of the economic and monetary union

1986: the single european act set out the objective to create EMU

1990: abolition of all restrictions of movement of capital

1992: Maastricht treaty established EMU officially

• Institutional asymmetry between economic and monetary issues, EMU has a stronger monetary side, which has a hard time to adjust to other countries. 

• It creates some problems because it had: a one size fits all policy, while there are a lot of different economies. It has weak and fragmented financial regulation, poor implementation of the stability and growth pact, and the absence of a fiscal union.

1994: establishment of the european monetary institute, predecessor to the ecb

1999: irrevocable fixing of conversion rates. ECB responsible for monetary policy

2002: creation of the euro

Key characteristics of the EMU

• Eurozone members can no longer devaluate their currency or take individual decisions on exchange and interest rates

• Macro economic policies are aligned under the umbrella of the stability and growth pact (Budgetary deficit maximum 3%, government debt shouldnt be higher than 60% of the GDP)

• Member states are part of a multilateral surveillance system on their economic policies

EU response to the 2008 crisis

• Provide financial assistance to countries in trouble

• Create the ESM, european stability mechanism: provides loans in exchange for reforms

• ECB's bond-buying programs on secondary markets

• Strengthening the economic and fiscal policy coordination

• Making high government debt illegal: the fiscal compact

• Creation of the European Semester: strengthening the role of the commission in monitoring public debt and budget defecit, increasing the possibility of sanctions for non-compliance

• Increase banking regulation amd supervision

• Create the single supervisory mechanism: common rules to be followed by eurozone banks, which are supervised by the ECB in the framework set by the European Banking Authority

Lecture 10: migration, asylum and the refugee crisis

Terminology:

• Intra-EU migration = free movement (eu citizens can go study, work, live and move freely between member states

• External Migration = immigration to the EU (people coming from  outside the EU, known as third country nationals)

• Difference in regular (legal) and irregular (illegal) migration

• Refugees = asylum policy, escaping from persecution, war or natural disasters. Have international protection rights

Conflicts between member states concerning migration

• Burden sharing: some countries are more affected than others. 

• Domestic politics: some countries do not want to accept external migration

EU-response to the refugee crisis

• Military patrolling in the mediterranean sea (to prevent loss of life at sea and prevent irregular migration)

• Frontex

• Create processing centers: the hotspot approach

• Redefine the list of countries in.which citizens have the right to qualify for asylum

• Relocation and resettlement

• Stop refugee inflows and externalize the problem (closing down the frontier, stranding people in greece) (EU turkey readmission agreement: turkey closing its border in exchange for financial support

Main critic point on the EU refugee problem

• Inability to respond effectively and in a coordinated manner

• The inhumane treatment of asylum seekers

• Obstacles in decision making: internal domestic politisation (rise of farright). High legel of distributive conflict: how to share the burden?

Lecture 11: the response to the covid-19 pandemic

The EU health policies

The EU has supporting competences in human health

• Health mentioned only as a justification to prohibit the free movement of goods, services or people under exceptional circumstances

• The EU sets safety standards for food, pharma, toys, medical devices, chemicals etc.

• Health systems are national, but people moved freely across borders

• Constitutional asymmetry between policies promoting market efficiency and those promoting social protection

• The EU was unprepared for the covid pandemic

Relevant EU institutions

• European commission: directorate for health and food safety (DG SANTE): proposed legislation and financial support and coordinate the exchange of best practices between EU countries.

• The council: employment, social policy, health and consumer affairs configuration (EPSCO council)

• EU agencies: European center for disease prevention and control (ECDC): monitor illness and risk assessment

• European Medicines Agency (EMA): facilitates development and access to medicine, evaluate applications for marketing authorisation, monitor the safety of medicines and provide information to healthcare professionals.

EU measures adopted:

• Measures to preserve the internal market: launch infringement procedures against governments which ban export of protective equipment

• Coordinate restrictions on mobility: short suspension of schengen area

• Measures to create a common pool of resources: RescEU, creates a stockpile of protective and medical equipment.

• Create a joint procurement scheme for vaccines: allows the European Commission to purchase vaccines tor the EU as a block: creates equality and brings prices down. The Commission focused on lowering prices instead of quick delivery. 

• EMA took longer to approve vaccines

• Establish elements of fiscal capacity at the EU level to support economic recovery: creates an emergency recovery fund - Next Generation EU - and a revised multiannual financial framework 2021-2027

• Shared bonds: makes lending money cheaper for poorer member states