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| The History of the European Union
The History of the European Union
Universität Koblenz
Landau, Abt. Landau
Sommersemester 1996
- Canterbury Christ Church College -
ITE / ERASMUS - Program
“The History of the European
Union”
Student : Timo M. List
The History of the European Union
In this Assignment I want to make clear and visible the
“red line” in the History of the European Union, I am not going to
make a complete overview of all the treaties and institutions.
The Idea of the of a European Union and its development from
its beginnings till today should be explained here.
The European Union as it exists today is the result of a
development that started after the second World War; but even before the idea of
a Unity among the States of Europe existed, even when it was only popular among
philosophers and visionaries.
In the Years after the first World War this Idea became more
and more popular, one of the main goals of this time was to prevent a further
war in Europe.
But the history took a different way, instead of forming a
Union, or at least a partnership among the European States during the thirties
the nationalism the idea of a powerful, strong national state was followed in
many European States.
A very good example for this is the Initiative of the French
foreign minister Briand who spoke for a federal Union of Europe in the League of
the Nations, but his ideas where turned down in
1929.[1]
During the second World War the vision of a new Europe that
would worked together was developed from national resistance movements; two of
the most important people in this context are Altiero Spinelli, the Italian
federalist, and Jean Monnet.[2]
Directly after the second World War many people in the
United State of America believed, that a strong, united Europe was necessary to
prevent a further war; the economical help the USA gave in the background hat
the idea, that the United States of Europe could develop, if from the beginning
the reconstruction of the destroyed Europe was not limited to some
countries.[3]
Especially after the first conflict in the Alliance of the
Winners became clear, and the partnership between the western Allies and the
Soviet Union started to vanish, it became clear that Germany was one of a very
great strategic importance to stop the Communism in Europe; if Germany would
become a communist state, most certainly the rest of Europe would follow. Out of
this reason plans like the “Morgenthau - Plan” were replaced by
direct economical help.
In 1947 the American President Harry Truman said in his
famous speech in Fulton, that the USA would help all states which were in danger
of the Soviet Union, and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs George Marshall spoke
at the Harvard University of a Program to rebuild
Europe.[4]
The first direct step towards the European Union was taken
in 1948, as on initiative of Winston Churchill European politics like Adenauer,
de Gasperi and Schuman gathered on a European Congress in Den - Haag and
developed ideas for the political and economical partnership of the European
states.
On the 5th of May 1949 the European Council was
founded by Great Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy,
Ireland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden; even if the competence’s of this
council are very limited, the first step in the right direction was taken
.
That Germany was included into this development was not
without problems, you have to consider that in 1948 France and Great Britain
signed the Treaty of Brussels (later on also the Benelux- states where
included), to get help in the case of a further German
aggression.[5]
In 1951 the European Coal and Steel Community was set up by
France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux - states, especially the French foreign
Minister Robert Schuman can be called the “father” of this plan;
already in 1945 Konrad Adenauer had said, that only a unity of Western Europe
and the overcoming of the Nationalism could guarantee the security of the States
and help the destroyed economy to
recover.[6]
Central to the federalist approach is the idea, that local,
regional, national and European authorities should co - operate and complement
each other, but also the other approach, the functionalist one, which favours a
gradual transfer of sovereignty from national to community level, is very
important and developed in this
time.[7]
During the time of the War in Korea the necessity of a
common defence plan completed these steps on the economical level; the European
Defence Union should set up an army out of soldiers from the six countries, many
people hoped, that this common defence project would led to a emerging of these
countries.
But in 1954 this plan was stopped, as the French parliament
did not agree to the
plan.[8] As an result of
this agreements on the modified Treaty of Brussels where made to found the
Western European Union, this time including Germany, even if the Treaty of
Brussels started in 1947 as an anti - German
pact[9]. Due to the
foundation of the NATO in 1949, this institution did not develop into a very
important institution.[10]
In these years the Community was seen as a way of securing
peace ; but in 1957 the Six decided to create an economic community, built
around the free movements of workers, goods and services.
In the years till 1968 the custom duties in intra community
trade in manufactured goods where
abolished.[11]
The success of the Six founder states led to expansions over
the following years, and in 1973 nine members belonged to the European
Community. This enlargement was matched by further deepening, the community
being given responsibility for social, regional and environmental
matters.[12]
But the development of as political Union was a very
difficult process, as all the member Countries accepted the economical success,
but did not want to loose any of there political influence on national level to
a supranational community. Maybe the best way to articulate was the French
president de Gaulle, as he spoke of a “Europe of the
fatherlands”.[13]
But the economical interest showed the need to change the
common market into a economical and monitory union.
Due to the acceptance of new members the negotiations on a
single position became more and more difficult, but as the USA suspended the
convertibility of the dollar the need for an economic convergence became
apparent, especially after the two oil crisis (1973/1979) and the world-wide
monetary instability, the launch of the European Monitory System helped to
stabilise exchanges rates and encouraged member states to pursue strict economic
policies, enabling them to give each other mutual support and benefit from the
discipline imposed by an open economic
area.[14]
More and more Europe developed into a third power in the
world arena, and in international conferences the European states spoke with
“one voice”, as the co-ordinated their plans and
ideas[15], but the
international role of the union also becomes clear in the four successive
Lome´Conventions, which linked states in Africa, the Caribbean and the
pacific more closely to the Union.
With the foundation of the European Parliament in 1978 some
deficits in legitimisation and democracy, which were mentioned again and again
by critics, started to vanish, but of course there is still a far way to go to
transfer the existing European institutions into a Supranational, democratic
legitimated institution.[16]
Since 1995 the European union consist out of 15 members,
already the world ´´s major trading power, the Union is now working on
developing structures which would give a higher profile on the international
stage, the aim being to introduce a common foreign and security
policy.[17]
The Collapse of the Berlin Wall in1989 and the following
development in eastern Europe transformed the political structure; in 1991 the
Treaty of Maastricht marked the new development, this treaty makes the progress
towards a single currency irreversible; the treaty on European Union sets an
ambitious programme, the monitory union, new common policies, European
citizenship, a common foreign and security policy and internal
security.
The Union has no choice but to progress still further along
the road towards an organisation both efficient and democratic, capable of
making decisions and taking action while preserving the identity of its
consistent states.[18]
In the following conference of Maasstricht which will take
place in 1996 the structure of the Union to enable it to face the new tasks, to
prepare the Union for a further enlargement in order to bring stability to the
whole continent, will take place, and this conference will be one of the moist
importance in the history of the Union, because from this Conference the success
of the Idea of a European Union as it was dreamed in 1945 will come true in the
new Millennium or not.
Personal Impressions
Of course not everyone is satisfied how the Union developed,
many people are against the whole idea; it was interesting for me, taking part
in a programme of the European Union ( the ERASMUS Program ) studying in England
for six months, to see the attitude towards the European Union one time from a
different point of view.
Some of the things I noticed were quite interesting for me,
this began already on my first day in England, as I found out that I was
officially considered as an “overseas student”. For me this was very
surprising, as I never had thought that I would be considered something else
than coming from Germany or out of a different state of Europe.
It was then when I realised for the first time that some
people in Great Britain still have problems top accept that there is one Europe,
ad not England and the Continent. Of course my notes are not
representative; very often in discussions with English Students I ended up
defending the idea of a European Union, some English Students even preferred
that England should step out of the EU.
In many of the tabloids the Institutions of the European
Union are dealt with like an enemy, and everything that goes wrong is due to the
European Union, but the positive effects of the European Union, the help the
England gets from the European Union and all the positive aspects are ignored (
at least in the tabloids I read during this time ).
Sometimes I had the idea, the some reporters still have
problems with the fact, that the Empire has stopped to exist long ago, and the
political realities are ignored; the idea that due to the history England cannot
accept to loose part of its influence to supranational authorities is quit
common in some of these papers.
During my stay in England I recognised, that Europesimism
is quite common, and as discussions came to the European Monetary Union, the
idea was that England should not take part in it.
I
personally was surprised as in one TV Report of BBC 1 some reporters showed the
danger of isolation for GB if it would not take part in the
EMU.
As I said before, this cannot be representative, and I meet
man Europe Supporters, I only wanted to mention some of the things that
surprised me.
References
Pascal Fontaine, Europe in ten points,
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Brussels,
Luxembourg, 1995
Jacques Freymond, Die Atlantische Welt, in:
Weltgeschichte - Eine Universalgeschichte -, Editor :Golo Mann,
Prisma Verlag, Gütersloh, 1980
Hanns Joachim Friedrichs ( Editor ) ,
Weltgeschichte - Eine Chronik-, Naturalis Verlag,
München/Köln, 1988
Wolfgang W. Mickel, Bertholld Wiegand,
Geschichte Politik und Gesellschaft, 2. Auflage, Cornelsen Verlag
Hirschgraben, Frankfurt, 1989
[1] Mickel, Wolfgang W., Wiegand, Berthold,
Geschichte Politik und Gesellschaft, Cornelsen Verlag Hirschgraben, 2. Auflage,
Frankfurt 1989, S. 369
[2] Fontaine, Pascal, Europe in ten points,
Office of Official Publications of the European Communities,
Brussels-Luxembourg, 1995, vgl. S.5
[3] Freymond, Jacues, Die Atlantische Welt
in Weltgeschichte - Eine Universalgeschichte - edited by Golo Mann, Bd. 10,
Prisma Verlag Gütersloh, 1980, S.231
[4] Friedrichs, Hanns Joachim (Hrsg),
Weltgeschichte - Eine Chronik - ,Naturalis Verlag, München 1988,
S.437
[5] Mickel, Wigand, Frankfurt 1989,
S.369
[6] Mickel, Wiegand, Frankfurt 1989, S.
370
[7] Fontaine, Luxembourg, Brussels 1995, S.
5
[8] Mickel, Wiegand, Frankfurt 1989, S.
370
[9] Mickel, Wiegand, Frankfurt 1989, S.369
f.
[10] Mickel, Wigand, Frankfurt 1989, S.
370
[11] Fontaine, Brussels Luxembourg, 1995,
S.6
[12] Fontaine, Brussels, Luxembourg,
1995, S. 6
[13] Mickel, Wiegand, Frankfurt 1989, S.
371
[14] Fontaine, Brussels Luxembourg, 1995,
S. 6
[15] Mickel, Wiegand, Frankfurt 1989, S.
372
[16] mickel, Wiegand, Frankfurt 1989, S.
372
[17] Fontaine, Brussels Luxemburg, 1995,
S.6
[18] Fontaine, Brussels Luxembourg, 1995,
S.7
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