European Union

WEEK I – BASIC
QUESTIONS

WHY A EUROPEAN
UNION?
W H AT I S T H E E U ?
Why a European Union?

• Understanding the EU from a historical perspective means stepping back to the post-1945 era.
• The European integration process was initiated in the 1950s largely as a consequence of the negative
experiences of the founding member states during and in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. The
primary objective was maintaining peace at that time.
• Inter-state cooperation was considered an essential step towards a new post-war world. Fundamental to this
objective was the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Germany, as the engine of the wider European economy.
• But of course, encouraging the re-emergence of a strong Germany would pose a serios threat to the security of
Western Europe.
• For this reason, these two contradictory objectives of «peace» and «economic reconstruction» started to be
viewed as mutually reinforcing. The idea of European integration allowed this change to occur.
Why a European Union?

• Two contextual «events» have been crucial in accounting for the broadening out of the concept: the end of the
Cold War in 1989; and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001.
• While the cold war ended the bipolarity of the post-1945 period, 9/11 redefined security threats as internal as
well as external, as more multi-dimensional and fluid, and as less predictable.
• There are also other threats such as climate change, environmental pollution, extreme instability in financial
markets, global enonomic crisis, and global pandemic…
• EU cannot alone address these issues, but its highly institutionalized structure, and norms of consensus really
matter.
• The EU is not only about security, however, no matter how broadly we define the concept. It also concerns
welfare-related issues. From a normative perspective, which accepts that the state ought to take responsibility
for the well-being and social condition of its citizens, the notion of the EU as a neoliberal object accounts for
only part of what the EU is or does.
What is the European Union?

• The European Union is a family of liberal-democratic countries, acting collectively through an institutionalized
system of decision-making. When joining the EU, members sign up not only to the body of EU treaties,
legislation, and norms, but also to a set of shared common values, based on democracy, human rights, and
principles of social justice.
• Today, the EU comprised 27 member states, and over 450 million people.
• While there is a growing consensus that the EU now sits somewhere between a traditional international
organization and a state, the question of whether it resembles one of these «models» more than the other remains
contested. Although it might seem fair to claim that the European Union is unique, or a hybrid body, even this
point can be contentious when it prevents researchers from comparing the EU to national systems of
government and international organizations.
• The common institutions of the EU that is the Commission, Parliament, Council, courts, the European Council,
and the European Central Bank form a nexus for joint decision-making in extremely wide range of policy areas.
Who can join?
• At the beginning, the criteria for joining were vague. States had to be European, of course, but there was no real definition of what
«European» actually meant. There was also an assumption that member states had to be democratic, but again, this was ill-defined and was
not included in any treaty.

• This changed when, in 1993, the Copenhagen European Council agreed that counteries wishing to join the Union had to meet political and
economic criteria – in other words, they must have working market economies and liberal democracies, and be able to take on board the
existing body of EU treaties, legislation, and norms. These conditions of memberships became known as the «Copenhagen criteria».

• Although there had been enlargements in the 1970s (with the UK, Ireland, and Denmark in 1973) and the 1980s (with Greece in 1981 and
Spain and Portugal in 1986), the end of the Cold War brought a very different phase in the history of the expansion of the EU.

• Without the Soviet threat, Sweeden, Finland, and Austria became members in 1995.

• On May 2004, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slobakia, and Slovenia joined along with Cyprus and Malta.

• Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007.

• Lastly Crotia joined the union in 2013 and UK left the EU in 2020.
Who pays?

• The European Union has its own budget. Unlike national governments, the Union does not have the capacity to tax
European citizens in a direct way, so the budget has more than one source: it comprises receipts from customs duties
and sugar levies, contributions at EU’s vorders, and national contributions provided by the member states. The EU
budget is relatively small. The EU budget is 167.8 billion euros in 2022.
• The EU’s budgetary process is a complex one. It involves the Commission, the EU Council, and the European
Parliament. Negotiations may last several months, if not years (for ex. The negotiations for the 2007 Budget started in
2005).
• The budgetary process provides an excellent illustration of the necessity of inter-institutional cooperation amongst
Commission, Parliament, and Council.
What does the European Union do?

• Because implementation is usually the responsibility of national or sub-national governments, the EU-level actors
devote most of their attention to coming up with policy ideas and turning those ideas into legislation or actions that
have concrete effects. Many of those policy ideas respond to problems that have arisen in Europe as a consequence of
increasing transnational (or cross border) movements.
• There is no one way of making European policy. Some policies, such as foreign policy and policy on judicial
cooperation in criminal matters, are very intergovernmental and use a decision making process that is based largely on
government-to-government coperation.
• By contrast, there is much more of a supranational quality to policies, such as agricultural policy.
The European Union and its Citizens

• The process of European integration has deeply affected the lives of all Europeans – from everyday things such as the labelling on packets of crisps and
the colour of their passports, to more complex and perhaps non-tangible changes such as the rights bestowed to them by virtue of being citizens of a
member state.
• The Maastricht Treaty established a new citizenship of the Union conceived of as a supplement to, not a substitute for, national citizenship. (efffective in
1993)
• Such rights were further extended at Amsterdam, incorporating an anti-discrimination clause and member states’ commitment to raise the quality of, and
guarantee free access to, education.
• The Charter of Fundamental Rights, included in the Lisbon Treaty, summarizes the common values of the member states and brings together a set of
common civil, political, economic, and social rights.
• «We are not forming coalitions of states, we are uniting men», said Jean Monnet. Yet European citizens have different interests, culture, language, and
history.
• As in the period after the Second World War, the European Union is faced again with an apparent contradiction: how to support countries to address their
soverign debt problems, while ensuring that economic growth and ultimately well-being of European citizens (intergovernmantalism vs. supranationalism)
EU Symbols

• The European Flag

• The European Anthem

• Europe Day

• The EU motto

• The Euro
The European
Flag
• It features a circle of 12 gold stars on a blue
background. They stand for the ideals of unity, solidarity
and harmony among the peoples of Europe.

• The number of stars has nothing to do with the number

of member countries, though the circle is a symbol of
unity.

• The history of the flag goes back to 1955… The Council

of Europe chose the present design for its own use.

• In 1985, it was adopted by all EU leaders as the official

emblem of the European Communities, later to become
the European Union.
The European
Anthem
• The melody used to symbolize the EU comes from the Ninth
Symphony composed in 1823 by Ludwig Van Beethoven, when he set
music to the "Ode to Joy", Friedrich von Schiller's lyrical verse from
1785.

• The anthem symbolises not only the European Union but also Europe
in a wider sense. The poem "Ode to Joy" expresses Schiller's idealistic
vision of the human race becoming brothers - a vision Beethoven
shared.

• In 1972, the Council of Europe adopted Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"

theme as its anthem. In 1985, it was adopted by EU leaders as the
official anthem of the European Union. There are no words to the
anthem; it consists of music only. In the universal language of music,
this anthem expresses the European ideals of freedom, peace and
solidarity.

• The European anthem is not intended to replace the national anthems

of the EU countries but rather to celebrate the values they share.
Europe Day
• Europe Day held on 9 May every year celebrates
peace and unity in Europe. The date marks the
anniversary of the historical 'Schuman declaration'.
At a speech in Paris in 1950, Robert Schuman, the
then French foreign minister, set out his idea for a
new form of political cooperation in Europe, which
would make war between Europe’s nations
unthinkable.
• His vision was to create a European institution that
would pool and manage coal and steel production.
A treaty creating such a body was signed just under
a year later. Schuman’s proposal is considered to be
the beginning of what is now the European Union.
The EU motto

• "United in diversity", the motto of the

European Union, first came into use in
2000.
• It signifies how Europeans have come
together, in the form of the EU, to work
for peace and prosperity, while at the
same time being enriched by the
continent's many different cultures,
traditions and languages.
 The Euro
• The euro is the most tangible proof of European integration
– the common currency in 19 out of 28 EU countries and
used by some 338.6 million people every day.

• The Economic and Monetary Union involves the

coordination of economic and fiscal policies, a common
monetary policy and the euro as the common currency. The
euro was launched on 1 January 1999 as a virtual currency
for cash-less payments and accounting purposes. Banknotes
and coins were introduced on 1 January 2002.

• Eurozone Countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia,

Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain.

• Non-eurozone Countries: Bulgaria, Crotia, Czech Republic,

Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweeden.

• Countries with an opt-out: Denmark

Member States
• Founding Members: 1958 - Belgium, France,
Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands
• First Enlargement: 1973 - Denmark, Ireland,
United Kingdom
• Mediterranean Enlargement: 1981 - Greece;
1986 - Portugal, Spain
• Post-Cold War Enlargement: 1995 - Austria,
Finland, Sweeden
• Enlargement of CEE Countries: 2004 - Czech
Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,
Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Cyprus;
2007 - Bulgaria, Romania
• Western Balkans Enlargement: 2013 - Crotia
On the Road to Membership

• Candidate Countries: Albania, Moldova, Montenegro, North

Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine
• Potential Candidates: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo