Chapter 7: The European Union

Thinking About The EU What’s in a Name? –European Economic Community (EEC) –The Common Market –The European Community (EC) –The European Union (EU) Who’s in, who’s out? The New Europe Three Pillars –Trade and economic issues –Justice and home affairs –Common foreign and security policy

Thinking About The EU Key Questions –How and why did the EU emerge? –What is its political culture and how does it shape the way people participate in its political life? –What are the main decision-making bodies? – What are its critical public policy initiatives? –How do the European people learn about and react to those policies? –How will the EU and its institutions be affected by broadening and deepening?

The Evolution of the EU Not such a new idea –ECSC The High Authority A Special Council of Ministers A Court of Justice A Common Assembly –The Treaty of Rome and the EEC The Commission The Council of Ministers European Parliament European Court of Justice Creating the Common Market –Growth –Common Agricultural Policy –European Monetary System –Council of Permanent Representatives (COREPRER)

The Evolution of the EU The Single European Act The Maastricht Treaty The Treaty of Amsterdam The Treaty of Nice

Popular Culture and Participation in the EU Few people identify themselves first as European. Key EU organizations are still superficial Democratic deficit Lack of common language

The European State? The Commission The Council General Affairs Council European Council COREPRER Qualified voting majority

The European State? The European Court of Justice –Decisions have frequently made major expansion of the EU’s authority possible –Actions have limited national sovereignty in favor of the EU’s institutions The European Parliament –The EU’s weakest institution –Power has grown since direct election of members –Codecision –The right to approve all nominees to the Commission and can remove the entire Commission if a vote of censure passes by a two-thirds margin. –The right to approve the budget

The European State? The Complexities of EU Decision Making –Policy making more complex and confusing because it has to reconcile interests of its 25 member states with those that transcend national boundaries and the institutions are greatly fragmented. –Still being built

The European State? Next Steps? –Further broadening and deepening seem unlikely in the foreseeable future Criteria to join: –Establishment of a functioning and stable democratic regime –Adoption of a market-oriented capitalist economy –Acceptance of the acquis communautaire, the 80,000 pages of laws and regulations already on the EU’s books To be a “United States of Europe,” need commitment to a common foreign and security policy.

The European State? The EU and National Sovereignty –Can it supplant the state and the primary actor determining public policy and the broader ways in which people are governed?

Public Policy in the EU The Internal Market –The removal of tariffs and other barriers to trade Tremendous impact on both European governments and their citizens –Monetary union The euro EMU gives the EU and its new central bank powerful levers they can exert over national governments

Public Policy in the EU Common Agricultural Policy –Took steps to modernize inefficient farms to be more competitive in the European market –Established the EAFFF, giving farmers subsidies and guaranteeing the purchase of surplus goods at artificially high prices. –Demonstrates how pressure put on member states can lead to policies that tend to impede a free market and also make the EU resistant to change. –More recent reforms on the CAP have been forced on the EU by the GATT and the WTO. –CAP will not be able to survive the 2004 enlargement

Feedback There is very little feedback because of the way the EU is structured and the way people participate (or don’t) in it. People pay little attention to the politics and policies of the EU. Turnout in European elections is much lower than in national ones. Coverage in the press is spotty and concentrates on its problems. Difficult for average people to have much of an impact on decision making; distance and disinterest.