Europe Guide to from A to Z European integration Werner Weidenfeld Wolfgang Wessels Institut für Europäische Politik EUROPEAN COMMISSION O Z EUROPE FROM A T 2 Contents Foreword Upheaval in Europe Guide to Europe Agricultural policy Budgets Committee of the Regions Common foreign and security policy Competition policy Consumer policy Council of the European Union Culture Decision-making procedures Development Economic and monetary union Economic and Social Committee Economic policy Education and youth Energy Enlargment Environment The euro European Commission European Council European Court of Auditors European Court of Justice European Investment Bank European Monetary Institute European Monetary System European Parliament European Union Europol External relations Fisheries policy Health O Z EUROPE FROM A T Industry Information society 3 Intergovernmental Conference Justice and home affairs Media policy Mediterranean and Middle East policy Models of European integration People’s Europe Regional policy Research and technology The single market Social policy Transport policy Treaties Women’s Europe The ABC of Europe A chronology of European integration List of authors List of abbreviations O Z EUROPE FROM A T 4 Foreword The last few years of the 20th century are full of challenges for the European Union: at the top of the agenda is an institutional reform in 1997, followed by the final stages of economic and monetary union, and lastly the planned enlargement of the Union to include the new Central and East European democracies and Cyprus. At the same time many European Union citizens are facing high unemployment and other serious threats. The globalization of the economy seems to call into question the European Community model. Consequently, many people are viewing the future with pessimism and scepticism. These challenges have given rise to debates in many countries about the purpose and objectives of the European Union in the run-up to the year 2000. The end of the millenium can be seen as the signal for a new beginning, leaving behind what is probably Europe’s bloodiest and darkest century, to emerge into a new age, which, following the historic turning point of 1989, seems to hold out the promise of unification rather than division of the continent and peace instead of war. However, peace and prosperity cannot be achieved merely by a change of date, however symbolic, but only if the people themselves play an active part in shaping society and in living together. The European Union has been created with this in view, step by step over the five decades since the Second World War. For the next stages, if not a complete new beginning, the people of Europe are being called upon to mould European integration according to their wishes. Democratic forms have their beginnings in opinion-forming and discussion. With this book the European Commission, together with independent experts on European affairs, aims to shed light on the tasks, organization and policies of the EU as seen from various viewpoints. The authors were asked to write about their respective areas of specialization in as concise, readable and factual a way as possible, to provide the reader with a reference work offering a quick but accurate overview of the EU. Following the articles in the ‘Guide to Europe’, there is an ABC of Europe containing brief definitions to help with the Community vocabulary. Readers of Europe from A to Z can therefore choose between a short statement of the facts or a more detailed outline. For example, should you wish to know what Socrates stands for, the answer is to be found in the list of abbreviations; the ABC of Europe contains a short description of this Union-wide university exchange programme, and anyone who wants to know more can find out from the article on education and youth exactly why the EU offers a O Z EUROPE FROM A T programme of this type and what the other priorities of this policy area are. In each case, cross references guide the reader to further reading. The chronology 5 sets out key events of European integration from 1946 to 1996. Balanced information is a vital element of opinion-forming on the basic questions of European policy outlined here. We invite you to take this opportunity of finding out about and discussing Europe. At the end of the book is a supplement giving references to other sources of information produced by the Commission to explain its point of view to the public. You can also find up-to-date information which expands on the contents of this book on the Internet under http:\\europa.eu.int. The European Commission and the European Parliament also have contact points in every Member State, and you will find their addresses at the end of this book. This edition of Europe from A to Z has its origins in a highly successful book published several years ago by the Institut für Europäische Politik in Bonn. We would like to thank the publishers of that book, Dr Werner Weidenfeld, Director of the Centrum für angewandte Politikforschung, Munich, Dr Wolfgang Wessels, Director of the Institut für Europäische Politik, Dr Mathias Jopp, Mr Gerhard Eickhorn, Managing Director of the Europa Union Verlag, and the editor, Ms Nicole Schley of the research group on Europe at the University of Munich, headed by Mr Josef Janning. O Z EUROPE FROM A T 6 Upheaval in Europe For some years now Europeans have been living history in quick motion, going through a period full of conflict but without any clear defining pattern – in some respects an era with no name. Integration and disintegration, internationalization and provincialization, balance of power and struggle for power – all have been occurring at the same time, giving Europe a unique shape with new risks and uncertain constellations. There is no ‘other side’ to help us define ourselves any more. Europe has to constitute itself, positively and from within. Why should the nations and peoples of Europe bind themselves together in a common political system? And how is that system to be organized in such a way that it fulfils its citizens’ expectations? The current state of integration is simply the result of the gradual Community- building process begun by the Six in the 1950s. There may be more angles to it, but the thinking remains the same. This old thinking has exacted a high price, first from the Twelve and now from the Fifteen: the capacity for action has been greatly weakened. The Intergovernmental Conference on Maastricht in 1996-97 will have to provide a blueprint for a 20-nation and, in the medium term, a 30-nation European Union. The situation after the Second World War In Europe’s darkest hour, amidst the ruins of the Second World War, the most creative answer was offered to the question of what was to become of Europe. That answer was integration. In his Zurich speech of 19 September 1946, shortly after the war, Churchill was already mapping out the way forward with his vision of a ‘United States of Europe’, the first step towards which was to be the establishment of a Council of Europe. Churchill spoke of a union, under the leadership of France and Germany, of all States wishing to join. Against a background of the worsening East-West conflict, the European movement, in the process of organizing itself in 1948, received a lasting impetus from the founding of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). The OEEC, set up to coordinate the implementation of the Marshall Plan, also demonstrated clearly that the international order could exercise a great deal of pressure to push along the process of European unification. As the eastern bloc became increasingly solid, there was the perceived threat of communism. In the meantime the Americans were lending their support to the European unification project, hoping to ease the burden that weighed upon them as world power and looking forward to the opening up of large, new markets. At the same time, the Western European countries wanted to O Z EUROPE FROM A T join together to remove the risk of individual national States making new and dangerous attempts to go it alone. 7 This shared basic attitude did not, however, prevent differing tendencies from emerging on the question of integration after the founding of the Council of Europe on 5 May 1949: the confederation of States and the federal State. At no time in the immediate post-war years, therefore, was the idea of European unification linked to one political concept or a single model of integration. Not being blindly fixed to a closed model of Europe, the unification process was able to take its impetus from completely different political events depending on the situation. From that starting point fresh progress could be made. In this way, the main feature of the wrangling over the unification of Europe over the years can be seen as a matter of pure pragmatism. The Council of Europe In 1948, the Hague Congress demanded that a Council of Europe be set up. This was the moment when the European movement was born. The birth was marked by the dispute between federalists and unionists who were mainly in disagreement over the question of nations surrendering sovereignty to Europe. A political declaration demanded the political and economic union of European States involving the transfer of a limited portion of sovereignty. At this point there was mention neither of a federal European State nor of a European constitution. Nevertheless, several of the points made in the Hague resolution were later to acquire importance when they were implemented by the Council of Europe. The European Coal and Steel Community On 18 April 1951, at the prompting of French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman (the Schuman Plan of 9 May 1950), the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was signed.