Durham E-Theses Luxembourg in the European Union: The smallest member state in the council of ministers Weiler, Anne Victorine How to cite: Weiler, Anne Victorine (1999) Luxembourg in the European Union: The smallest member state in the council of ministers, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4279/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Anne Victorine Weiler Luxembourg in the European Union: The Smallest Member State in the Council of Ministers Thesis submitted for the acquisition of a Master of Arts in European Politics The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the written consent of the author an information derived from it should be acknowledged. University of Durham Department of Politics Academic year 1997/98 Submitted in January 1999 r? - 2 NOV 1999 Abstract The present M.A. thesis deals with the status and the distinct role that Luxembourg can carve out for itself in the current, post-Maastricht institutional and decision-making framework of the European Union (EU). Our aim is to understand the way Luxembourg operates in the EU's central decision-making body, the Council of Ministers. We do not analyse the policy output and its effects on Luxembourg but the formal and informal features of the Council of Ministers and Luxembourg's interaction with it. In view of the weaknesses that small-state status confers on Luxembourg, the small state has a persistent interest in finding strategies for managing smallness. Like other small states, the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg sees its small-state predicament best resolved by co• operating at international level. In this respect the institutional and legal framework of the European Union offers unique benefits. The Council of Ministers is the central decision-making institution of the European Union and the institution via which Luxembourg's negotiating status and behaviour is analysed. The principle of equality of states and federal-type overrepresentation place Luxembourg in a particularly advantageous situation. Not only is the small state overrepresented but it also enjoys a disproportionately high influence under the current Council voting system. Things look different when it comes to exerting political weight. Still, Luxembourg has adopted a behaviour and strategies allowing it to overcome the weaknesses derived from its small size. It will be shown that the small state has important opportunities of action both when it acts in a neutral way and when it needs to defend important national interests. 2 Contents Abstract 2 Contents 3 List of Tables and Figures 5 List of Abbreviations 6 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction — — 10 1 Small States in the European Union 15 1.1 Does the Category 'Small State1 Matter? 15 1.2 Small-State Predicament in the International System— — — 18 1.3 Benefits of European Union Membership 21 1.4 The Council of Ministers 23 1.5 Behavioural Implications of Small-State Status in the Council of Ministers- 25 1.6 Hypothesis 27 2 Communicating with the Council of Ministers 28 2.1 Special Features of Luxembourg's Co-ordination of European Policy Making- — — 29 2.2 Interministerial Co-ordination — 33 2.3 The Permanent Representation - — 34 2.4 Efficiency of Luxembourg's Co-ordination System - 39 3 Negotiating Status in the Council of Ministers 43 3.1 Voting and the Relative Influence of Luxembourg - 43 3.2 A Role Without Any Influence? 53 4 Negotiating Strategies and Tactics 58 4.1 Strategies of Neutrality 59 4.2 Defence of Vital National Interests 65 5 The Council Presidency 73 5.1 National Position Towards the Presidency 74 5.2 National Co-ordination during the Presidency 76 5.3 Disadvantages of Small-State Presidencies 79 5.4 Determinants of Luxembourg Presidencies' Effectiveness— 82 5.5 Neutral Co-ordinator and 'Honest Broker' - - - 87 5.6 The Small-State Presidency and Common Foreign and Security Policy- 90 3 6 What Future for Luxembourg in the Council of Ministers? —93 6.1 The 1996 1GC and Institutional Reform —- - 93 6.2 Reforming the Council of Ministers 101 Conclusion 108 Bibliography 112 4 List of Tables and Figures Table 1.1 Categorisation of EU member states according to weighted votes 16 Table 1.2 Total land area, population and GDP figures of EU member states 18 Fig. 2.1 Luxembourg's co-ordination system of EU policy and decision- 33 making Table 2.1 Evolution of the staffing of the Luxembourg Permanent 35 Representation from 1958 to 1998 Table 2.2 Overview of Luxembourg's Permanent Representatives and Deputy 36 Permanent Representatives from 1958 to present day (1998) Table 3.1 History of voting weights, current population, majority and blocking 45 minority thresholds Table 3.2 Current weighted votes, population, and relative voting power under 51 QMV Table 3.3 Voting power (%) for QMV in the Council of Ministers calculated on 52 the basis of the Shapley-Shubik power index Table 5.1 Council Presidency rotations 1991-2001 73 Table 5.2 Luxembourg's Council Presidencies from 1958 to 1998 74 5 List of Abbreviations Art. Article BLEU Belgo-Luxembourg Economic Union CFSP Common Foreign and Security Policy Coreper Committee of Permanent Representatives EC European Community ECJ European Court of Justice Ecofin Council of Economic and Finance Ministers ECSC European Coal and Steel Community EEC European Economic Community EFTA European Free Trade Association EMU European Economic Community EP European Parliament EPC European Political Cooperation EU European Union Euratom European Atomic Energy Community GAC General Affairs Council GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade GDP Gross domestic product GNP Gross national product IGC Intergovernmental Conference JCMS Journal of Common Market Studies JHA Justice and Home Affairs MEP Member of European Parliament NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OJ Official Journal of the European Communities OOPEC Office for Official Publications of the European Communities OSCE Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe PR Permanent Representation PU Political Union QMV Qualified majority voting SCA Special Committee on Agriculture SEA Single European Act SGCI Secretariat general du Comite inter-ministeriel pour les questions de cooperation economique europeenne Sq. km Square kilometres TEU Treaty on European Union 6 troika Group of three successive Council Presidencies UK United Kingdom UN United Nations WEU Western European Union 7 Acknowledgements This M.A. thesis would not have been possible without the assistance and encouragement of so many people. Many thanks to Mr Andrew MacMullen - who was always at hand - for his help and supervision. I am most grateful to my interviewees, Mr Jean-Jacques Kasel, Mr Romain Kirt, Mr Frank Schmit and Mr Gaston Thorn whose inside information helped me find my way through the European maze of formal and informal decision-making. Many thanks as well to the staff of the Permanent Representation of the European Commission in Luxembourg, the Luxembourg Permanent Representation with the European Union in Brussels, the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Europeennes Robert Schuman and the many ministries which I consulted in Luxembourg. I would also like to thank the British Embassy in Luxembourg and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the award of a British Chevening Scholarship. Last but not least I would like to thank my family most warmly for always believing in my work and for spurring me on to finish it. Anne Weiler Luxembourg, January 1999 "The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged". 8 Je ne suis ni optimiste ni pessimiste. Je suis determine. Jean Monnet To Christian and my family 9 Introduction We are currently experiencing two opposing trends on the European continent: one characterised by integrative, the other one by disintegrative forces. On the one hand a trend towards globalisation as exemplified by the internationalisation of economic, political, defensive as well as environmental problems and the dedicated commitment to an integrated Europe finds its expression in the workings of the European Union (EU) and other transnational organisations. On the other hand the European continent witnesses some disintegrative forces. These became ever more obvious since the 1989 revolution of the international system leading to the breakup of the Soviet Empire and a few years later of Yugoslavia but also in the latent separatist tendencies of certain regions of Europe (e.g. regions in Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Great Britain). These disintegrative forces have produced a proliferation of smaller states making small-state studies once more politically topical. Along with the Gulf and the Pacific region Europe has a high number of small states, which has increased ever since 1989. Most of these smaller units are now striving for membership in one or more western international organisations of which military security within NATO and economic and political integration within the European Union are the most attractive forms. In this context, the small state of Luxembourg with a surface area of 2,586 sq.