Combining the Community and the Intergovernmental Methods: From the Europe of Communities to the European Union (1992-2009)
On Thursday, November 9, 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. With the most vivid symbol of the Cold War gone, Germany undertook a process of reunification. On September 12,1990, the foreign ministers of the United States of America, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France signed the Two-Plus-Four Treaty, which granted Germany full sovereignty (Quint 1997, 268-285).
On the night of October 2-3,1990, the German people officially celebrated German Unity. Also, on December 2, 1990, all Germans elected a pan-German parliament for the first time since 1933. The end of the Cold War brought about the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 21, 1991. The Iron Curtain was lifted and Western Europe discovered that the Eastern European countries were eager to participate in the European integration process (Mazzucelli 1999, 35-56). The European Communities responded by strengthening integration through the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, which led to a tighter-knit Economic and Monetary Union, and by accepting the addition of new member states.[1230] During this crucial 10-year period (1985-1995) Jacques Delors served as president of the European Commission.[1231]18.10.1 The Maastricht Treaty and the Appearance
of the Structured Integration Pillar
On February 7, 1992, the 12 Member States of the European Communities convened in the Dutch city of Maastricht to sign the Treaty on European Union (TEU), which came into force on November 1, 1993. Through this agreement the “Europe of Communities” (ECSC, EAEC, and EEC) was apparently simplified into a single Community: the European Union. In fact, it was not that simple. What was approved via the Maastricht Treaty was the introduction of the three-pillar structure for the process of European integration, each pillar representing a certain policy area and a specific type of decision-making and institutional structure (Verdun and Stavridis 2002, 56).
The first pillar, called the “Community Pillar” corresponded to the three existing Communities: the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. When in 2002 the Treaty of Paris expired, all ECSC activities and resources were absorbed by the European Union, and all the areas encompassed by this pillar[1232] were subject to the Community integration method, which meant that the decision-making procedure followed a supranational approach was based essentially on Qualified Majority Voting (QMV).[1233] The second pillar dealt with Common Foreign and Security Policy, and the third addressed Police and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters. The integration method concerning these two pillars was intergovernmental, which meant that in these areas[1234] the decision-making procedures essentially followed the Unanimity Principle.[1235]
Another important aspect introduced by the Maastricht Treaty was the notion of European citizenship, which included rights such as that to vote in European elections; the right to free movement, settlement and employment across the EU; and the right to consular protection from other EU states’ embassies when a person’s country of citizenship does not maintain an embassy or consulate in the country in which they need protection (Maas 2007, 45-52). Since 1994 it also provides for the right to vote in local elections in a member state of which one is not a citizen.[1236]
18.10.2 Towards an Economic and Monetary Union: The
Euro as a Common Currency
The Maastricht Treaty was only one more step forming part of the European integration process. Next was the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). To achieve integration the TEU included criteria for economic convergence that imposed strict controls on inflation, public debt and public deficit, exchange rate stability, and the convergence of interest rates (Underhill 2002, 31-52).
Thanks to the EMU in 1995 EU authorities invented the euro, which was introduced into the world’s financial markets as a currency on January 1, 1999, replacing the former European Currency Unit (ECU), though physical notes and coins were introduced on January 1, 2002 (Cohen 2008, 37-53).[1237]
18.10.3 Many New Members
In 1992, when the Treaty of Maastricht, was signed the EU was comprised of 12 member states, though the repercussions of the Cold War’s end would soon facilitate the EU’s further expansion.
On January 1, 1995, Austria, Finland, and Sweden, hitherto neutral countries during the Cold War period, were able to join the European Communities.[1238] As developed and democratic countries, they readily accepted the acquis communautaire: the cumulative body of European Community laws, comprising the EC’s objectives, substantive rules, policies and, in particular, primary and secondary legislation and case law, all of which form part of the legal order of the European Union (EU).[1239]
Next was the integration of Europe’s former communist countries (the Easter Enlargement), which was far more difficult, as these countries were not only emerging from dictatorships, and in need of democratization, but also suffered from serious economic underdevelopment. To ensure that they did not fall back into the Russian sphere of influence, on May 1, 2004, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, plus two Mediterranean countries (Malta and Cyprus), joined the European Union, followed by Romania and Bulgaria on January 1,2007. Finally, on July 1,2013 Croatia joined the Union, becoming its 28th member state.[1240]
18.10.4 The Need to Reorganize the EU: From Amsterdam to Lisbon
Operating as a single market, the European Union covers 4 million km2 and has a population of 503 million. The EU’s economy—measured in terms of the goods and services it produces (GDP)—is now larger than that of the U.S., as in 2012 it boasted a GDP of 15.97 trillion USD, edging out the US, with 15.94.
Booming China, meanwhile, came in at 8.22, Japan at 5.96, and Germany at 3.57.However, dealing with 28 countries and 503 million people makes things difficult in terms of decision-making. European integration is irreversible, but it continues to be a miracle because its legal and institutional foundations are of considerable complexity, based on several overlapping treaties whose texts have been successively amended. The European states have integrated, but in spite of rather than because of this complex system, which represents a veritable legal morass. The participating governments are aware that there is no turning back now, but have been unable to simplify the Union’s foundations. Its legal bases, its treaties, are still a dizzying maze.
This is why the governments of the EU Member States have been trying to restructure it in a manageable way. Following the Treaty of Maastricht came the Treaty of Amsterdam on October 2,1997, which entered into force on May 1,1999; and the Treaty of Nice on February 26, 2001, which set the majorities necessary for decision-making after the successive expansions (Felsenthal and Machover 2013, 593-614), entering into force on February 1, 2003 upon the completion of the corresponding ratification procedures.
The truth is that there was an attempt to clarify the EU’s organization through the signing of a single treaty in 2004, the deceptively entitled “Treaty of the European Constitution” (as it was not a constitution in the technical sense of the term, but a consolidation of the treaties). On October 29, 2004, in Rome, the heads of state and government and their respective ministers of foreign affairs signed a treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (Amato 2007). The initiative failed because the agreement was rejected in referendums by the citizens of France and the Netherlands in 2005, rejections which raised the question again about whether the European integration process suffers from a democratic deficit (Weiler 1995, 12). Yo no pondria una referencia aqui anterior a 2005 (Thomassen 2009, 118).
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