An Introduction to European Integration Studies [antikvár]

I. The Historical Development of the EU: What History Teaches Us About EU Politics Today? 1. The origins of European integration The idea and dream of a politically integrated Europe possesses a long pedigree. Across the centuries, numerous intellectuals and political leaders have argued for and have attempted to bring order and unity to the fragmented political mosaic of the European continent. An increased agitation for unity emerged in the 19th century, but almost exclusively among people who were, at best, at the fringes of political decision making. Their arguments and blueprints held little appeal or relevance for political leaders. However, there did emerge a more widespread recognition that somé form of economic cooperation might well contain somé potential political advantages for states. Those schemes that did become operatíve, however, were either short-lived or, like the Zollverein established among Germán states, highly region specific and protectionist. The post-World War I peace process, by its emphasis upon national self-determination, made the continental political mosaic even more complex. After 1918, the hopes that had been invested in the League of Nations as a world body dedicated to cooperative peace quickly faded away in times of high economic uncertainty and political animosities. The Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) and the Nordic states explored possibilities of economic cooperation, but with no significant outcome. Aristide Briand, the French Foreign Minister in the 1930 Briand Memorandum submitted a generalized proposal for an intergovernmental unión with its own institutional infrastructures within the League of Nations. Outside political circles, a huge number of associations developed schemes for cooperation and integration, but failed to achieve any positive results. The outbreak of war in 1939 simply confirmed the absence of any radical change to the European world of states. The history of European integration, therefore, as it is conventionally understood today, essentially begins in 1945. The aftermath of World War II provided unusually fertile ground for new ideas for international cooperation. The war took the lives of approximately 40 millión civilians and 20 millión soldiers, while those that survived were faced with destruction and despair. It contributed to arguments that nationalism and nationalist rivalries had discredited and bankrupted the independent state as the foundation of political organization and international order, and that a replacement for the state had to be found in a comprehensive continental community. There have been two competing strategic schools. On the one hand, there are those who have followed the arguments of people like Altiero Spinelli who, in the Ventotene Manifesto of 1940 urged a onceand-for-all "big bang" solution, an instantaneous and all-embracing transformation into a federal European state. TEXT Winston ChurchiM's speech at the University of Zürich, 19 September 1946 (excerpt) [...] Yet all the while there is a remedy which, if it were generally and spontaneously adopted by the great majority of people in many lands, would as if by a miracle transform the whole scene, and would in a few years make all Europe, or the greater part i of it, as free and as happy as Switzerland is to-day. What is this sovereign remedy? It is to re-create the European Family, or as much of it as we can, and to provide it with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. We must build a kind of United States of Europe. [...]The first step in the recreation of the European Family must be a partnership between Francé and Germany. In this way only can Francé recover the morál and cultural leadership of Europe. There can 5