21. Economic and Monetary Union

This chapter examines the various attempts to create the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), which first became an official objective of the European Community (EC) in 1969 but was achieved only thirty years later. In December 1969, the Hague Summit meeting of the EC heads of government made a commitment to the achievement of EMU ‘by 1980’. However, France and West Germany disagreed over how to do it. Germany made anti-inflationary policies the priority, while France made economic growth the priority, even at the risk of higher inflation. The chapter first provides a historical background on efforts to create the EMU before discussing the launch of the single currency, the euro, and its subsequent progress up to and including the eurozone crisis in the late 2000s. It also considers some of the explanations for and critiques of EMU that have been offered by various academic commentators.

19. Agriculture

This chapter examines the European Union’s policy on agriculture. The importance that the EU has given to the agricultural sector can be attributed in large part to food shortages at the end of the Second World War. Governments agreed that it was important to ensure adequate supplies of food at reasonable prices. To achieve this, it was necessary to provide an adequate income to farmers, while taking measures to increase their productivity. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) was the first redistributive policy of the European Community, and for many years the only one. The chapter first provides a historical background on European agriculture in the 1980s and 1990s before discussing the Agenda 2000 budget negotiations and the 2003 reform of the CAP. It also explores the cumulative effect on the CAP of the reform process that started in 1992.

10. From Amsterdam to Lisbon (2000–2009)

This chapter examines the new strategy adopted in March 2000 by a special European Council in Lisbon to make the European Union more competitive, culminating in the signing of the Treaty of Lisbon. The Amsterdam Treaty had scarcely entered into force before further treaty reform emerged on the agenda. Throughout the year 2000 a new intergovernmental conference met to address outstanding institutional issues that had not been settled at Amsterdam. It concluded in December 2000 with the longest European Council in history, which led to the Treaty of Nice. The chapter first considers the Nice Treaty before discussing the Lisbon Strategy, the European Security and Defence Policy, the Constitutional Treaty, the issue of enlargement, the European Parliament, and the nomination of a new European Commission. It ends with a discussion of the Treaty of Lisbon.

8. The Revival of European Integration (the Mid-1970s to the Late 1980s)

This chapter examines the revival of European integration from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s. It first considers leadership changes in the European Commission before turning to the European Council and the European Monetary System (EMS), the Commission’s Southern enlargements, and the British budget rebate. It then discusses leadership changes in the Commission from 1981 to 1982, the Single European Act (SEA), and the European Council meeting at Fontainebleau in June 1984. It also looks at the initiatives of various Commission presidents such as Roy Jenkins, Gaston Thorn, and Jacques Delors. Finally, it describes the implementation of the SEA, widely seen as the big breakthrough in the revival of European integration.

5. From the End of the War to the Schuman Plan (the late 1940s to the early 1950s)

This chapter charts the long history of plans for European unity, from the end of the Second World War to the Hague Congress, the Cold War, the Schuman Plan, and the Treaty of Paris. It also considers European federalism and the practical reasons why some moves to European unity found favour with the new governments of the post-war period: the threat of communism and the emergence of the Cold War; the so-called German Problem; and the need to ensure adequate supplies of coal for the post-war economic reconstruction. As a solution to these intersecting problems, Jean Monnet, came up with a proposal that paved the way for the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community. The chapter examines Monnet’s proposal, national reactions to it, and the negotiations that led to the creation of the first of the European communities.

3. Theorizing Consequences

This chapter brings together what have usually been presented as separate ‘consequences’ of European integration: Europeanization effects and challenges to democracy. It first considers the meanings of ‘Europeanization’ and uses of Europeanization before discussing the development of Europeanization studies that relate specifically to the European Union, along with the new institutionalisms in Europeanization research. It also examines the issue of legitimacy and the notion of ‘democratic deficit’. The chapter shows how the process of Europeanization can challenge domestic democratic structures and processes by transferring responsibilities and obscuring lines of accountability. It suggests that Europeanization may also add to the so-called ‘output democracy’ by increasing the policy-making capacities of governments through collective action.

26. Common Foreign and Security Policy

This chapter examines the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). From 1993 to 2009, external political relations formed the second pillar of the EU, on CFSP. Although CFSP was officially an intergovernmental pillar, the European Commission came to play an important role. There were serious attempts to strengthen the security and defence aspects of the CFSP in the face of the threats that faced the EU from instability in its neighbouring territories. However, the EU remains far from having a truly supranational foreign policy and its status as a ‘power’ in international relations is debatable. The chapter first provides a historical background on the CFSP, focusing on the creation of the European Political Co-operation (EPC), before discussing the CFSP and the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). It concludes with an assessment of EU power and its impact on world politics.

22. Cohesion Policy

This chapter examines the European Union’s cohesion policy, which had its origins in the European Community’s regional policy. Despite evidence of wide disparities between Europe’s regions, the Treaty of Rome made no specific commitment to the creation of a Community regional policy. It was only in 1975 that a European regional fund was created, and a coherent supranational policy emerged only in 1988. The chapter traces key developments in cohesion policy, focusing on reforms made between 1988 and 2013. Enlargement and the single market programme provided the context for a major reform of the structural funds in 1988. In the 2013 reform, the Commission’s subsequent proposals linked cohesion policy to the goals of the Europe 2020 growth strategy. The chapter also considers shifts in the intergovernmental–supranational nature of policy control in the sector that first gave rise to the notion of multi-level governance.

4. Critical Perspectives

This chapter examines the range of critical perspectives now applied to the European Union, including social constructivism, critical political economy, critical social theory, critical feminism, and post-structuralism. These critical — often termed ‘post-positivist’ — approaches emphasize the constructed and changeable nature of the social and political world. Many such approaches reject the notion that social reality can be objectively observed and argue that various agents, including policy actors and scholars themselves, are involved in its construction. They highlight the less obvious manifestations of power that pervade the interrelated worlds of political action and political theorizing. It is important to consider why these more critical perspectives have been absent for so long within mainstream studies of the EU. Both their exclusion and their gradual (re-)admittance to the mainstream can be accounted for by factors internal to political studies scholarship and factors related to the politics of European integration and the EU.

20. The Single Market

This chapter examines the European Union’s original decision to create a single market and the moves to complete the internal market — what became known as the single market programme — in the 1980s. The economic ideal of a common or single European market lies at the core of the EU. The decision to institute a drive to achieve a single internal market by the end of 1992 played a key role in the revival of European integration. The chapter first traces the development of internal-market policy before discussing the record of implementation beyond 1992. It then considers recent policy developments in relation to the single market in the context of the eurozone crisis which began in 2009. It also reviews the academic literature on the single market, focusing on the main explanations for its development and some key ideological or normative perspectives on its consequences.