Understanding European Union: Treaties, Integration, and Theories

Posted on Mar 10, 2025 in Naval Architecture and Marine Systems Engineering

Understanding European Integration and the EU

Seeking to reduce tensions and promote cooperation, states signed international treaties, reduced barriers to trade, worked together on shared problems, and formed a network of international organizations. The underlying motive behind European integration has always been peace. The end of World War II in 1945 brought a fundamental reordering of the international system, which made the possibility of European unity much greater than ever before. The priority for Europeans was to create the conditions necessary for peacetime reconstruction. For some, this meant a rethinking of their system of government, but they had different sets of priorities and different ideas about what needed to be done. Support of the idea of European cooperation after the war was reflected in the emergence of several groups of pro-Europeanists. In 1949, The Council of Europe was founded, and it made progress on human rights, cultural issues, and even limited economic cooperation, but it never became anything more than a loose intergovernmental organization and was not the kind of organization that European federalists wanted. The congress of the European Movement in early 1949 had suggested that the coal and steel industries offered strong potential for common European organization, and in 1951 came the creation of the ECSC, with the Treaty of Paris. The creation of the ECSC was a small step in itself, but it represented the first time European governments had transferred significant powers to a supranational organization, it was an important step toward creating an economic union. Although the ECSC was limited in scope, leaders of the ECSC signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957, which had as its intent a fuller economic integration of its member states and the creation of a single market. Rome also created institutions that continue to be used, in modified forms, in today’s EU. The EU went through several rounds of enlargement, taking in the UK, Ireland, and Denmark in 1960 and Greece, Portugal, and Spain in the 1980s. Yet movement toward deeper integration slowed during the 1970s. The European project received new impetus with the creation of the European Monetary System (EMS), which aimed to coordinate macroeconomic policies and regulate exchange rates, and the Single European Act (SEA) which set the stage for even further economic and more important political integration that would come with the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War led to a new round of expansion of the EU, taking the EU farther north and farther east. The post-Cold War era has also brought significant deepening, a new joint currency (Euro), far-reaching institutional changes, and a more independent and vigorous foreign policy. Nevertheless, the inability of the EU to take more decisive action in the wake of both a severe financial crisis in the eurozone and an unprecedented refugee crisis exposed the limits of elite-led efforts to move the Union toward further integration.

Merger Treaty – Brussels Treaty

  • Signed: 8 April 1965
  • Entered into force: 1 July 1967
  • Purpose: to streamline the European institutions.
  • Main changes: creation of a single Commission and a single Council to serve the then three European Communities (EEC, Euratom, ECSC).
  • Repealed by the Treaty of Amsterdam.

Treaty of Amsterdam

  • Signed: 2 October 1997
  • Entered into force: 1 May 1999
  • Purpose: To reform the EU institutions in preparation for the arrival of future member countries.
  • Main changes: amendment, renumbering and consolidation of EU and EEC treaties. More transparent decision-making (increased use of the ordinary legislative procedure)

Treaty of Nice

  • Signed: 26 February 2001
  • Entered into force: 1 February 2003
  • Purpose: to reform the institutions so that the EU could function efficiently after reaching 25 member countries.
  • Main changes: methods for changing the composition of the Commission and redefining the voting system in the Council.

Treaty of Lisbon

  • Signed: 13 December 2007
  • Entered into force: 1 December 2009
  • Purpose: to make the EU more democratic, more efficient and better able to address global problems, such as climate change, with one voice.
  • Main changes: more power for the European Parliament, change of voting procedures in the Council, citizens’ initiative, a permanent president of the European Council, a new High Representative for Foreign Affairs, a new EU diplomatic service.

The Lisbon treaty clarifies which powers:

  • belong to the EU
  • belong to EU member countries
  • are shared.

The EU is an international organization:

  • Its members are nation-states
  • Membership is voluntary
  • The balance of sovereignty lies with the member states
  • Decision-making is consultative
  • Procedures are based on consent rather than compulsion

The EU is a state:

  • Internationally recognized borders
  • European system of law (to which all member states are subject)
  • Increasing authority to influence and control lives of Europeans

The EU is a federation:

Union of peoples living within a single state

Pros:

  • There is a System of European laws that coexists with national law systems and is protected by the European Court of Justice
  • There is a Directly elected European Parliament that coexists with national and subnational legislatures
  • There is a Common budget and single currency (in most of the countries)
  • There is a Common executive body (Commission) which oversees external trade negotiations on behalf of all the member states (MS) and can sign international treaties

Cons:

  • MS can make international treaties
  • MS can operate their own currency
  • MS can maintain their own army
  • MS can go to war
  • EU cannot levy taxes
  • EU has not a common security policy or military
  • EU can negotiate with the rest of the world only on selected policy areas

The EU is a confederation:

Union of states

  • Member States (MS) still control the bulk of the power of negotiations and bargaining
  • MS are distinct units with separate identities, own national defense forces and policies
  • MS can sign bilateral treaties and can argue that the EU institutions exist at their discretion
  • It is a voluntary association. A MS can leave and not been consider secession (Confederacy of US 1861, Chechnya 1994, Kosovo 1998)
  • The Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Council derived mainly from the governments of MS. Only the European Parliament is elected directly by citizens

Theories of Neofunctionalism and Spillover

Theories of spillover. Once governments launch the process of integration, it would take on a life of its own (“expansive logic”). According to Lindberg (1963), that is when “a given action, related to a specific goal, creates a situation in which the original goal can be assured only by taking further actions which in turn create a further condition and a need for more action.”

  1. Functional spillover: Economies so interconnected that if one sector is integrated, it will lead to other sectors. IGOs would have to be created to oversee the process and there would be eventually economic and political integration.
  2. Technical spillover: Disparities in standards will cause states to rise or shrink theirs to the tightest or loosest regulation.
  3. Political spillover: Interest groups will start focusing on the new regional level instead of the national level, and politics will increasingly be played at that level.

Liberal Intergovernmentalism

  • The position of MS is decided at the domestic level → National interest is key.