- Taken from Issue 6 of The Manchester Historian, published November, 2012.
The history of European
integration can be traced back to 1306, and the idea proposed by
Pierre Dubois that European princes should form an assembly in order
to attempt to secure a lasting European peace. 706 years later, much
of the continent is tied, to some degree, to the European Union. How
did this come to pass?
The role of the United
Sates in encouraging European integration should be acknowledged. A
strong, integrated Europe was essential to the U.S. because it was a
hugely significant market for U.S. exports and an ideological buffer
against the threat of Communism emanating from Eastern Europe. This
recognition gave rise to The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan,
in which the aim was to promote, prosperity and free-market ideology.
This brought with it the establishment of The Organisation for
European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), comprised of the European
countries who received Marshall Plan aid and the subsequent
establishment of the European Payments Union (EPU), which brought
with it a liberalisation of trade conditionality.
The next step toward
European integration culminated in the establishment of the European
Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) following the basis for the
rationalisation of Europe's steel industry outlined by French Foreign
Minister, Robert Schuman in 1950. For the first time, member states
of the ECSC would be brought together under a supranational political
authority. The ECSC was eventually ratified when France, Italy, The
Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and West Germany signed the Treaty
of Paris in 1951.
Further attempts by the
French government to widen the political integration of Europe,
however, were met with opposition as plans for a European Defense
Community (EDC) and a European Political Community were shelved in
1954, with European collective security organised through NATO
instead. However, despite this defeat, 1957 saw the organisation of
the Treaty of Rome between member states of the ECSC, which led to
the establishment of the European Economic Community and European
Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) following the recommendations of
the Spaak Report.
The Treaty of Rome served
for the basis of the widening of political integration. By 1967, the
ECSC, EEC and Euratom were merged to create the European Communities
- later named the European Community (EC) – after the Merger Treaty
in Brussels. However there were also increasing intimations regarding
the possibility of a European-wide monetary integration, which were
influenced by fears over the stability of international finance and
the need for Europe to secure its monetary future.
The 1970s and '80s saw the
increasing influence of the EC and the common market in the European
political and economic landscape, seeing its membership increase in
1973 with Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom; and following
further enlargements to the ranks of the EC, the Maastricht Treaty
was signed in 1992, paving the way for the establishment of the
European Union (EU) and led to the establishment of a single European
currency – the Euro – presided over by the European Central Bank.
Further amendments to the Maastricht Treaty came in the form the
Amsterdam (1999), Nice (2003) and Lisbon Treaties (2009) in which
adjustments were made to the functioning and democratic legitimacy of
the EU, accommodating Eastward expansion and enhancing individual
citizenship rights.
Contemporary debate
concerning the European Union is concerned with the stability of the
euro zone's monetary integrity; specifically the health of European
banks and European budget deficits. It is increasingly widely
acknowledged that, in order to ensure the long-term health of the
euro zone and its banks, that further European integration should
take place in the form of a European banking union. The aim behind a
banking union is to oversee a co-ordinated supervision and regulation
of European banks and ensure that good financial practises are
followed. The talks regarding this next stage of European integration
are poised to begin in Brussels this December.
- Michael John Cass @michaeljohncass
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