The UK and the EU

The development of the EU
1. European Integration the significant cirumstances
  1. The need for economic reconstruction in war-torn Europe through cooperation anf the creation of a larger market
  2. The disire to preserve peace between france and Germany, whose antagonisms had contributed to the outbreak of both the WW1 and WW2
  3. The need to incorporate Germany more effectively into a wider Europe in order to prevent further bouts of expansionism
  4. The dise to safeguard western Europe from the threat of the USSR, which had emrged as a superpower in the post- 1945 period and had extended its control throughout Eastern Europe
  5. The wish of the USA to establish a prosperous and united Europe, bith as a market for US goods and as a bulwark against the spread of communism
2. Early examples of Integration
  1. European Coal and Gas Community, which was formed in 1952 by France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg (big Six)
  2. The Big Six formed the European Economic Coummity in 1957 with the Treaty of Rome
    1. The EEC was commited to the establishment of a common market and the broader goal of an "ever closer union among the peoples of the Europe"
    2. Although many of the early supporters of Euopean integration favoured a "federal" Europe, in which the sovereignty of the European Nations would be "pooled",
      1. The was more "functionalist", based on incremental steps towards integration, particularly in the area of ecominc copperation
3. The UK refused to participate in these develpoments, for a number of reasons
  1. Having fought alongside the USA and the Soviet Union and having emerged victorious in WW2, the UK saw itself as one of the "Big three", not as a minor power
  2. Many in the UK felt culturally and historically distinct from "Europe" having, for example, more in common with Commonwealth and with the USA
  3. The UK was more concerned with preserving its "special relationship" with the USA than with forming alliances with "Europe"
  4. Not having been defeated or invaded, the UK was less affected than many continental Euopean powers by WW2
4. The attitudes changed
  1. This was due to growing anxiety about the UK's loss of great power status and concern about the UK's economic decline relative to EEC states
  2. Macmillan was the first to apply to join the "Common Market" in 1961 followed by Wilson's in 1967, both attempts were rejected
    1. De Gaulle, feared that the UK was still too closely aligned with the USA, and the UK would threaten the Franco-German alliance, that had dominated the EEC
  3. Heath's finally succeeded in joining in 1973
5. The integration process was relaunched
  1. Signing in 1986 of the Single European Act, which envisaged an unrestricted flow of goods, services and people throughout Europe "a single market", to be introduced by 1993
  2. The treaty on the European Union, led to the creation of the European Union (EU). This committed the EU's 15 members to Both POLITICAL UNION and MONETARY UNION. The single currency was introduced in 2002
    1. Poltical union: The establishment of common citzenship rights within the EU and a strengthening of EU institutions to ensure common policies in designated areas
    2. Monetary union: The establishment of a single European currency, the euro, regulated by the European Central Bank
6. EU enlargment
  1. In 2004, 10 countries joined reintergrating the Ex-soviet sates. With 2 more eastern European counrties joining in 2007 bring the total to 27
  2. This enlargment was made it hard for further integration
    1. A larger number of member states made it difficult, for the EU bodies, and especially the Council of Ministers, to make decisons. This led to moves establish a constitutions for the EU. The treaty of Lisbon in 2009 eventually established a constitution
The workings of the EU
1. The EU is very difficult political organization to catergorize
  1. It is no longer a confederation of independent states operating on the basis of intergovernmentalism
    1. Intergovernmentalism: A form of interaction between states that takes place on the basis of sovereign independence, meaning that states cannot be forced to act against their will
  2. The sovereignty of member states was enshrined in the so-called "Luxembourg compromise" of 1966. This granted each member state a national veto
    1. National veto: The power of member states to block Council of Ministers' decisions on matters that threaten vital national interest
  3. However, as a rsult of the SEA, the TEU and other treaties, the practice of qualified majority voting has been applied to a wide range of policy areas.
    1. Qualified majority voting: A system of voting within an EU Council of Ministers in which different majorities are needed on different issus, with states' votes weighed according to size
  4. This narrows the scope of the national veto and allows even the largest state to be outvoted. This trend has been compounded by the fact that EU Law is binding on all member states and that the power of certain EU bodies had expanded at the expense of national governemnts
  5. The EU, hovers somewhere between intergovernmentalism and supranationalism. The EU may not yet have created a federal Europe, but because of the superiority of Eurpean law over the national law of member states, it is perhaps accurate to talk of a "federaalizing" Europe
    1. Supranationalism: The existence of a supranational body that is higher than the nation-state and capable of imposing its will on it
2. The EU is an unique political body
  1. The transition from Community to Union, achieved via the TEU not only extened intergovernemtal cooperation into areas such as foreign and security policy, home affairs and justice, immigration and policing, but also established the notion of EU citizenship
  2. In the UK in particular such developments have been controversial
    1. Often dubbed Europe's "awkard partner", the UK has struggled to come to terms with its European identity.
    2. The Conservative, fuelled by the fear of a European "superstate" that would threaten both national sovereignty and national identity
3. The EU Stops short of a United States of Europe
  1. This has been ensured partly respect for the principle for subsidiarity, which in the TEU expresses the idea that EU bodies should only act when matters cannot suffiently be achieved by member states
    1. Subsidiarity: The principle that, within a federal-type system, decisions should be made at the lowest possible level
  2. Decision-making within the New Europe is increasingly made on the basic of multilevel governance, involving subnational, national, intergovernmental and supranational levels, with the balance between them shifting in relation to different issues and policy areas
  3. This image of complex policy-making is more helpful than the sometimes sterile notion of a battle between national sovereignty and the EU domination
The impact of the EU on the UK
1. It is often said that the UK is in Europe but not of Europe .
  1. The UK has not been able to escape a process of "europeanization"
2. Public policy
  1. Every year the EU issues more than 12,000 regulation, directives, decisions and recommendations which impact on the member states
  2. "Democratic deficit"
    1. The decision-making authority is transferred from parliament to non elected EU bodies.
  3. The EU's policy influence is very different in different areas
    1. E.G. health, education, social security and social services have been little affected by membership of the EU
    2. The UK's opt-out on the Single currency also helps to preserve the UK's economic sovereignty, although it has no choice but to conform to the Freedom of movement of goods, services and capital throughout the EU
    3. The UK's decision not to participate in the Schengen Agreement has allowed the UK to retain border and immigration control
    4. Agriculture and fisheries polices are more dominated by the EU through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Common Fisheries Policy. While British farmers have benefited substantially from the CAP, the country as a whole pays more than it gets back because of the UK's releatively small agricultural sector.
    5. Regional aid provided through grants from the European Regional Development Fund, which helps small businesses and supports economic regeneration, particularly in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England
    6. The EU is also closely involved in setting and monitoring standards in environmental policy and consumer affairs. This ranges from regulating the quality of bathing beaches and the effectiveness of pollution controls to the ways in which products such as ice cream, sausages and beer can be sold
  4. The impact on social policy in the UK
    1. It was restricted by the opt-out, negotiated in 1997, from the Social Chapter of the TEU.
    2. The incoming Labour Government in 1997, relinquished the opt-out. The UK therefore became subject to a wide range of regulations about matters such as working hours and the rights of part-time workers.
    3. Progress towards establishing the common foreign and defence policies within the EU, while still limited, has developed considerably in recent years with the intergovernmental Common Foreign and Security Policy and the European Security and Defence Policy
    4. However, while the EU has taken an increasingly larger role in representing the member states on bodies such as the WTO and IMF, the UK has been less willing to limit their independence in relation to military matters
3. Public opinion
  1. The UK's failure to adopt a more clearly European identity, and to participate more fully in EU initiatives, is underpinned by continuing public scepticism about the benefits of EU members.
  2. Before the 1975 referendum, roughly two-thirds of the people to oppose continued EC membership (the referendum produced two-thirds for EC)
  3. Opinion surveys across the EU have consistently demonstrated support for the "European project" is lower in the UK than in any other member state
    1. In December 2007 only 37% of UK citizens said they had benefited from EU membership
  4. Some explain these trends in terms of the continued impact of the historical and cultural factors that encouraged the UK to refuse the invitation to join the EEC in 57
  5. Others point to the increasingly strident anti-Euroepanism of the UK tabloid press since the early 1980's
  6. An additional factor is that, since Heath, no UK government has made the case for a positive engagement with "Europe" by clearly emphasizing the benefits of EC/EU membership
4. Membership of the EU has affected UK parties in two main ways
  1. In the First place, Europe has been a cross-cutting issues that has tended to divide both the Labour and Conservative parties
    1. Divisions with the Labour party, for instance, led Wilson to renegotiate EC membership in 1974 and to call the 1975 referendum on continued membership. During 1981-87, Labour supported withdrawal from the EU
    2. Euroscepticism grew within the Conservatives Party from the late 1980's onwards, leading to divisions that threatened the survival of the Major government and contributed to its landslide defeat in 1997.
  2. Second, the European issues has given rise to new political parties
    1. The single-issue Referendum Party contested the 1997 GE, while the UK Independence Party won three seats in the European Parliament election of 1999 and, more dramatically, securing 12 seats in 2003
5. Pressure groups have responded to the transfer of policy-making responsibilities from national government to EU bodies
  1. Most major pressure groups have therefore set up offices in Brussels as well as in London. The growing influence of the European Parliament has also led to more intensive lobbying at Strasbourg.
  2. One of the most prominent consequences of this process has been the growing number of European-wide pressure groups, which help national groups to poll their resources and to achieve a higher public profile
  3. Over 700 such groups have come into existence, mainly representing business interests. Examples of such European-wide groups include the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations, which provides a European voice for the National Farmers Union and the European Trade Union Confederation, through which the Trade Union Congress operates

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The UK and the EU

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