EUGIC Lecture Notes Veerle Klok
Lecture 1
W. Wagner & O. Terzi
History of European Integration
Before and during the War
-> Nation states versus Europe V. Hugo - Travel between Paris, Rome, Berlin, London
-> The USA as an example: federalism
-> WWI: the war to end all wars: Pan-Europe Movement
-> Churchill during WWII
-> Resistance against Nazi Germany
-> A working peace system - D. Mitrany (functionalism: if you can unite nation states on political matters
in a very technical way, you can prevent them from going to war; unite them technically so they’ll be too
tight with each other to start a war)
Thought: if you can prevent war between European states, you can prevent war
-> Change the system from anarchy to an hierarchical one
Thought first: United States of Europe
Convention in early 2000s: 2 representatives from every country, wrote a constitution, NL voted against,
convention got named the Convention of Lisbon
-> Was intentionally written as a constitution text
-> The EU we have today is a compromise between a compromise between an Intergovernmental State
and a Federal state
Churchill: splendid idea, not for us, the British; saw Britain as something else. They were still al colonial
(worldwide) power, and saw themselves as a USA of Soviet Union
Treaty of Dunkirk: France is getting occupied by Nazi Germany and the British help the France in Dunkirk.
Churchill makes suggestion towards France: “lets unify France and UK to make it one country, to make
sure nazi Germany does not attack”. France declined. Treaty: in the event of a German aggression, then
France and UK will emerge to be 1 country.
Council of Europe was supposed to be a quasi-federal state, but it turned out to be an Intergovernmental
Organisation with member states
-> ADD 2 SLIDES
,EUGIC Lecture Notes Veerle Klok
Founding the European Communities
It is significant than Schuman is French
-> Franco-German War about resources (steel/coal),
-> He lived in the part of Germany that was owned by the French, he felt the war
Schuman Declaration: Unite the Steel & Coal from Germany & France, use for Dcivilians’ purposes and not
for weapons (Why would Germany do this? -> Overcome their Nazi-past)
-> Benelux signed for safety
-> Italy: joining Post-Mussolini Italy
^^^ 2 things that got rejected/didn’t happen, know for exam
-> 2 Treaties that did not get signed (EDC & EPC)
3 communities (European Cole & Steel community, European Economic Community & European Atomic
Energy Community); initiated by the big 6 (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Germany, France, Italy), not
by Britain: why?
-> Because of the Churchill legacy; see themselves as a Global Power
-> Britain: 1. Commonwealth, 2: USA, NATO, 3: Europe. Europe as third option; Britain only wanted to
trade with the EU
Treaty of Rome: “we the peoples of Europe must aim towards an ever-closer Union”
-> Britain hates this
-> Try not to say federalism, “federalism” is the “f-word” in Europe
EFTA: only joined Europe for trade
-> This divided Western Europe into two: countries that only joined for trade or the Big 6
-> Think about: time during CW; UK has a strong connection with USA
-> USA chose the side of the six, since they thought the big 6, European Communities, because this makes
them stronger against the Soviet Union
-> This pushed UK in the direction of the European Communities (Britain had just established EFTA, and
afterwards applied to membership for Communities)
,EUGIC Lecture Notes Veerle Klok
Lecture 2
The Elysee treaty can be seen as the main treaty in Franco-German reconciliation
Empty Chair Crisis & Luxembourg Compromise
-> Lasted seven months, starting in 1965 and ending in Januari 1966
-> The European Committee decides on something that goes against French agriculture (CAP: common
agricultural policy). One of the main aspects for France, was that The European Committee was to support
French agriculture, but when it came to making a policy, they simply lost the vote. What then happened
was that France withdrew their delegates from all meetings of the European Committee for 1,5 year;
which means they are boycotting the institutions from which they are a leader (this all took place within
the Council of Ministers)
-> The 6 decide that this needs to be resolved. This is done by the Luxembourg Compromise; which gives
a nation a veto-right on a selected area of national interest (vital national interest). If a new regulation is
overriding a vital area of national interest, than that member country in this area has a veto power. No
member state will be overridden on issues that are vital to them. This also leads to the understanding that
not everything can be your vital national interest.
-> France: agriculture. Irish: border of Northern Ireland. Cyprus: their relationship with Turkey.
-> The veto in some ways can be seen as a step back in the integration process. On the other hand,
countries now trust the EU more because member states are always able to stop a vital issue. (Political
maturity)
In 1973, Degole was no longer president of France, and then UK was accepted to the EU. Degole was the
sole reason of why they were not in yet (= over my dead body)
The Brexit referendum 4 years ago was not the first referendum. In 1975, there was also a referendum
where they voted remain with 67%.
, EUGIC Lecture Notes Veerle Klok
Thatcher’s speech at the College of Europe on Britain and Europe; where she was very critical in how the
integration was going. (Pro-Europe, against European Community)
The Britisch/UK rebate; look up (The Netherlands uses a similar rebate where money is payed back if it’s
too much.)
-> They all paid 1.1% of their GDP, then the contributions of wealthier countries increased to 1.5%, and
later they receive a percentage back
-> Member states are not equal, some member states have more voting rights than others (in the Council;
the primary decision making), this regards the population size and the amount of what they pay into the
EU budget
Deepening and Widening
Two schools of thought on how the EU could develop
-> Deepening is the “intensification of integration processes and structures” (Cini & Borragan, 2020); for
instance, acquiring collective debt during the COVID-19 pandemic
(Further & more issued being handled by Brussel because they can do it “more effective” than individual
member states)
-> Widening “generally refers to the enlargement of the EU, but may also be used to denote the
increasing scope of Community or Union competences (Cini & Borragan, 2020); for instance, accession of
Albania or North Macedonia
(Right now, the EU is almost the whole European continent; today, being European means being a citizen
of the European Union instead of someone who lives on the European continent)
Lecture 1
W. Wagner & O. Terzi
History of European Integration
Before and during the War
-> Nation states versus Europe V. Hugo - Travel between Paris, Rome, Berlin, London
-> The USA as an example: federalism
-> WWI: the war to end all wars: Pan-Europe Movement
-> Churchill during WWII
-> Resistance against Nazi Germany
-> A working peace system - D. Mitrany (functionalism: if you can unite nation states on political matters
in a very technical way, you can prevent them from going to war; unite them technically so they’ll be too
tight with each other to start a war)
Thought: if you can prevent war between European states, you can prevent war
-> Change the system from anarchy to an hierarchical one
Thought first: United States of Europe
Convention in early 2000s: 2 representatives from every country, wrote a constitution, NL voted against,
convention got named the Convention of Lisbon
-> Was intentionally written as a constitution text
-> The EU we have today is a compromise between a compromise between an Intergovernmental State
and a Federal state
Churchill: splendid idea, not for us, the British; saw Britain as something else. They were still al colonial
(worldwide) power, and saw themselves as a USA of Soviet Union
Treaty of Dunkirk: France is getting occupied by Nazi Germany and the British help the France in Dunkirk.
Churchill makes suggestion towards France: “lets unify France and UK to make it one country, to make
sure nazi Germany does not attack”. France declined. Treaty: in the event of a German aggression, then
France and UK will emerge to be 1 country.
Council of Europe was supposed to be a quasi-federal state, but it turned out to be an Intergovernmental
Organisation with member states
-> ADD 2 SLIDES
,EUGIC Lecture Notes Veerle Klok
Founding the European Communities
It is significant than Schuman is French
-> Franco-German War about resources (steel/coal),
-> He lived in the part of Germany that was owned by the French, he felt the war
Schuman Declaration: Unite the Steel & Coal from Germany & France, use for Dcivilians’ purposes and not
for weapons (Why would Germany do this? -> Overcome their Nazi-past)
-> Benelux signed for safety
-> Italy: joining Post-Mussolini Italy
^^^ 2 things that got rejected/didn’t happen, know for exam
-> 2 Treaties that did not get signed (EDC & EPC)
3 communities (European Cole & Steel community, European Economic Community & European Atomic
Energy Community); initiated by the big 6 (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Germany, France, Italy), not
by Britain: why?
-> Because of the Churchill legacy; see themselves as a Global Power
-> Britain: 1. Commonwealth, 2: USA, NATO, 3: Europe. Europe as third option; Britain only wanted to
trade with the EU
Treaty of Rome: “we the peoples of Europe must aim towards an ever-closer Union”
-> Britain hates this
-> Try not to say federalism, “federalism” is the “f-word” in Europe
EFTA: only joined Europe for trade
-> This divided Western Europe into two: countries that only joined for trade or the Big 6
-> Think about: time during CW; UK has a strong connection with USA
-> USA chose the side of the six, since they thought the big 6, European Communities, because this makes
them stronger against the Soviet Union
-> This pushed UK in the direction of the European Communities (Britain had just established EFTA, and
afterwards applied to membership for Communities)
,EUGIC Lecture Notes Veerle Klok
Lecture 2
The Elysee treaty can be seen as the main treaty in Franco-German reconciliation
Empty Chair Crisis & Luxembourg Compromise
-> Lasted seven months, starting in 1965 and ending in Januari 1966
-> The European Committee decides on something that goes against French agriculture (CAP: common
agricultural policy). One of the main aspects for France, was that The European Committee was to support
French agriculture, but when it came to making a policy, they simply lost the vote. What then happened
was that France withdrew their delegates from all meetings of the European Committee for 1,5 year;
which means they are boycotting the institutions from which they are a leader (this all took place within
the Council of Ministers)
-> The 6 decide that this needs to be resolved. This is done by the Luxembourg Compromise; which gives
a nation a veto-right on a selected area of national interest (vital national interest). If a new regulation is
overriding a vital area of national interest, than that member country in this area has a veto power. No
member state will be overridden on issues that are vital to them. This also leads to the understanding that
not everything can be your vital national interest.
-> France: agriculture. Irish: border of Northern Ireland. Cyprus: their relationship with Turkey.
-> The veto in some ways can be seen as a step back in the integration process. On the other hand,
countries now trust the EU more because member states are always able to stop a vital issue. (Political
maturity)
In 1973, Degole was no longer president of France, and then UK was accepted to the EU. Degole was the
sole reason of why they were not in yet (= over my dead body)
The Brexit referendum 4 years ago was not the first referendum. In 1975, there was also a referendum
where they voted remain with 67%.
, EUGIC Lecture Notes Veerle Klok
Thatcher’s speech at the College of Europe on Britain and Europe; where she was very critical in how the
integration was going. (Pro-Europe, against European Community)
The Britisch/UK rebate; look up (The Netherlands uses a similar rebate where money is payed back if it’s
too much.)
-> They all paid 1.1% of their GDP, then the contributions of wealthier countries increased to 1.5%, and
later they receive a percentage back
-> Member states are not equal, some member states have more voting rights than others (in the Council;
the primary decision making), this regards the population size and the amount of what they pay into the
EU budget
Deepening and Widening
Two schools of thought on how the EU could develop
-> Deepening is the “intensification of integration processes and structures” (Cini & Borragan, 2020); for
instance, acquiring collective debt during the COVID-19 pandemic
(Further & more issued being handled by Brussel because they can do it “more effective” than individual
member states)
-> Widening “generally refers to the enlargement of the EU, but may also be used to denote the
increasing scope of Community or Union competences (Cini & Borragan, 2020); for instance, accession of
Albania or North Macedonia
(Right now, the EU is almost the whole European continent; today, being European means being a citizen
of the European Union instead of someone who lives on the European continent)
