European Union, How Comes?

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Marhold

doi:10.5771/9783748963714

Summary

It was by no means evident that Europe would ever find a path towards unification. Of course, World War II led to the self-destruction of the old system of international relations between sovereign nation states. Nevertheless, the nation states were revived in a new setting. Moreover, there were now ‘superpowers’: The US and the Soviet Union, who shaped the post-war world. The European Union struggled to emerge as a player of its own right. Its history was never a straight path forward towards ever-increasing membership and decision-making power at the EU level; it was marked by ups and downs, by enthusiasm and drama. This story helps us to understand what the EU is today.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2025
ISBN-Print: 978-3-7560-3443-7
ISBN-Online: 978-3-7489-6371-4
Publisher: Nomos, Baden-Baden
Series: Denkart Europa | Mindset Europe
Volume: 37
Language: English
Pages: 552
Product type: Book Titles

1. Introduction No access
1. 1. Chapter 1: The Turning Point of European History: World War II, Looking Back and Forth No access
  2. Chapter 2: 9th May 1950, Europe Day – the Launch of European Integration No access
  3. Chapter 3: Ups and Downs: From the European Coal and Steel Community to the Rome Treaties No access
2. 1. Chapter 4: Dynamic Youth of European Integration, Deadlock and Relaunch European Integration From de Gaulle and Adenauer to Brandt and Pompidou (1958–1973) No access
  2. Chapter 5: The “Golden Age” (of Capitalism), or the “Thirty Glorious” (Years) … and Their Dark Side: “The Great Acceleration” No access
  3. Chapter 6: The Crisis of the 1970s and its Impact on European Integration No access
3. 1. Chapter 7: Ways out of the Crisis: Chip-Revolution and Neo-Liberalism No access
  2. Chapter 8: The European Response to the American Challenge: Common Market and Monetary Union No access
  3. Chapter 9: The Eastern Bloc: Failure and Freedom – the Soviet Union and its European Satellites No access
4. 1. Chapter 10: What Drives the World Forward After the end of the Iron Curtain? Options for Europe No access
  2. Chapter 11: Continent-Wide Unification and its Limits No access
  3. Chapter 12: Deepening of European Integration, From Maastricht to Lisbon: Implementing Monetary Union, Constitutionalising the Political System of the EU No access
5. 1. Chapter 13: Europe Facing the Polycrisis (I): Regional Dimension No access
  2. Chapter 14: Europe Facing the Polycrisis (II): The Global Dimension of Populist Authoritarianism No access
  3. Chapter 15: The Ecological Crisis, the European Green Deal – and a Preliminary Balance Sheet of European Integration in the Polycrisis No access
1. 1. 1. European Federalists Gathering on the Shores of Lake Lucerne No access
    2. Winston Churchill’s Speech “to the academic youth of Europe” No access
    3. George Marshall’s Liberal Offer No access
    4. De Gaulle’s Revival of the Nation-State No access
    5. Three Fundamental Ideas About the Future of Europe No access
    6. Europe on the Way “to Hell and Back” (Kershaw)Europe’s Path to the Sovereign, Industrialised Nation-State No access
    7. The Two ‘Superpowers’ of the Middle Ages No access
    8. Shaping States and Sovereignty No access
    9. The Problem With Conflict in a Club of Sovereign States No access
    10. From Monarchies to Nation-States No access
    11. Industrial Revolution and Global Imperialism No access
    12. The Final Disaster No access
    13. The Idea of Europe No access
    14. The Failure of the Big Bang Projects European Movement, Congress of The Hague and Council of Europe No access
    15. Five Years After the War … No access
2. 1. 1. Jean Monnet’s Proposal No access
    2. On the Way to the Schuman Plan No access
    3. The Decision: Europe Day, 9th May 1950 No access
    4. Schuman’s Declaration No access
    5. 1. The Path to Integration: Significance of the ECSC and Theoretical Interpretations No access
    6. European Integration – Genuinely European or Driven by Superpower Antagonism? No access
    7. Was the European Coal and Steel Community an Economic or More a Political Enterprise? No access
    8. Was the ECSC an affair of functional management or was it genuinely political? No access
    9. What Sort of Political Animal was the European Coal and Steel Community – a Federation or an International Organisation? No access
    10. Was the Launch of the European Integration Process More Value-Based or More Interest-Oriented? No access
    11. The European Coal and Steel Community – Then and Today … No access
3. 1. 1. The Failure of all Hopes No access
    2. The Twofold Way out of the Blind Alley (1): The Western Alliance No access
    3. The Twofold Way out of the Blind Alley (2): The Road to the Rome Treaties No access
    4. External Factors: Decolonisation and Cold War No access
    5. Negotiating the Common Market Project No access
    6. The Threat and Promise of Nuclear Energy No access
    7. “Post-War”: Restructuring the European Power System No access
    8. Lessons From the ‘Cube’ No access
    9. Rhythms of Integration No access
1. 1. 1. The EEC Project No access
    2. The First Alternative: the British EFTA Project No access
    3. The Second Alternative: De Gaulle’s Intergovernmental Project No access
    4. 1. The European Economic Community Stumbles on the Way to the Common Market No access
      2. Hallstein vs. de Gaulle No access
      3. Relaunch at the Hague: Pompidou’s Programme(1969–1973) No access
        The Hague 1969: “Completion, Widening, Deepening” No access
    5. “Widening” No access
    6. Pompidou and Willy Brandt’s New “Ostpolitik” No access
    7. “Completion” and “Deepening” No access
    8. 1. A History in Three Acts: Dynamic Youth Against Competitors, Deadlock Between Nation-State and Community, Pragmatic Relaunch No access
      2. What Were the Drivers of European Integration History in This Decade-and-a-Half? No access
      3. The Failure of the Relaunch No access
2. 1. 1. 1. The Turn to Recovery No access
      2. Changing Families, Cities and Demography No access
      3. Lifestyles of “Freedom” No access
      4. Interdependencies and Interdisciplinarity No access
      5. “Affluence”, Health and Lives No access
      6. Growth Rates No access
      7. “Let’s Work Together” – Integration Everywhere No access
      8. The Dark Side of the “Golden Age” No access
3. 1. 1. 1. The Dollar Crisis (1971) No access
      2. The Oil Price Shock (1973) No access
      3. “Stagflation” No access
      4. “The End of Confidence” – in the Welfare State and in the European Communities No access
      5. How the European Communities Suffered From and Addressed the Crisis No access
      6. Institutional Improvements (2): Direct Elections of the European Parliament No access
      7. The Court of Justice of the European Communities No access
      8. Policies (Internal): Monetary and Environmental Policy No access
      9. Policies (External): Foreign Relations Towards West, East and South No access
      10. Calming Down the East: The Helsinki Agreements No access
      11. Africa and Decolonisation No access
      12. European Integration Facing the “Crisis of the 1970s”, a Preliminary Balance Sheet No access
1. 1. 1. 1. a. The Microchip and its Applications No access
      2. b. The Evolution of the Microchip From Invention to Markets – Thanks to NASA No access
      3. c. “Hackers” and Their Software No access
      4. d. The Second “Hacker” Generation: Strides Towards the “PC” No access
      5. e. Turning the “Hacker Ethic” Into Business: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs No access
      6. f. Connecting the Community: Internet No access
      7. Lessons From the “American Challenge” No access
    2. (1) It took nearly three decades, from the end of the 1950s to the end of the 1980s, No access
    3. 1. The Intellectual Embarrassment of the Crisis of the 1970s: Keynesianism no Longer Works No access
      2. The Turn to Neoliberalism No access
      3. d. The Multifaceted Neoliberal Family No access
        e. Neoliberalism Put in Political Practice: “Reaganomics” No access
        f. The European Counterpart: Margaret Thatcher No access
        g. Risks of the Neoliberal Approach No access
        h. Neoliberalism in the Short Run: a Limited Success Story No access
      4. Parenthesis: Was There an Alternative to the Neoliberal Solution to the Crisis of the 1970s? No access
    4. 1. a. Tom Forrester’s “High-Tech Society” No access
      2. b. Linking the High-Tech and the Neoliberal Revolution No access
      3. c. An Outlook on Europe Facing the American Challenge No access
2. 1. 1. France on the Way to Socialism – Mitterrand’s First Year No access
    2. UK and the European Budget (“I Want My Money Back”) No access
    3. Eurosclerosis No access
    4. Attempts to Overcome the Crisis of the 1970s No access
    5. European Parliament: Spinelli and the European Constitution No access
    6. European Commission: “Eureka” and “Esprit” No access
    7. European Governments: Genscher-Colombo-Initiative, Stuttgart Declaration No access
    8. On the Way to a Solution No access
    9. Mitterrand’s U-turn No access
    10. Fontainebleau 1984: Solution to the British Contribution; Adonnino and Dooge-Committees No access
    11. 1. (d) Pressure From the Economy: The “Round Table of Industrialists” No access
    12. “A coup d’état in Milan” (June 1985): Vote for a New Treaty No access
    13. The Mediterranean Enlargement No access
    14. The Single European Act, Luxembourg December 1985 No access
    15. The Way to the SEA No access
    16. Innovating Treaties, Institutions and Policies No access
    17. The Single European Act: Europe’s Response to the American Challenge No access
    18. The SEA and the Member States: A Precarious Division of Labour No access
    19. 1. Implementing the Single Market No access
      2. Beyond Common Market No access
3. 1. 1. 1. (b) The Backwardness of the Soviet Union in Terms of Technology No access
      2. 2. The Soviet Union on the Reform Path No access
      3. Gorbachev’s Project: Perestroika and Glasnost No access
      4. Consequences for Foreign Relations No access
      5. (c) Central Europe Facing a Bet: Would They be Left Free to Choose Their Way? No access
    2. 1. The Concept of “Central Europe” in the 1980s No access
      2. (b) Poland and Hungary, the Pioneers No access
      3. East Germany: The Fall of the Berlin Wall No access
      4. Revolutions in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania No access
      5. Conclusions of 1989 No access
    3. 1. Baltic Pioneers No access
      2. The Dissolution of the Soviet Union No access
      3. The Independence of the Former Soviet Republics No access
      4. Yeltsin’s Russia on Track Towards …? No access
1. 1. 1. 1. “Clash of Civilisations” (Huntington) No access
      2. (c) “Capitalism Against Capitalism” (Albert) No access
      3. Globalisation, the Planetary Ecology, the Rise of China No access
      4. Change – and Continuity No access
    2. 1. Gorbachev’s “Common European Home” No access
      2. Mitterrand’s “European Confederation” No access
      3. The Council of Europe No access
    3. 1. NATO No access
      2. The Maastricht Treaty Revisited No access
    4. Conclusions No access
2. 1. 1. Reinventing the Political Systems, Forming Alliances, Preparing for EU Membership No access
    2. Strategies for Economic Change No access
    3. Joining the West at the Moment of Neoliberalism No access
    4. The “Copenhagen Criteria”, the EU’s Accession Policy and the Big Bang Enlargement No access
    5. The Easy Enlargement: Sweden, Finland, Austria No access
  2. 1. The Yugoslav Catastrophe No access
    2. What about Russia? Yeltsin’s Version of Neoliberalism No access
    3. Margins of Uncertainty: Ukraine and the EU “Neighbourhood” No access
    4. The EU and Turkey – an Unforeseen Candidate for Membership No access
  3. Conclusion No access
3. 1. 1. 1. A “Common Foreign and Security Policy” (CFSP)? (‘Second Pillar’ of the Maastricht Treaty) No access
      2. The Achievement of Economic and Monetary Union (“First Pillar of the Maastricht Treaty”) No access
    2. 1. Schröder, Blair and the Social-Democratic Version of Neoliberalism No access
      2. The Lisbon Strategy: Competition at the Heart of Politics EU and Member States Relations Reshaped: the “Open Method of Coordination” No access
      3. Globalisation, Financial Capitalism and the dot.com Bubble No access
    3. 1. (a) A New Debate About the “Finality” of European Integration No access
      2. (b) The Nice Treaty No access
      3. The Constitutional Convention and the Constitutional Treaty No access
      4. The Failure of the Constitutional Treaty and the Success of the Lisbon Treaty No access
    4. Conclusions: Europe after Two Decades of Accelerated Integration No access
1. 1. 1. The Financial, Economic and State Debt Crisis No access
    2. The “Arab Spring” and the Migration Crisis No access
    3. Right-Wing Populism, Authoritarianism, Neofascism: Threatening Democracy and European Integration Alike No access
    4. Four factors undermined these certainties at the end of the century: No access
    5. Brexit No access
    6. Intermediate Conclusion No access
2. 1. 1. Putin’s Russia No access
    2. Trump’s USA No access
    3. Xi Jinping’s China No access
    4. Erdogan’s Turkey – and the Rest of the World No access
3. 1. 1. The European Green Deal No access
    2. 1. Lesson 1: Government Is the Solution No access
      2. Lesson 2: Debt Is No Longer a Sin No access
      3. Lesson 3: No More Troikas No access
      4. Lesson 4: Treaty Stretching, Not Changing No access
      5. Lesson 5 (and Most Important) No access
    3. The European Green Deal Watered Down No access
    4. The European Union Tackling the Polycrisis: Achievements and Shortcomings No access
    5. The Polycrisis at Two Levels: Surface (Events) and Roots (Origins and Causes) No access
Looking Back, a Last Word – and Forward No access Pages 525 - 528
1. Books & Monographs No access
2. Journal Articles No access
3. News Sources No access
Index No access Pages 549 - 552

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