The Political Principle - Integration Before Federalism

Extract

[...] Content of this process of deepening : European Monetary Union (EMU) brought by the Maastricht treaty in 1992 : one of the only cases where the generalist apprach succeeded in matters of national soveraignty states out of the 27 members are part of this EMU. In order to understand that, let's talk about economics. At first sight, it seems that all the EU countries have the same economic politicy. It means, in terms of macro-economic policy policy at the scale of the global economy and not simply of one sector), that there is only one monetary policy for the whole EU. States don't have the power to decide anymore in those fields. [...]

[...] They want controls and even maybe visas. There is no more freedom of movement, which means that they no longer benefit from the free movement of goods either and is out of the single market which is a major problem for the British economy. The freedom of movement for workers was gradually enlarged and gave birth to the global freedom of movement (poeple, tourists) thanks to the Shengen Agreement in 1985. With this agreement, borders simply disappeared, leaving only the external frontiers of the Schengen space. [...]

[...] The idea was that one-day people would think about a federal Europe as something quite obvious and naturally developed. Of course, such a federal Europe couldn't work from the beginning due to the numerous failures, but you would reach it after 30-40 year. The goal was to realize as much "solidarité de fait" as possible à growth of pro-European feelings leading to a "natural Europe". The reality was very different. Nonetheless, it was supposed to work like this. II- The economic goals of the EEC : from the Common Agricultural Policy (FR:PAC) to the Four Liberties At the beggining of the EEC, there were 2 different approches towards the objectives for europe : - French (under De Gaulle & Pompidou presidencies) : main goal is to build common public policies, which would help state intervention in the economic system. [...]

[...] There was a strong debate about services after the EU had been enlarged to the East EU countries, bc they used to have inferior riches and the cost of life was cheaper ⇒ started in 2005 because : a vote in the EU countries about the treaty on the EU C° (referundums in some countries and not on some others) a EU directive called "Bolkestein Directive" = idea that services could be provided from 1 country in other EU states with the social regulations from the original country). Ref : Polish Plumber ⇒ fear of an unfair competition, and helped a lot of the French voters to vote "no during the referundum. The Free movement of capital (began 1980s). Ever since the Maastricht treaty, the restrictions concerning capitals have been lifted between the member state and the other countries à no legislation. [...]

[...] But the process of deepening the Union was more than that : there was an idea of keeping the union strong and united when there would be an enlargement in the member states. Therefore, a motto appeared in the end of the 80's : "deepening the union, before enlarging it". The process of integration reached its limits in 1992. [...]