The European Union: a unique example of regional cooperation and integration

In this contribution the origin, achievements and state of play of European Union cooperation will be discussed. The Union is an international organisation, however, one with very special characteristics. As a peace project it has created a unique infrastructure at the international level, serving as a cooperation framework to deal with international problems common to all the member states. The Union operates according to democratic and effective procedures of a “supranational” nature, which is a reference to its autonomous system of governance functioning “above” the national level of the member states. The organisation has played, and still plays, a major role to ensure peace ad stability on the European continent.

European Union

Peace Project

European Union (hereafter also: EU or Union) cooperation started after the end of the Second World War. It is a peace project, the idea being: never war again on the European continent!

In concrete terms in the fifties of the last century three international organisations have been founded:

• •    European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), dealing with a specific industrial sector, coal and steel;

• •    European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC), dealing with the peaceful use of nuclear materials;

• •    European Economic Community (EEC), in fact the most important one, dealing with economic cooperation in a large sense.

On the occasion of the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty, on 1 November 1993, a new overarching organisation was founded, the European Union.

International Organisation

The Union can be qualified as an international organisation rather than as a state.

The Union possesses own institutions, own competences, own decision making procedures, own legal instruments as well as legal personality. In practise the Union can issue decisions that are binding for the member states. EU decisions can also produce rights for citizens to be directly invoked by them. As will be explained later, the way the institutions cooperate in the EU decision making process, qualifies that process as “supranational”.

In its daily performance the Union thus certainly displays federal characteristics.

The main rules and procedures are laid down in two treaties, the Treaty on European Union [1] and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union [2].

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Institutions

The main institutions are:

• •    European Council, the framework composed of heads of state and government, competent to provide general political guidelines with regard to EU policy making;

• •    European Commission, an independent institution composed of a number of members equal to the number of member states, taking care of the general interest of the Union, and for that purpose possessing the right of initiative with regard to EU policy making and legislation;

• •    Council, composed of representatives of the member states at the ministerial level, having decision making power and responsible, jointly with the European Parliament, for the adoption of legislative measures as well as the annual budget;

• •    European Parliament, composed of members directly elected by the citizens of the member states and in its turn responsible, jointly with the Council, for the adoption of legislative measures and the budget;

• •    Court of Justice, composed of a number of members equal to the number of the member states, assisted by Advocates-General, and responsible to ensure the correct application and interpretation of EU law;

• •    European Central Bank, functioning in the framework of the European System of Central Banks, presided over by a President, and responsible to monitor the stability of the single currency, the Euro, in the interest of price stability¹.

Competences

The competences of the Union are divided into exclusive, shared as well as supportive, coordinating or supplementing ones2.

Examples of policy areas where the Union holds exclusive competences are the customs union, common commercial policy and monetary policy. The internal market, agriculture and fisheries, justice and home affairs as well as transport are examples of policy domains where the competences are “shared” between the Union and the member states. And, education, human health and culture are areas where the Union (only) supports the actions of the member states.

The way competences between the Union and the member states have been divided, reflect the policy choices made by the member states in the course of time. During that process the focus has been in the first instance on economic cooperation. In that regard the core objective of EU cooperation has been to establish an internal market, the famous area without internal frontiers in which a free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured3. Internal market cooperation is complemented by a customs union and a common commercial policy. And, in parallel, right from the start of the cooperation the Union is dealing with policy domains like transport and agriculture.

Gradually more and more policy domains, directly or indirectly linked to economic cooperation, have been added to the list of competences of the Union. Environment, social policy and research are examples here. Later, the Treaty of Maastricht of 1991 added two major policy domains to the economic one, namely foreign and defence policy4 as well as justice and home affairs5. With regard to the economic pillar of EU cooperation the Maastricht Treaty furthermore laid the basis for the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). In the framework of the EMU cooperation the Euro has been introduced as its single currency.

Decision Making

EU decision making regarding legislation is a matter of, what is called, “co-decision”. In this process three institutions are involved: the Commission, taking care of the general Union interests; the Council, representing the member states; and the European Parliament, representing the European citizens.

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Whereas the process starts with a proposal put forward by the Commission, the Council plus European Parliament decide about that proposal. The procedure is constituted of two readings, taking place between the Council and the European Parliament, after which a period of conciliation may follow. During the whole process the Council decides as a rule by qualified majority, and the European Parliament by majority of the votes cast6.

The process reflects the supranational characteristics of EU cooperation. It can moreover be qualified as democratic and efficient.

Legal Instruments

In order to frame its decisions, the Union disposes of a set of legal instruments:

• •    Regulation, binding in its entirety and being directly applicable in all member states;

• •    Directive, binding as to the result to be achieved, but leaving to the member states the choice of form and methods how to integrate the content of the instrument in their respective national legal orders;

• •    Decision, binding in its entirety, however only for those to whom the decision is addressed⁷;

• •    Recommendation and Opinion, both not having binding force⁸.

Legal Personality

Finally but not least, the European Union possesses legal personality9, enabling the Union to conclude international agreements – an activity regularly taking place in practise – and to accede to international organisations, such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

Achievements

Stability and Enlargement

The main achievement of EU cooperation is reflected by the situation of peace and stability on the European continent, now for almost 75 years. This finding is best illustrated by the fact that, since its foundation, the Union has been enlarged from 6 countries at the start to 27 countries at present. There were 6 founding countries10, whereas enlargements have taken place in 1973 (from 6 to 9)11, 1981 (from 9 to 10)12, 1986 (from 10 to 12)13, 1995 (from 12 to 15)14, 2004 (from 15 to 25)15, 2007 (from 25 to 27)16 and 2013 (from 27 to 28)17.

The fact that the United Kingdom left the Union by the end of January 2020, doesn’t alter the fact that the Union has made a major contribution to stability on the European continent. Moreover, still quite a number of European countries – most of them located in the Western Balkan region – have a clear ambition to become member state of the EU once18. So, the fact that there are still European countries applying for EU membership, underlines the success and attractiveness of EU cooperation.

Policy Domains

These days the Union is involved in practically all thinkable policy fields. The main categories are economic cooperation, monetary cooperation, foreign and security policy as well as justice and home affairs.

As already recalled, the core business in the economic domain concerns the internal market cooperation. The internal market – as already recalled: the area without internal frontiers in which a free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured19 – has replaced the concept of the national economic market. In practice that means that the single market – the “common” market, as it was originally called – covers the territories of all member states. It also means that the competitive relations on the internal market are equal for all participants.

In direct connection with the internal market a customs union – with a common cus-

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toms tariff – has been established. Furthermore a common commercial policy has been developed, introducing the principles and decision making modalities regarding the organisation of the economic relations between the Union and third countries20. And, as already hinted at, in the course of time policies have been developed in related areas, such as environment and climate change, energy, transport, agriculture, employment, social and regional policy, education, culture and tourism21. Generally speaking, dependent of the nature of the policy domain concerned, the EU involvement in the one area is more intensive than in the other.

The central component of the monetary cooperation22 is obviously linked to the management of the stability of the single currency, the Euro.

Foreign and security policy covers basically the broad areas of foreign policy and defence23. That said, apart from participating in EU defence cooperation, most member states are member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)24.

Justice and home affairs – these days the reference is to the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice – covers subject matters like border control (the “Schengen” cooperation, in the framework of which internal border controls have been abolished, in parallel with the establishment of an external border control system); a common visa policy; a common asylum and immigration policy; criminal law cooperation; police cooperation and civil law cooperation25.

The Process

Fundamental Values and Principles

EU cooperation is based on the fundamental values and principles mentioned in Article 2 TEU26. Basically these principles and values reflect the minimum requirements of membership of the Union as well.

Young and Successful

EU cooperation is a young process. Since the start in the fifties of the last century a lot has been achieved. EU cooperation can thus be qualified as a successful process as well.

Voluntarism

EU cooperation is based on voluntarism. States decide themselves whether or not to apply for membership of the Union.

Bottom-Up

EU cooperation is a bottom-up process. The policy domains in which the Union operates, have been selected by the member states commonly. Furthermore every single member state has to agree with subsequent steps to be taken in the integration process. The circumstance that decisions implementing the treaty objectives – once being established by the member states – are taken as a rule by qualified majority in the Council, doesn’t alter the fact that fundamental new steps in the process require consensus between all member states.

Gradual Process

EU cooperation reflects a “step by step” approach. In that regard economic cooperation has served as the primary “tool” of the cooperation. Economic cooperation though has boosted additions to the Union programme, not only policy matters closely related to economic cooperation, but equally broad complementary domains, such as foreign and defence as well as justice and home affairs.

The intensity of the cooperation is illustrated by the fact that, gradually but steadily, EU cooperation has touched upon the “roots” of national societies. The Euro cooperation as well as criminal law and police cooperation, can illustrate this finding.

Complexity

EU cooperation is complicated and difficult to explain to non-insiders. The EU institutions are not very visible for the ordinary citizen, because the process takes place

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in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg, so at a long distance from where the average EU citizen lives. Moreover, EU cooperation is not very accessible, because the negotiations notably in the framework of the Council are in principle confidential. For the citizen national administrations and national parliaments are thus much easier to have access to, compared to their European counterparts. Of course, national politicians, members of the EU institutions but also the media, can – and should – assist to bring the EU institutions “closer” to the citizens.

Enlargement

Whereas the original six founding member states were essentially like-minded countries, changes have occurred since more and more countries have acceded to the Union. In that sense a tendency from homogeneity to heterogeneity has manifested itself. Divergences can be noticed between member states, and between regions within member states, with regard to their economic and political development. Special funding opportunities and investments can serve to overcome these differences.

Challenges

With a view to assess the future perspectives of EU cooperation, attention must be given to the challenges the Union and its member states are faced with these days. Actually, there are quite a few, external and internal ones.

External

In the external domain we must think of:

• •    Conflicts and tensions at practically all the external borders of the Union: the conflict between Russia and Ukraine; the relationship with Turkey, a candidate EU member state, that has become troublesome; the persistent instability in Syria, Iraq and Iran; the eternal conflict between Israelis and Palestinians; the ongoing civil war Yemen; and the unrest in almost all of North Africa;

• •    Climate change, including the implementation of the objectives of the Paris Agreement, in connection with – in a wider sense – the safeguard of energy supplies and the protection of the environment;

• •    Migration, the problematic leading – now since years – to massive influxes of migrants originating from countries and regions in conflict in the neighbourhood, and looking for protection in Western Europe;

• •    International crime and terrorism, phenomena that to a large extent are linked to the earlier mentioned developments;

• • And, more generally speaking, globalisation. Here the focus is on the role the EU performs on the world scene and, in that respect, its relationship with global powers, such as the United States, China and Russia. Tensions have arisen with all three countries, albeit in each case of a different kind. Most importantly the following issues come to mind:

  – deficient multilateral cooperation, in the framework for example of the United Nations and WTO;

  – trade conflicts, in connection with the non-respect of the WTO rules;

  – lack of respect of worldwide recognised human rights and fundamental freedoms;

  – unrest and “frozen” conflicts in the neighbourhood;

  – forms of so-called “hybrid” warfare, such as cybercrime and fake news.

Internal

There do exist internal challenges, such as:

• •    The employment situation in the EU and its member states. Especially the perspectives of the younger generations are of importance here. In that regard we must overcome the remaining divergences between the member states regarding economic development and standards of living;

• •    The impact migration has on local and regional societies in the member states. The

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