From Ioannis Kapodistrias and
Altiero Spinelli to EU -
Is It a Success? How Well Will It Face
the Challenges of the Future
Ivo Šlaus
United States of Europe is an idea originating in 18.c.:
1728 - Abbot Charles de St. Pierre - creation of League of 18
states: economic union and no borders;
After the American Revolution Marquis de Lafayette and T.
Kosciuszko proposed United States of Europe;
1795 - I. Kant proposed “Eternal peace congress”;
1814 - Saint Simon and A. Thierry: European parliamentary
federation;
1828 - I.Kapodostrias first president of Greek Republic, stressed
edu - founded University of Athens;
1831 - Wojcieh Jastrzebowski “eternal peace among nations”;
1843 - Giuseppe Mazini: federation of European republics;
1923 - L. Trotsky: Soviet United States of Europe;
1941 - A. Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi “Ventotene Manifesto”:
“Towards a Free and United Europe”
Important innovative ideas:
peace among states + free and united Europe +
republics/democracy + education:
score = 5
Jean Monnet (1888-1979): “There will be no peace in Europe if
states are reconstituted on the basis of national sovereignity.”
“Nothing is possible without men, nothing is lasting without
institutions.”
Original methodology:
gradualist approach starting with R. Schuman’s plan Apr 18,
1951; 6 states (De, Fr, It, Nl, Be, Lx) to run their heavy industry -
steel and coal (no one could quickly build weapons)
Treaty of Rome: March 25, 1957: European Economic Union
score = 5
What is Europe?
Two approaches:
1) European Physical Society, Academia Europaea - from
Atlantic to Vladivostok. Mechanism to include also individuals
beyond that domain, particularly Mediterranean + USA
2) gradual enlargement based on acquis communautaire (total
body of EU laws) - EU now 27 MS.
Should Monnet’s gradualism in areas be repeated also in MS?
Treaty of Maastricht - Nov 1, 1993
First European Parliament election 1979 (5 year terms)
European Economic Area (EU + Norway, Iceland,
Lichtenstein + Bilateral Switzerland): free movements of
people, goods, services and capital
score = 4
Realization:
Problems:
1) Slow, divisive and inadequate response to problems at EU
borders:
1.1) 1991-99 Slovenia, Croatia, B&H and Kosovo wars
1.2) 2008 Georgia, S. Osetia and Abhasia wars
2) European Constitution - failed in France and Netherlands
3) The Dec 2007 Lisbon Treaty intended to overcome
Constitution problem - rejected by Ireland
4) Though EU is the strongest economy (total GDP =16.8 T$
in 2007), EU has minor political cloud
5) While the founding fathers of United Europe showed
remarkable inventiveness and courage, little now!
Successes:
1) social cohesion (European Social Fund founded 1960)
2) flexicurity
3) Euro zone
4) European Research Area with 4 pillars: people, ideas,
cooperation and capacity building (CERN founded in 1954,
Euroatom in 1957, EMBO in1964 , ESA in 1975) - among
Nobel prizes and most highly cited papers the USA dominates
5) European Higher Education Area - among the leading
world universities the USA dominates. The so called Bologna
process is slow and mainly failing
score = 3
Facing the future challenges:
1) Political issues:
1.1) Mediterranean basin - Middle East unreasolved issues
compounded by the issue of terrorism
1.2) Eastern boundary - Ukraine and Caucasus
1.3) Nuclear disarmament and WMD in general, weapons
trade, nuclear trade
1.4) UN structure and UNSC structure
1.5) Political structure of EU is not designed for fast response
and hardly for anticipatory action. Attempts to build such
structure and create such a culture so far failed.
1.6) There is no global leadeship role of the EU
2) Economic - Energy - Food - Environment issues:
2.1) Financial instabilities becoming Economic problems:
Though EU achieved economic and monetary integration, EU
never developed parallel political and regulatory integration.
Though EU is based primarily on economic integration, it
appears that narrow selfish - nation-state - interests dominate
at the time of an economic crisis as is the one of 2008.
2.2) Dependence on oil, nuclear energy (ITER is very
positive!!), R&D on renewable energy sources is still
inadequate, various proposals as “CoR solar energy from
Africa” are still underdeveloped and lacking integration of
political,economic and R&D componenets
2.3) Climate change ?!?
3) Social issues:
3.1) Demographic transition - decreasing total European
population, while percentage of young are decreasing,
percentage of old are incresaing with LE ≈ 75-80 health
isues, pension funds
3.2) Immigration and brain drain
3.3) Employment and education: Europe has significantly
lower employment rate than the USA and lower number of
HE graduates than the USA
3.4) Threat to social cohesion coming from within a country
and among countries inequalities
examples: EU and Croatia - candidate
Towards full employment with flexibility
(flexicurity), no age discrimination
TOTAL EMPLOYMENT RATE
Poland
Croatia
Hungary Empl.rat
Italy
e
Romania
Germany
Slovenia
Austria
Denmark
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
CROATIA
• Employment Rate(%) Unemployment Rate(%)
• 15-25 years 24,9 35,9
• 25-50 years 72,4 12,9
• 50-65 years 42,0 8,5
• Basic Education 37,0 16,1
• Secondary Edu 31,7 17,5
• University Edu 82,8 7,5
CROATIA: POVERTY AND EMPLOYMENT
Other inactive
Unemployed
Rural
Retired
Urban
Self-employed
Employee
0 10 20 30 40 50
4) Culture and civilisation:
Europe has several diverse cultures and several different
languages. Obviously Europe will be exposed to massive
immigration of people of different cultures with different
languages.
Civilisation is related to laws ↔ acquis ??
5) EU is not even close to becoming knowledge-based society.
Score = 2
Conclusion
Can EU be a role-model for other regional
integrations?
Can EU be a role-model for the world integration?
Can EU achieve its goal to become most competitive
knowledge-based economy by 2010, and
sustainable knowledge-based society by 2025?
my estimated score = 3