The European regional integration: the preconditions and aims of foundation
Розглянуто форми захисту сучасних національних економік від глобальної нестабільності. Однією з них є створення регіональних інтеграційних об'єднань. Європейський Союз є найбільш інституційно досконалим інтеграційним об'єднанням сучасного світу. Ключові слова: європейська інтеграція, нац...
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Інститут економіки промисловості НАН України
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nasplib_isofts_kiev_ua-123456789-248042025-02-23T18:23:48Z The European regional integration: the preconditions and aims of foundation Європейська регіональна інтеграція: передумови і завдання створення Европейская региональная интеграция: предпосылки и задачи создания Sytnyk, І.V. Проблеми сучасної економіки Розглянуто форми захисту сучасних національних економік від глобальної нестабільності. Однією з них є створення регіональних інтеграційних об'єднань. Європейський Союз є найбільш інституційно досконалим інтеграційним об'єднанням сучасного світу. Ключові слова: європейська інтеграція, національні економіки, Європейський Союз, глобалізація. Рассмотрены формы защиты современных национальных экономик от глобальной нестабильности. Одна из них – создание региональных интеграционных объединений. Европейский Союз представляет собой наиболее институционно совершенное интеграционное объединение современного мира. Ключевые слова: европейская интеграция, национальные экономики, Европейский Союз, глобализация. The article investigates the forms of protection of the national economies from global instability. One of them is creation of regional integration unions. The European Union is the most institutionally perfect integration union in the modern world. Keywords: European Union, national economies, the European Union, globalization. 2010 Article The European regional integration: the preconditions and aims of foundation / І.V. Sytnyk // Економіка пром-сті. — 2010. — № 3. — С. 48-53. — Бібліогр.: 9 назв. — анг. 1562-109Х https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/24804 en application/pdf Інститут економіки промисловості НАН України |
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Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine |
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Проблеми сучасної економіки Проблеми сучасної економіки |
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Проблеми сучасної економіки Проблеми сучасної економіки Sytnyk, І.V. The European regional integration: the preconditions and aims of foundation |
| description |
Розглянуто форми захисту сучасних національних економік від глобальної нестабільності. Однією з них є створення регіональних інтеграційних об'єднань. Європейський Союз є найбільш інституційно досконалим інтеграційним об'єднанням сучасного світу.
Ключові слова: європейська інтеграція, національні економіки, Європейський Союз, глобалізація. |
| format |
Article |
| author |
Sytnyk, І.V. |
| author_facet |
Sytnyk, І.V. |
| author_sort |
Sytnyk, І.V. |
| title |
The European regional integration: the preconditions and aims of foundation |
| title_short |
The European regional integration: the preconditions and aims of foundation |
| title_full |
The European regional integration: the preconditions and aims of foundation |
| title_fullStr |
The European regional integration: the preconditions and aims of foundation |
| title_full_unstemmed |
The European regional integration: the preconditions and aims of foundation |
| title_sort |
european regional integration: the preconditions and aims of foundation |
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Інститут економіки промисловості НАН України |
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2010 |
| topic_facet |
Проблеми сучасної економіки |
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https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/24804 |
| citation_txt |
The European regional integration: the preconditions and aims of foundation / І.V. Sytnyk // Економіка пром-сті. — 2010. — № 3. — С. 48-53. — Бібліогр.: 9 назв. — анг. |
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I. Sytnik
EUROPEAN REGIONAL INTEGRATION:
THE PRECONDITIONS AND AIMS OF FOUNDATION
Introduction
On the nowadays stage of international
relationship, the national economies,
irrespective of their quantity and quality
characteristics, are functioning in terms of
developing globalization processes. Moreover, it
should be taken into account that economic
development is multidimensional and multi-
factor process, which often includes instability
and periodic crisis phenomenon. The special
way of protection of national economies from
global instability is formation of regional
integration unions that make preconditions for
the role of states on the world political and
economic arena.
1. The preconditions of EU foundation
The foundation of the European Union is
doubtlessly one of the most important
geopolitical events of the second part of 20th
century. It has not only served as a fundament
for political, economic and social changes in
Europe, but also significantly influenced on the
balance of powers in the whole world.
During the 19th and first 10 years of 20th
century Europe was the world leader in science,
economy and culture. Due to founded colonial
empires and trade companies Europeans took
leading positions. However, the First (1914-
1918) and the Second (1939-1945) world wars
were followed by catastrophic consequences for
Europe. Finally, only with the beginning of 90s
the process of revival of European economic and
political power gained its actual institutional
basis.
Nowadays European Union is the most
institutionally perfect integration community of
the modern world. The formation of EU had its
historical, economic, political, social and
cultural preconditions which began to form long
before the official date of Union foundation (1
Nov 1993).
The movement for united Europe arose in
early 17th century. The first author of the idea of
the United States of Europe was an English
politician William Penn. In 1693, while
investigating the problems of war and peace in
Europe, he proposed to establish the All-
European parliament (European Dyet,
Parliament or Estates) [1]. In 1728 the French
writer and politician Charles de Saint-Pierre
proposed to create the European League
containing 18 independent countries [2].
However, at that period «…the states could not
refuse their old ambitions that is why there were
practically no trends towards the union of
different countries.»[3]
Only after the World War I, that lead to
ruining of European economic and political
systems, the idea of arranging united European
area again appeared in the works of outstanding
scientists and politicians.
In 1923 the Austrian politician count
Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi published a
declaration named “Paneuropa” where he
introduced the plan of founding a confederation
uniting all European countries. “Paneuropa is
not an instrument of today’s European policy,
it’s completely opposite one. This is a new
source of power, new stream of ideas that will
gain more and more influence every year”, he
wrote [4; 5].
In 1929, on the Nation’s League
Assembly the French prime-minister, the
laureate of Nobel prize for peace (1926)
introduced the idea of creating a federation of
European countries on a solidarity basis, in
order to achieve economic and political
prosperity of European countries.
The famous English economist John
Maynard Keynes also supported the idea of
creating a political and economic union of
European countries. In 1931, French politician
Edward Herriot published a book «The United
States of Europe». Two years later, the British
politician and academician, James Arthur Salter
published a book with the same name.
Unfortunately, world economic crisis of 1930s
and the World War II interfered with
implementing the ideas of united Europe. «The
barbarism in Europe of the first part of 20th
___________________________
© Sytnik Inessa – Sc. Cand. (Econ.), Assistant Professor.
Donetsk State University of Management.
.
Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка.
ISSN 1562-109X
century was so devastating that it could impress
even the wildest savages. While the
opportunities of constructive development were
higher than ever before, the Europeans were
involved into the range of wars that killed more
people than all the wars before. … The horror of
fascism and communism together with two cruel
world wars resulted in deaths, ruins and
degradation»[3]. As a consequence, at the
beginning of 1945 almost all past achievements
of European civilization were missed. The
European continent was divided into two
competing economic and military blocks, whose
competition lasted unproductively for at least 40
years. The European political, economic and
military power was given to the USA and
USSR. However, the fact of dividing Europe
after the Second World War accelerated the new
wave of European uniting movement.
The new push to thoughts about the trends
of European development was provided by an
outstanding statesman and political leader of
Great Britain Winston Churchill. On the
September 19, 1946, in Zurich, he made a
speech, which stated that the post-war tragedy in
the heart of Europe should be finally put to an
and, and stressed the necessity of creating the
United States of Europe. "If Europe unites once,
then, fortunately, there will be no more
boundaries. And this will bring wealth and fame
to 300 or 400 million people "- W. Churchill
said. The very first step on this way should have
been a partnership between West Germany and
France. He also proposed the "fraternal union"
of three interconnected circles: British
Commonwealth, European Union and the
United States, whereas Britain could become a
special chain element able to provide
communication between the three political
players [6].
2. First steps to the EU foundation
The implementing of W. Churchill’s ideas
in practice were accelerated by the communist
insurgency in Prague February 25, 1948 that
destroyed a single sprout of democracy in
Eastern Europe of post-war times. Having
shocked Western societies it became a push to
sign the Brussels Treaty of collective security
from March 17, 1948 between Great Britain,
France and the Benelux countries (Belgium,
Netherlands, Luxembourg).
On July 20, 1948, French Foreign
Minister George Bideaux before his retirement
presented a speech in favor of European
unification. Later, this idea supported the French
statesmen Robert Schuman and Rene Pleven, as
well as by the prominent French economist Jean
Monnet, who is considered to be the main
architect of European unity. Thus, after the
Second World War, the idea of the united
Europe sounded with the new force.
In 1949, the Council of Europe was
established; this organization exists up to this
day. Council of Europe, however, was (and still
is) something of a regional equivalent of the
UN, which concentrated its activities on issues
of human rights in European countries.
On May 9, 1950 the French Foreign Mi-
nister Robert Schuman presented in Paris, so
called "Schuman’s Plan", which introduced the
way of formation of economic, political and
military structures of Europe. He proposed cre-
ating a single supreme authority to oversee the
joint Franco-German coal and steel production
(this idea was developed in 1945 by Jean
Monnet [7]). Thus were laid the foundations of
modern European Union.
On April 8, 1951 in Germany, Belgium,
Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and Italy
signed a treaty establishing the European Coal
and Steel Community (ECSC), whose goal was
to unify European resources of steel and coal.
This agreement became valid from July 1952.
European Coal and Steel Community was
the beginning of the Schuman’s Plan realization.
The Schuman’s plan was based on so-called
“Communitaristic” method, which was
developed by Jean Monnet. This method
includes four basic components:
Federalization of Europe based on
association of basic industries and the formation
of "High Authority";
Gradual process of integration, primarily
through mergers of economic interests;
Integration is a way of solving social
problems and improvement of the social
position of people regardless not depending
from nationality;
Limitation of state sovereignty and create
supranational branches of power [8].
Thus, by the plan of Monnet-Schuman,
European states do not disappear from the map,
and gradually integrate their efforts to address
the political and social-economic problems by
giving its sovereign rights to international
institutions, which are endowed with full
authority of public power (legislative, executive
and judicial). And the first step towards
European integration was the single market of
the two leading sectors of the post-war European
economy - coal and steel.
In order to deepen economic integration
of the same six countries in March 1957 signed
an agreement in Rome establishing the
European Economic Community (EEC), also
known as the Common Market, and the
European Atomic Energy Community
(EURATOM). EEC was created primarily as a
customs union of six states and their aim was to
ensure free movement of goods, services, capital
and people. EURATOM was to promote
peaceful unification of nuclear resources of
these countries. Signed In 1965, and valid from
1967, the agreement about establishing United
Commission and forming a single unified
European Council, better known under the
informal name of “Merger Agreement”. As a
result, three european communities (European
Coal and Steel Community, European Economic
Community and the European Atomic Energy
Community) joined together and formed the
European Community.
In 1959 the European Parliament was
established, firstly playing consultative role and
later the legislation one. The process of
development and transformation of the
European Communities in the modern European
Union was held by, firstly, transferring more and
more management functions to supranational
level and, secondly, increasing the quantity of
the participating states (from 6 to 27 members).
The development of economic and
political relations between the members of the
European Communities in the 1980s caused the
necessity of juridical transformations that were
laid down in Paris (1951) and Rome (1957)
agreements. In this regard, in 1985 the Council
of the European Communities decided to
convene a special conference of member
governments. After the conference in February
1986 in Luxembourg was signed the Single
European Act, which became valid on July 1,
1987 after being ratified by Member States.
The Single European Act was a document
that regulated the activity of all areas of the
integration process in Europe: social, economic
and political integration, and clearly defined the
main aim: "the gradual foundation of the
European Union".
3. The evolution of the European Union
After the Single European Act was signed
and became valid, plans of foundation of
European Union came up to a stage of their
practical implementation. In 1990 two
conferences started working on the development
of appropriate economic and political union. The
overall result of these conferences was the
Maastricht Treaty. On February 7, 1992 twelve
members of the European Community
(Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, France, Britain, Denmark, Finland,
Greece, Spain and Portugal) signed the Treaty
about the foundation of European Union in
Maastricht (Netherlands).
According to above-mentioned
agreement, the relations between the member
countries were based on significant limitation of
sovereignty, which caused the need for many of
these constitutional reforms. The document
ratification through a referendum was held and
took over one and a half years. Finally, the
European Union Treaty came into force on
November 1, 1993.
Since the entry into force of the
Maastricht Treaty the substantial changes in the
European integration construction were made.
Maastricht Treaty solved the problem of
previous years connected with the economic and
political systems of European countries, having
established the three pillars: the economic and
monetary union, common foreign and security
policy and the general policy of the Interior
Justice [8].
The European Union Treaty not only
combined and synthesized into one
organizational structure of different areas of the
integration process, but also marked a new stage
in the creation of closer union of European
nations. With the signing of the Maastricht
Treaty the powers of the European Community
expanded to activities in such fields as culture,
education, youth policy, regional networks,
health care, consumer protection and others.
The next stage of development has been a
further expansion of the number of member
associations of the integration. In 1994 in
Austria, Finland, Norway and Sweden the
referendums about EU membership were held.
The results on January 1, 1995 showed that
Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the
European Union. However, most Norwegians
voted against joining.
After signing of the Maastricht Treaty the
transformations in European integration
association, at the same time with a number of
quantitative expansions, began intensely moving
in the direction of intensified reforming of the
EU law basis. One of the main points of the
Maastricht Treaty was the reformation of
legislation system in 1996.
As a result, on October 2, 1997 the
member countries signed a document called the
Treaty of Amsterdam that was about
implementing changes into the European Union
Treaty as well as into the European communities
agreements and some related acts. Amsterdam
Treaty came into force on May 1, 1999
The main points of the Amsterdam Treaty
run as follows:
1. The powers of the European Union and
of the European Parliament in particular were
significantly increased. Under the jurisdiction of
the EU from that time refers visa, immigration
policy, asylum, employment policy and others.
The European Union was granted special
powers to issue regulations on criminal law and
process.
2. Amsterdam Treaty was the first one at
the Union level that affirmed the general
principles of constitutional structure and
established sanctions to Member States for
breaking them.
3. The Schengen agreement was included
into the laws of the European Union.
Further development of the European
Union took place in two areas: geographic
expansion to the East and institutional reform of
political structures.
Admission of new members to the
European Union required the development of
governing bodies in order to strengthen the
Union's supranational institutions and political
centralization in Europe. To prepare the
institutional background for further EU
enlargement on February 26, 2001 the Treaty of
Nice [8] was signed, which formed a new
foundation for the functioning of the European
political authorities.
At the end of the twentieth century with
the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the
collapse of the Soviet Union (1992), the first
time since World War II, the real possibility of
merging Western and Eastern Europe appeared.
Eight Eastern European countries (Poland,
Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany,
Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania),
separated from Western Europe with "Iron
Curtain", during post-war years were moving
the same development way as the Soviet
republics.
On May 1, 2004 10 countries - Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta
- became members of the European Union, and
on January 1, 2007 the next expansion took
place - the EU was joined by two other countries
- Bulgaria and Romania.
This extension can be called one of the
most ambitious projects of the EU. The
necessity of this step was largely determined by
geopolitical strategy of Western Europe, the aim
of which was to prevent the return of Eastern
European countries under Moscow's influence.
However, the level of economic and political
development of new EU members was much
lower than the average European, which has led
to increased budgetary expenditures in the
leaders of the EU.
Another problem of the EU East
enlargement is that the existing institutional
system is not effective enough and requires
further reformations. However, recent attempts
to reform the EU structural suffered fiasco - in
2005 on the referendum France and the
Netherlands rejected the draft European
Constitution, what greatly slowed the formation
of a united Europe.
The second attempt to form new basis for
the activities of the European Union was
December 13, 2007 when the Lisbon reform
Treaty was signed [9].
The Reform Treaty is actually aimed to
replace the EU constitution. Officially the
agreement is called the Treaty of Lisbon
amending the Treaty on European Union and the
Treaty establishing the European Community.
The document contains a draft reform of
institutions and mechanisms of decision-making,
taking into account the EU enlargement. The
Treaty of reforms is forecasted to clearly
separate powers between EU institutions and
national authorities.
After the Lisbon Treaty enters its force,
the double conception of European Union and
the European Community will not exist any
more. There will be only "European Union"
acquiring the legal status.
The Reform Treaty involves the
introduction of double majority voting
procedure, which means that any decision will
have to be approved by votes of 55%
representing 65% of the EU population.
However, this system will begin working only in
2014 with a transitional period up to 2017.
In particular, the Agreement imposes the
post of EU president, appointed for two years.
Furthermore, the Lisbon Treaty involves
empowering of EU High Representative of
common foreign policy. The European
Commission, which owns the EU legislative
initiative will decrease the number of
commissioners.
The Reform Treaty represents great
opportunities to national parliaments for active
participation in the process of EU legislation. At
the same time, the European Commission is
given the right to control member countries
more strictly, for example, handing them to the
EU Court.
In the EU the number of areas on which
the decision will be approved by the majority
voting will increase.
Lisbon Treaty had to enter into force on
January 1, 2009 after being ratified by 27
European Union members. The process of
ratification was longer because of the Czech
Republic and Ireland, but finally document came
in force from December 1, 2009.
To sum up, there were 5 main stages of
formation and development of the «United
Europe Project»
THE STAGES OF EU FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Stage 1 – real economic integration European Community
(Belgium, West Germany, Italy,
Luxembourg, Netherlands,
France)
1951 Paris agreement – establishing of European Coal and
Steel Community (ECSC)
1957 Rome agreement – establishing European Economic
Community (EEC) and European Atomic Energy
Community (EURATOM)
1965 Agreement about ECSC, EEC and EUROATOM merger.
Stage 2 – quantity expansion of regional union («West
Direction»)
The European Community
(12 members: Belgium, Great
Britain, Greece, Denmark, West
Germany, Ireland, Spain, Italy,
Luxembourg, Netherlands,
Portugal, France)
1973 First west expansion –joining of Denmark, Ireland and
Great Britain
1981 Second west expansion – joining of Greece.
1986 Third west expansion – joining of Spain and Portugal.
Stage 3 – political and economic reformations
1985 Schengen agreement
1986 The Single European Act (SEA) was the first major
revision of the 1957 Treaty of Rome.
1992 Maastricht Treaty – the foundation of the European Union The European Union
(15 members: Austria, Belgium,
Great Britain, Greece, Denmark,
Germany, Ireland, Spain, Italy,
Luxembourg, Netherlands,
Portugal, France, Finland,
Sweden)
1995 The fourth western expansion – joining of Austria,
Finland and Sweden
1997 Amsterdam agreement
2000 Nice agreement
Stage 4 - quantity expansion of regional union («East direction») The European Union
2004 First Eastern Enlargement – joining of Estonia, Cyprus,
Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia,
Czech Republic and Hungary.
(25 members: Austria, Belgium,
Czech Republic, Great Britain,
Greece, Hungary, Denmark,
Estonia, Cyprus, Germany,
Ireland, Spain, Italy, Latvia,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta,
Netherlands, Poland Portugal,
Slovakia, France, Finland,
Sweden, Slovenia)
2007 Second Eastern enlargement – joining of Bulgaria and
Romania.
The European Union
(27 members: Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Great
Britain, Greece, Hungary,
Denmark, Estonia, Cyprus,
Germany, Ireland, Romania,
Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Malta,
Netherlands, Poland Portugal,
Slovakia, France, Finland,
Sweden, Slovenia)
Stage 5 – institutional reformations.
2007-
2009
Lisboan Treaty and its ratification.
Conclusion
The investigations showed that the
European Union is a system that is based on
common economic and political interests and
cultural values. All existing relations between
member states are regulated by the states on
contractual basis. The leading role in the
Commonwealth is devoted to sovereign states.
The Member countries form the international
law regulations and create intergovernmental
organizations by signing special agreements that
partly delegate powers of government. The
effectiveness of the European Union system
functioning depends on both each state activities
and the super-state organizations.
The history of intensive formation of the
Commonwealth of European countries began
after the Second World War. The development
of relations between the countries is trending
both towards deeper economic and political
cooperation, and towards geographical
expansion. However, in early 2010 the European
Union faced a necessity of institutional
modernization that would help to improve the
integration of all regional associations as well as
to create an economically strong and politically
cohesive Europe, that would play main role on
the global level. The especially important
question touches modernization of the EU
institutions and foundation of a strong European
center. In the situation of global financial crisis
that started in 2008, the EU should provide all
the member states with certain guarantees,
improve internal and external economic policy
and influence on the stabilization globally.
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