EU Governance and Policy Overview

Chapter 5: The Democratic Deficit

• When the EU is perceived as an elitist construct.

• Individuals don't have appropriate influence.

• Gap between EU actions and the ability of Europeans to influence those actions.

• Lack of transparency.

• Knowledge deficit: people don't understand how the EU works.

• The EU is a confederal system, not a federation.

• Euroscepticism: displeasure with European Institutions.

  • Institutions are elitist, lack transparency, and are too powerful.

  • Integration has made people conform to a singular federal European superstate.

  • The EU is promoting unpopular policies.

  • Too many decisions are made without reference to European citizens.

  • National sovereignty and identity are threatened by integration.

  • The demands of the EU are too difficult for fragile economies.

• Euroscepticism questions the benefits of European integration.

Chapter 6: Policy Making Cycle

• Agenda-Setting: Identifying issues requiring EU action.

• Formulation: Developing policy proposals, primarily by the European Commission.

• Adoption: Policies are adopted through co-decision by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.

• Implementation: Carried out by member states, often with oversight from the Commission.

• Evaluation: Assessing the effectiveness and impact of policies.

• Principles of EU policies:

  • Principle of conferral: treaties specify which policies go to the European level (transfer of competences).

  • Principle of proportionality: EU should not overstep what is outlined in treaties unless there is a consensus agreement among member state leaders. Actions of EU shouldn't go above what is necessary to reach goals.

  • Principle of subsidiaries: all decisions should be made at the lowest level possible if these policies are best and satisfactory. Prioritize effectiveness and efficiency, and costs should be as low as possible.

• Competences:

  • Exclusive to EU: Competition, customs, fisheries, monetary policy, trade

  • Nationally exclusive: citizenship, broadcasting, criminal justice, education, elections, healthcare, land use, postal services/ police, taxes

  • Shared: civil protections, consumer protections, immigration, transportation, energy/environment, single market, social policy

• Primary law (treaties)

• Secondary law (regulations, directives, decisions)

• Tertiary law (delegated and implementing acts)

• Factors shaping policy include: treaty obligations, legislative pressures, harmonizing action, policy evolution, institutional pressures, international agreements, public opinion, political institutions

• Differential integration: member states that are similar can continue to integrate together.

• Problem: there are so many EU states and there's more and more diversity (risk of veto power).

• Spillover Effect: growing interdependence between non-economic issues.

• Two main trends in EU policy process

  • Globalization externally

  • Integration internally

• EU budget:

  • Cohesion Funds (34% of EU budget): Designed to aid economically weaker regions within the EU by financing infrastructure projects (highways, hospitals). Promotes economic convergence among member states.

  • Revenues:

    • VAT-based resources: 12%

    • Customs, Duties, levies: 15%

    • GNI-based national contributions: 56%

    • Other: 12%

    • Surplus from previous year: 5%

  • Expenditure:

    • Cohesion: 34%

    • Agriculture/fisheries/environment: 30%

    • Single market and innovation: 15%

    • Neighborhood/world: 9%

    • Admin: 7%

    • Migration: 3%

    • Security and defense: 2%

Chapter 7: Single Market, Eurozone, and Competition Policy

• Single Market: Aims to ensure the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people.

• Eurozone: Comprises EU countries that have adopted the euro; faces challenges like economic disparities and fiscal coordination.

• Competition Policy: Ensures fair competition within the single market by regulating mergers, state aid, and monopolies.

• The Eurozone:

  • Monetary Union: Adoption of the euro by 19 member states.

  • European Central Bank (ECB): Manages monetary policy to ensure price stability.

Chapter 8: EU Internal Policies

• Cohesion Policy: Seeks to reduce disparities between EU regions through structural funds and investment.

  • Social funds (people): functional mobility, job training, geographical mobility to areas with more opportunities.

  • Regional funds: below 75% of average income per head qualification. Typically infrastructure improvements. Often goes to the European "Rust Belt".

  • Member states + (or main Cohesion Fund): <90% of average GNI qualification. Goes to reforms before joining Eurozone, environmental reform (including upkeep of nuclear power plants), and post-2022 creation of new gas and energy lines.

• Agricultural Policy: The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) supports farmers and aims for sustainable agriculture.

• Justice and Home Affairs: Covers immigration, asylum, and cross-border crime cooperation. (Ex: europool, frontex)

• Environmental Policy: Focuses on sustainable development, climate change mitigation, and environmental protection.

• Social Dumping: downward pressure on social conditions due to comparatively low social conditions in neighbouring countries.

• Post fall of the Soviet Union and integration of East Europe into EU, People move West, capital moves East.

• Benefits and costs of 4 freedoms

• Network of trade agreements:

  1. EU + Switzerland, Norway

  2. Proximity to EU/Potential Members: Balkan countries, Ukraine

  3. Mediterranean countries: Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Israel, etc.

  4. Colonial past: African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) countries

  5. Free trade agreements: Canada (CFTA), Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Japan, etc.

  6. WTO countries

• Treaty of Rome focused on Agriculture, trade, competition and transport (NEEDED MORE AREAS COVERED) → environment, culture, education, asylum and immigration

• Chapter focus: Cohesion policy Social policy/employment Debate of worker’s rights Fisheries and agriculture Environment/Climate Change

• Cohesion policy (accounts for ⅓ of EU budget spending)

  • Close the wealth and income and opportunity imbalances between member states

  • How… by bringing poorer states closer to the wealthier ones through investments in decaying industrial areas and rural areas

  • Big moments that impacted the imbalances

    • Global financial crisis, eurozone crisis and covid crisis

  • Two focus

    • closing regional disparities and promoting economic equality

  • Poor states are in eastern, southern and western margins

    • Eastern germany, greece, southern italy, spain, portugal and western ireland

  • Reasons

    • Depressed agricultural areas, little industry and high unemployment, outdated factories and machinery, sparsely populated or geographically isolated from opportunities in bigger markets

    • Lower levels of education and health, underdeveloped infrastructure

  • European Regional Development Fund (1975)

    • Targets imbalances between EU regions and invest in innovation, research and support for small and medium businesses

  • Under Maastricht Treaty

    • Committee of the Regions was created to give regional authorities a greater say in EU policy

    • Cohesion fund was created to help offset some of the costs of integration incurred by newer member states

  • 7 main funds to counter imbalances (pg. 159)

  • (1989) Treaty of Amsterdam created → Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of Workers

    • Freedom of movement

    • Fair remuneration for employment

    • Social protection, including a minimum income for unable find employment

    • Freedom of association and collective bargaining

    • The right to equal treatment, to health, safety and protection in the workplace, and to a retirement income that allowed a reasonable standard of living

  • (1993) Working time directive

    • Maximum of 48 hours of work per week

    • 11 hours in every 24 for rest

    • Minimum 4 weeks paid leave per year

• Agriculture and fisheries

  • Common Agricultural Policy

    • The promotion of a single market in agricultural produce

    • Community preference (giving advantages to EU produce over imported produce)

    • Joint financing

    • The policy was a success:

      • Productivity increased

      • Markets stabilized

      • Supplies were secured

      • Western European farmers were protected from fluctuations in world prices

      • Farmers become wealthier

    • Problems with the policy

      • Farmers produced more than the market could bear, stockpiles of surplus produce

      • Economic dependency by sustaining farmers who would have gone out of business, pushing up the price of agricultural land, failing to close the income gap between rich and poor farmers

      • Made food more expensive for consumers

      • Caused environmental problems by encouraging the increased use of chemical fertilizers and herbicides

    • Today Common Agricultural Policy

      • Direct payments to farmers have fallen

      • Share of EU spending on agriculture has fallen 75% (1970) - 36% (2018)

      • More funds have been available for rural development

      • Guaranteed prices are now seen mainly as a safety net to be use when global prices sink too low

      • USED to be

        • Ensuring regular food supplies

      • TODAY

        • Helping EU farmers to survive and compete in global markets

        • Focus on quality over quantity

  • Common Fisheries Policy

    • Access to marine resources expanded to support a competitive and sustainable fishing industry

    • Focused on…

      • Imposing national quotas

      • Setting rules on fishing gear/mesh sizes for fishing nets

      • Require accurate reporting of catches and landings

      • Setting rules on the protection of marine wildlife and vulnerable species of fish

      • Requiring licensing for all EU fishing boats

      • Operating a management policy that limits the size of EU fishing fleets

      • Managing the market in order to monitor prices, quality and competition and reaching agreements with third countries on access to their fishing grounds

• Area of Freedom, Security and Justice

  • Management of asylum, immigration, crime and terrorism

  • Goal has been to create an area within which security, rights and free movement are assured

  • Issues with immigration are that undocumented immigrants are often unskilled, often risk much to move to a new country, their presence overlaps with concerns about human trafficking, drug trafficking and terrorism

  • Asylum in recent decades from war and conflicts forcing refugees to flee their home country

  • Cross-border crime

  • Most serious being terrorism

    • Counter-terrorism strategy (2005)

      • Four P’s:

        • Protecting Europeans by reducing Europe’s vulnerability to attacks

        • Preventing people from turning to terrorism by addressing the root causes of radicalization

        • Pursuing terrorists across borders and globally

        • Better preparing European authorities to respond to attacks

• Environmental policy and climate change

  • The response to concerns about climate change was to create new institutions rather than to develop substantive policies or pass new laws

  • Industries resisted new regulations

  • Single European Act gave the environmental legal status as a Community policy concern

  • Environmental problems response needs to be taken at multiple levels:

    • Problems (air/water pollution) are not limited by national frontiers, best addressed by several governments working together. Air pollution in one country blown by wind to another country can only effectively be addressed by producers and recipients working together

    • Individual countries working alone may not act for fear of saddling themselves with costs that would undermine their economic competitiveness, thus fewer fears if multiple countries are working together

    • With states becoming more dependent on trade and foreign investment (barriers to trade coming down) worries about loss of comparative economic advantage become less important

    • Economic benefit of removing barriers to free trade helps offset some of the costs of acting

    • Richer countries can help poorer countries address environmental problems through funding assistance and a sharing of technical knowledge

    • Widespread support public and political for environment issues

    • EU citizens feel that environmental protection policies should be addressed jointly by EU states than by member states alone

    • Substantial body of environmental law has been agreed by the EU, most focusing on…

      • improving water and air quality

      • controlling the production and disposal of waste from agriculture

      • industry and domestic households

      • monitoring the production and use of chemicals

      • encouraging the protection of wildlife and natural habitats

      • limiting noise pollution, controlling the use of GMOs

    • European Environment Agency

      • Assessments of the European environment

      • Europe’s water and air are cleaner, there is more public awareness of the threats posed by chemicals to food and water, differences in environmental standards pose less of a handicap than before to trade among member states

      • CO2 and Sulphur dioxide have fallen in the EU but there is still dirty air in the cities

      • Intensive agriculture continues to exert pressure on natural habitats

      • Little progress in the development of waste-disposal policies, total waste production continues to grow

      • Freshwater is overexploited and is polluted by sewage

Chapter 9: EU Foreign Policy

• Trade done by exclusive competence: EU negotiates trade agreements on behalf of all member states

• Weaknesses of EU foreign policy

  • Lack of European military force

  • Diversity of actors and different threat perceptions & responses

  • Big v. small EU countries

  • Nuclear v. non-nuclear powers

  • Neutral v. non-neutral

  • West v. East & North v. South

  • Historical allies v. enemies

  • Rotation of CMU leadership -> shifting priorities

  • Unanimous vote for coordinated action

  • EU budget small

  • Too many presidents

  • EU as soft power

    • Free aid or financial lending

    • Education and expertise

    • Science and technological advancement

    • Cultural exports (movies, music, etc.)

  • Evolution of EU defense policy

    • Petersburg Tasks

      • Humanitarian action

      • Peacekeeping

      • Rescue

      • Crisis management

    • European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP)

      • Launched in 1999

      • Creation of rapid reaction force

    • Lisbon Treaty

      • EU becomes military alliance

    • Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO)

      • Not all EU countries in

      • Harmonize defense policies

      • Form common vision of international environment/affairs

      • Harmonize common goals/allies/enemies

    • EU Strategic Congress (White Paper)

      • take Action, increase Security and Intelligence

      • In response to Russian invasion of Ukraine

    • Rearm Europe (White Paper)

      • AKA Readiness 2030

      • 800 billion investment in military/security

    • Strategic autonomy

      • Assets and capacity

    • Europeanization of NATO (2 views)

      • Build separate power base for EU in NATO, break away from US hegemony

      • Distinguish EU as dual pillar with US in NATO, each reliant on the other

    • Triangular relationship between US, EU, and China

      • European grievances with China

        • Transparency about economy, policy (no disclosure on how much given in subsidies to Chinese companies)

        • Discrimination: some economic domains off limits to Western business

        • Strong state intervention in economy

        • Poor enforcement of intellectual property rights

        • Requirement of a Chinese partner to operate in China

      • Derisk or Decouple with China?

        • Derisk: avoid reliance on China for sensitive goods - European view

        • Decouple: generally reduce all trade with China, especially imports - US view

      • Why do the EU and US differ on China policy?

        • US-China rivalry will define future of international order

        • Trade: EU more dependent on trade with China, US more self-sufficient

        • Geography: EU less connected to Pacific rivalry

    • Russia’s priorities in Europe

      • Fight against EU and NATO enlargement, bring potential members into Russian orbit

      • Kick US out of Europe

      • Weak EU/Europe (via hybrid war or trojan horse pro-Russia nation - like Hungary or Serbia - to block EU coordination)

    • Subsector, baseline, and reciprocal tariffs

  • Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP): Framework for coordinating foreign policy among member states.

  • European External Action Service (EEAS): Diplomatic service led by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

  • The Problem Posed by US Invasion of Iraq

    • US tried to orchestrate a multinational response through NATO, but EU was split on how to handle this issue

      • For: Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Eastern Europe

      • Against: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece

      • Neutral: Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Portugal

      • Populations within all states were 70-90% against US intervention, leading to major demonstrations across european capitals across the world

Chapter 9: The EU in the World

• EU activities in the fields of foreign, security and trade policy

• More progress has been made at establishing the EU as a trading power than as a foreign policy actor or military power

• Collective relations with key parts of the world

• Assessment of EU-US relations

• Changing state of relations with its neighbouring states (eastern Europe)

• Challenges posed by Russia

• Assesses EU-China relationship

• EU development policy

• Argues that while there has been much progress in giving more clarity to the shape of the EU as a global actor, much remains to be done in the face of changes in the nature of the international system

• The changing global system

  • BRICS

    • Rising presence of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa

    • Provided more market competition for the EU and the U.S

    • establish a united front of emerging economy perspectives in multilateral institutions

• Foreign policy

  • Building a common European foreign policy

    • The EU will punch below its weight unless its member states work as a group

    • Fear that coordination will interfere with state sovereignty and the freedom of member states to pursue matters of national interest

    • Legal and constitutional difficulties regarding policy responsibility, leaders of the EU states have long been divided over how far they should continue to follow the lead of the U.S and how far they should build policy independence

  • Soft power

    • Ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion

    • Centered around culture, political ideals and policies rather than violence

  • Hard power

    • Military and economic strength

  • Common Foreign and Security Policy (under Maastricht Treaty)

    • Goals loosely defined

    • Broad talk about the need to

      • safeguard ‘common values’ and ‘fundamental interests’

      • to preserve peace and strengthen international security

      • to promote international cooperation

    • Weaknesses (addressed by Treaty of Amsterdam)

      • Created a policy planning and early warning unit in Brussels to help EU anticipate foreign crises and foreign policy coordination was centralized within the new post of HIgh Representative for the CFSP

    • The disagreement among EU member states about the invasion of Iraq (2003) shook EU-US relations about the extent to which the EU should continue to rely on US leadership in foreign and security policy

    • TODAY

      • Like a European department of foreign affairs

• Security and defense policy

  • EU governments have independent opinions and priorities when it comes to committing their forces, still limited coordination on policy

  • European External Action Service

    • Address the EU’s long-time lack of an institutional focus for its interests in external relations

  • Petersberg tasks (1992)

    • EU foreign and defense ministers agreed that military units from member states could be used to promote:

      • Humanitarian, rescue, peacekeeping and other crisis management jobs

    • Treaty of Amsterdam incorporated the Petersberg tasks into the EU treaties

  • European Security and Defense Policy (1999)

    • Goal of building the ability of the EU to deploy military forces into the field at short notice and for short periods of time

  • European Security Strategy (2003)

    • Declaration by EU member states of their strategic goals

    • The EU was ‘inevitably a global player’

    • ‘Should be ready to share in the responsibility for global security

    • Key threats facing the EU

      • Terrorism

      • Weapons of Mass Destruction

      • Regional conflicts

      • Failing states

      • Organized crime

  • Common Security and Defense Policy (Treaty of Lisbon)

    • Renaming of European Security and Defence policy

    • Continued Petersberg tasks

    • Added joint disarmament operations, military advice and assistance and support for post-conflict stabilization

    • Added a mutual defense clause

      • Member states come to the aid of any other member state that is attacked

    • Permanent Structured Cooperation (2017)

      • Pursue the structural integration of national armed forces

      • Only two member states disagreed (Malta & Denmark)

      • Included in Treaty of Lisbon

• Trade Policy

  • General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (1948)

    • Oversee a programme aimed at removing trade restrictions and liberalizing trade

    • REPLACED BY World Trade Organization (1995)

• Relations with the United States

  • Relations have weakened after the Cold War

  • EU economic power growing

  • Relative decline of US influence after Iraq controversy

  • Global Financial Crisis

  • EU concerns about the volatile foreign policies of the Trump administration

  • Americans and Europeans have different values:

    • Americans place more emphasis on military power than Europeans

    • Unilateralism plays a greater role in American calculations than the multilateralist tendencies of the Europeans

    • The often-unapologetic support given by the United States to Israel says much about the different worldviews of Americans and Europeans

    • The two sides have quite different thoughts about the responsibilities of government

      • Capital punishment, climate change, the work of the UN, links between religion and politics

• Relations with the neighbourhood

  • Distinct rings of influence the EU has on its neighbors

    • 13 eastern enlargement states that have joined the EU since 2004

    • States that have short-term or longer-term potential to become members of the EU

    • States that have strong economic links with the EU

    • States that do not qualify for membership but cannot escape the gravitational pull of the EU

  • European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1990)

    • Channelled public money from the EU, the U.S and Japan into development of the private sector in the east

  • Barcelona Process (1995)

    • Goal of strengthening ties between the EU and all other states bordering the Mediterranean

  • Union for the Mediterranean (2008)

    • Evolution of the Barcelona Process

  • European Neighborhood Policy (2004)

    • Goals of promoting democracy, human rights, the rule of law, good governance and market economics

• Relations with China

  • EU-China relationship went through 3 phases

    • Period of constructive engagement from the mid-1990s

    • Strategic partnership between the two sides in 2003-05, cooperation on technology

    • Pragmatic restraint in of US concerns about how the relationship had been evolving

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