Closer Union Research Articles

Towards an ever greener Union? Competence in the field of the environment and beyond

It is well known that the European Court of Justice has played an active role in shaping EC environmental law. Community competence in the field of the environment was in fact established by the Court in the Adbhu case (Case 240/83), and recent case law indicates that the Court has not grown less bold. This article examines environmental case law from the last five years through the prism of competence (EC vs. EU competence, EC vs. Member State competence, and EC competence vs. international obligations). Several of the cases have implications beyond the field of the environment, not only because of the horizontal dimension of environmental protection, but also since the judgments may give more general indications as to the Community judiciary’s position on distribution of powers and its affinity for teleological interpretations in order to ensure the effectiveness of Community law. Although the case law could be seen as an expression of a more general pursuit of an ever closer union, the author suggests that it above all reflects the importance which the Court awards environmental protection and a conviction that broad Community powers are necessary to ensure its effectiveness.

Book Review of Vicente L. Rafael’s <i>The Promise of the Foreign</i>

Book Review of Vicente L. Rafael’s <i>The Promise of the Foreign</i>

EUの構築とヨーロッパ・アイデンティティの創造

The objective of my article is to discuss the following hypothesis that the construction of the EU is a political movement having the continuity with a process of nation-state building, analyzing the Statement of Paris in 1972 (Paris Summit) and the Declaration on European Identity in 1973 (Copenhagen Summit).For this objective, I give attention to the phrase of “the foundation of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe” in the preamble to the Treaty of Roma. I primarily regard the European integration as the movement of integration of the peoples. Nationalism is a movement for nationstate building and has created its own national identity as a significant symbol for national integration in general. The European integration movement has also tried to create its own identity, a European Identity. It was also the time when the movement decided to progress from an economic community to a political union.In the Paris Summit in 1972, the European Union was first manifested as a political aim in the official document of EC. But, this starting point toward EU hasn't been substantially observed because the 1970s has been evaluated as a “stagnant period” or “dark age” (S. Hoffman). However, this absence of perspective for the integration movement of the 1970s caused the lack of analyses not only on the declaration on European Identity in 1973, but also on the fact that the Community and member states had forged European Identity as a symbol for European Union. At that time, the Community and the member-states faced the substantial changes in international society. For example the Nixon shock, the Oil crisis, the Cold War and the Detente, and the advance of globalisation. That is to say, they shared the common threats but on the other hand, they had internal problems and transformations; the failure of the Snake, the necessity of institutional reform, and “the convergence of value consciousness (R. Inglehart)” among the peoples.The Paris and Copenhagen Summits were held in the period of dynamic changes. And in these Summits, the keypersons, such as Tindemans and even Pompidou, had imaged the EU through the analogy with a nationstate. In addition, Member states added the limitation of “a common European civilization” to European Identity in Copehnhagen. Namely, in the process of construction of EU, one can observe the method that establishes the legitimacy of governance by making its own political identity. The 1970s, especially its first half, was never “dark age” of the European integration. The movement of the European integration in the 1970s as a whole had largely taken an important step forward the EU in the Maastricht Summit.

Mimicking History: The European Commission and Its Education Policy

Decision makers do not act in a policy vacuum. As they develop their programs, they are aware of and influenced by available historical examples. If we look closely at the European Commission's education policy (measures as well as discourses), we notice the existence of similarities in the strategies that it deploys in this field and dynamics deployed much earlier by states engaged in nation building (that is, the redefinition of peoples' spatial representation of their community of belonging; the creation of a framework of shared values; and the process of "detemporalization-naturalization").This observation leads us to believe that if the European Commission decided to become involved in the field of education at an early stage in the integration process, it was not only—as most people believe—to ensure an effective implementation of the Common Market in 1957 or the Single Market in 1987. Rather, through its education policy, the Commission also hoped to create and foster an EU identity that the founding fathers and subsequent "Europeans" considered necessary for achieving their goals of creating "an ever closer union."

The Union of Laughter and Forgetting? The European Union and the Construction of its own History

As recently as one year ago, the European Union was seemingly on a direct path toward its avowed goal of "ever closer union." In numerous publications, EU authorities asserted that they had the confidence of European peoples desirous only of further integration. In the wake of the failed referenda for a European Constitution, however, enthusiasts of European Union can no longer be certain that their enterprise will succeed. The European Union, once strong and united, seems now an entity teetering on the edge of collapse. The reasons for such a dramatic shift are, of course, wide-ranging. Yet I would suggest that a great part of the general European disillusionment with European Union has come about as a result of the actions of the Europeanists themselves. Over the last decades, European officials have exhibited a frightfully high incidence of revisionism in their literature. This practice, I argue, has caused many Europeans to question the integrity of the project of European Union. For my presentation, I intend to undertake a close study of a selection of documents published by the European Communities. In this endeavour, I will compare and contrast the messages imparted in different editions of these works and consider the semiotic significance of the textual and non-textual language appearing therein. In this manner, I hope to achieve two aims. First, I mean to add a corrective element to a literature that, guided by a teleological interpretation of integration, endows integration with”logic" to be found only in hindsight. Second, I intend to examine the many meanings that the EU has had over its history and assess how closely policy has adhered to the ideological goals of prominent Europeanists. In sum, I hope to shed light on the fundamental disconnect between advocates of Europe and the "man on the street" and help establish a dialogue which may contribute to resolving the current impasse within the European Union.
 Full text available: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v2i4.178

The Union of Laughter and Forgetting? The European Union and the Construction of its own History

As recently as one year ago, the European Union was seemingly on a direct path toward its avowed goal of "ever closer union." In numerous publications, EU authorities asserted that they had the confidence of European peoples desirous only of further integration. In the wake of the failed referenda for a European Constitution, however, enthusiasts of European Union can no longer be certain that their enterprise will succeed. The European Union, once strong and united, seems now an entity teetering on the edge of collapse. The reasons for such a dramatic shift are, of course, wide-ranging. Yet I would suggest that a great part of the general European disillusionment with European Union has come about as a result of the actions of the Europeanists themselves. Over the last decades, European officials have exhibited a frightfully high incidence of revisionism in their literature. This practice, I argue, has caused many Europeans to question the integrity of the project of European Union. For my presentation, I intend to undertake a close study of a selection of documents published by the European Communities. In this endeavour, I will compare and contrast the messages imparted in different editions of these works and consider the semiotic significance of the textual and non-textual language appearing therein. In this manner, I hope to achieve two aims. First, I mean to add a corrective element to a literature that, guided by a teleological interpretation of integration, endows integration with”logic" to be found only in hindsight. Second, I intend to examine the many meanings that the EU has had over its history and assess how closely policy has adhered to the ideological goals of prominent Europeanists. In sum, I hope to shed light on the fundamental disconnect between advocates of Europe and the "man on the street" and help establish a dialogue which may contribute to resolving the current impasse within the European Union.

The European Union a stepping stone to further integration or rather a Eurocentric fortress?

The European Union a stepping stone to further integration or rather a Eurocentric fortress? Still with the memory of the destructive national power of the Second World War, the main initiators of the European integration stirred this project with the objective of preventing further conflicts through economic integration. Closer economic ties, spilling over to more countries and more policy areas lead to the development of an ever closer union which has become a powerful actor in international affairs. This essay will explore the question to what extent the European Union can be characterized as Eurocentric regionalism, rather focused on internal integration and enforcing outside borders than on global understanding. In order to shed light on this question several policy areas will be analysed, such as the European aid and trade policy, as well as the agricultural policy as these are areas where the European Union is directly confronted with external politics and international interests.

The Europeanization of Higher Education: Markets, Politics or Learning?*

AbstractThis article looks at increased European co‐operation in higher education, taking as its main case study the proposal for universities to adopt a common core curriculum for European studies. The article situates higher education co‐operation in the context of political and economic imperatives promoting ‘ever closer union’ and highlights immanent dangers for academic goals. However, it also identifies the scale of European co‐operation as an opportunity for national higher education actors to resist together what they may be unable to resist alone: namely, greater economic and political intrusion into academic life. Long term, this may prove crucial to the vitality of the European integration process.

Broadening and deepening or broadening versus deepening: The question of enlargement and Europe's ‘hesitant Europeans’

Abstract. The European Union sees the inclusion of many Eastern European states – enlargement – as a natural progression in the process of building an ‘ever closer union’. For the European Commission in particular, the process of enlargement (broadening) is part of the process of integration and acts as a complement to the development of a stronger role for the European Union and its institutions or deepening of integration. Yet as the first Irish referendum on the Nice Treaty showed, not all of European's citizens see the two processes of enlargement and integration in the same light. This article addresses two related questions. First, how are attitudes towards deepening and broadening related, and do European citizens see them as complementary or contradictory? Second, and related to the first, what factors drive popular attitudes towards enlargement?

Soft Power Rising: Romantic Europe in the Service of Practical Europe

The preamble Treaty of Rome that created European Economic Community in 1957 embodies both elements of European integration project. The romantic dimension finds expression in call for ever closer union among peoples of Europe/' and reference pooling of resources to preserve and strengthen peace and liberty/' Elsewhere in preamble, quest for removal of obstacles steady expansion, balanced trade, and fair competition and the progressive abolition of restrictions on international trade gives voice practical Europe. A half-century later, have practical considerations overwhelmed romantic, or has romantic longing for unity proven an obstacle practical achievement? Arguably, as European Union seeks a renewed sense of purpose and direction after conjuring a single currency and expanding twenty-five member states, concrete objectives are attainable only as long as romantic notion of constructing a better world finds resonance on European continent and beyond. The contemporary juxtaposition of a United States that appears have shed romance and idealism of its founding and apogee of Europe's romantic dimension have prompted widespread interest in EU as a meaningful global entity. Several recent accounts emerging from this tension portray European Union as an antiAmerica: an increasingly unified world of low inequality, concern for cohesiveness of society, respect for environment, and commitment a peaceful world order and resolution of conflicts through engagement and diplomacy. This romantic Europe is a magnetic pole of attraction, both aspiring member states (the region of aspirants stretches increasingly further eastward, initially into central European states of Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary, and now Ukraine and Georgia as well as northward Baltics and southward Balkans) and poorer countries outside European continent that seek a reliable provider of development assistance and access important markets. More cynical observers hard-headed realists in language of international-relations theory, such as Robert Kagan, who in his much-debated 2002 Policy Review article contrasted Europe's weakness with America's strength suggest that this postconflict semi-utopia is possible only with military security provided by United States. For these analysts, Europe must be judged by its practical self, and, from this perspective, it is a troubled entity. The large European Union economies especially Germany and Italy, but France as well characterized by sluggish growth, population aging, and persistent mass unemployment, appear be spent forces relative dynamism of United States. The European Union has proven ineffectual in responding recent episodes of conflict and instability on European continent. Such a Europe offers little as a model for emerging capitalist democracies and remains inconsequential as a global actor. The coexistence of triumph and failure in European Union during past two years has added ambiguity of Europe's trajectory and apparent tension between romantic and practical. At midnight on April 1, 2004, fireworks lit skies across central and eastern European capitals as countries from former Soviet bloc (along with Malta and Greek Cyprus) celebrated their official accession European Union. With expansion twenty-five members, European Union became a single market in goods, services, and capital for 455 million citizens, consumers, and businesspeople. Referendums on joining EU were endorsed with enthusiasm by central and eastern European publics. As world's

Mapping EU Studies: The Evolution from Boutique to Boom Field 1960-2001*

This article employs original data sets to map the development of EU studies since its inception and to assess that development within the broader context of trends in west European studies. Dissertation and article data are used to chart the contours of three eras of EC/EU studies that have unfolded since 1960. The article addresses the extent to which the transformation of EU studies from boutique to boom field since the 1990s has entailed diversification as well as expansion of the EU scholarly community – a geographic diffusion of expertise and training (accelerated on both sides of the Atlantic by substantial increases in funding for EU research), an increase in attention to EU issues by comparative politics specialists drawn to the study of‘an ever closer union', a proliferation of new topical subfields, an increase in the number of journals publishing significant articles on the EU, and a reshaping of the relationship between American and European scholars specializing in EU studies.

Inside the European Commission: Preference Formation and the Convention on the Future of Europe

How did the European Commission define its preferences with regards to the Convention on the Future of Europe? Is it the monolithic self-interested actor, propelled by a commitment to ever closer union and bent on aggrandizing its own power, as portrayed in much of the academic literature and in political debate, a purposive actor, whose outlook is conditioned by the structure of delegation configured by the member states, or is it an internally differentiated arena, from which preferences emerge as a result of complex interactions that entail the use of power, institutionalized myths and routines? We seek to demonstrate that in the case of the Convention on the Future of Europe, the preferences of the Commission emerged from a process that displays a strong pattern of presidentialism, which was conditioned by both internal and external challenges reflecting the environment in which Romano Prodi's Commission had to operate.

The European constitutional compromise and the neofunctionalist legacy

Neofunctionalism, a framework rather than a theory, has long played an important role in EU scholarship. Yet initial versions were overly comprehensive, incompletely specified and, as a result, non-falsifiable. Once concrete claims about the history of the EU are specified more precisely, they tend to be invalid: national preferences rarely result from unintended spillover, supranational entrepreneurs are rarely decisive – findings often disguised by poor theoretical specification and selection bias in EU scholarship. For the study of the EU today, the most important weakness of neofunctionalism is that its focus on ‘ever closer union’ obscures the emergence over the past decade of a stable constitutional equilibrium – a European Constitutional Compromise. This compromise is unlikely to be undermined by substantive, institutional, or ideological developments over the medium term – because current constitutional arrangements are substantively effective, institutionally protected, and democratically legitimate. The EU has reached constitutional maturity.

An ‘ever closer union’ of national policy? The convergence of national environmental policy in the European Union

AbstractThis article examines how far the EU has succeeded in encouraging the content, structure and style of national environmental policies to converge. Using fresh empirical evidence collected from 10 national environmental policies, it presents a very mixed pattern of change, with some elements of national policy converging more rapidly (and through different causal pathways) than others. These findings are viewed through the lens of popular theories of structural convergence, integration and Europeanization respectively, to reach a fuller understanding of the pathways and outcomes of change in an enlarging EU. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The effect of religious, cultural and social identity on population genetic structure among Muslims in Pakistan

Knowledge of historical demography and contemporary social stratification can be valuable in understanding disease patterns, including genetic disorders, especially in communities that have a high prevalence of endogamous and/or consanguineous marriages. This paper provides a background to the religious, historical and socio-cultural factors that have helped define the bounds of endogamy for Muslims in undivided India and more specifically since the creation of Pakistan. The preference for endogamous marriage is based on the clan-oriented nature of the society, which values and actively seeks similarities in social group identity based on several factors, including religious, sectarian, ethnic, and tribal/clan affiliation. Religious affiliation is itself multi-layered and includes religious considerations other than being Muslim, such as sectarian identity (e.g. Shia or Sunni, etc.) and religious orientation within the sect (Isnashari, Ismaili, Ahmedi, etc.). Both ethnic affiliation (e.g. Sindhi, Baloch, Punjabi, etc.) and membership of specific biraderis or zat/quoms are additional integral components of social identity. Within the bounds of endogamy defined by the above parameters, close consanguineous unions are preferential due to a congruence of key features of group- and individual-level background factors.

Federalism, Sovereignty, etc.

For the first time in history, the aspiration to ‘an ever closer union’ between European peoples (not states) was laid down in the Treaty of Rome of 1957. The same idea has now found expression in the preamble to the Draft Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe: ‘Convinced that, while remaining proud of their own national identities and history, the peoples of Europe are determined to transcend their ancient divisions and, united ever more closely, to forge a common destiny’. However, as is usual in politics, the precise meaning of this formula is left unclear. Can pride of national identity and history go together with the forging of a common destiny? Without trying to answer this question, this short article looks at whether (a) European history, (b) the wording of the proposed treaty itself and (c) the international context can give some clues as to where forging a common destiny between the peoples of Europe might lead in a constitutional sense. Will the Union develop into a more or less centralised entity that resembles a state or will it remain the rather loose and open conglomeration of states it presently is?

Exploring eurovisions: awareness and knowledge of the European Union in Northern Ireland

The European Union embodies a new tier of governance at the European level and one that increasingly impacts upon many issues of contemporary public policy. Yet are people aware, can they identify with the EU and its activities? Do they know why and which policy areas are regulated at the European level, how decisions are made in Brussels, or do they simply feel alienated from the EU? The links between the individual citizen and the EU integration process actually matter more now than at any time in the EU's short history as public opinion has emerged, as seen through a number of referendums, as a potential constraint to the project of ‘ever closer union’. The issue of public attitudes towards the EU is an increasingly salient concern for member state governments given the pending referenda in at least nine EU member states on the ‘Constitution for Europe’. Yet, the public seem disengaged and the lowest ever turnout (45 per cent) at the European elections in 2004 illustrates a further example of this malaise. This article examines specifically public knowledge of and attitudes towards European integration in Northern Ireland. It reveals a considerable ‘information deficit’ on all things EU related which manifests itself in high levels of alienation, ignorance and uninterest after some 30 years of the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union.

A Forerunner for International Organizations: The Holy See and the Community of Christendom: With Special Emphasis on the Medieval Papacy

In 1920 James Brown Scott, the celebrated teacher, international law scholar and practitioner, published his pioneering book The United States of America: A Study in International Organization. His underlying thesis was that the historic evolution of the United States provided a model for the development of international organizations in which local sovereignty and autonomy are preserved but “a more perfect union” is sought. Scott made the distinction that the delegates to the Federal Convention of 1787 did not merge the States in a union, “but formed a union of States.” One of Scott's goals was to provide the delegates who would be convening at The Hague the imagination to consider a “Society of Nations” as a frame of reference that could guide their post-Great War deliberations. As he said:The Society of Nations may not be willing, and indeed even with good will may not be able, to go so far now or at any time as have the States forming the American Union. But however many steps they may take or however few toward the closer Union, the experience of the framers of the Constitution who traversed the entire path should be as a lamp to their feet.

English Literature and a Single European Currency

NOTE: A version of this paper was first presented as the Inaugural Lecture of the Professor of English Literature at the University of Copenhagen, on 13 February 1996. At that time, Denmark and Britain had already negotiated a means of'opting out' of the single European currency. Subsequently, in a referendum held on 28 September 2000, Denmark firmly rejected the euro. The topic of debate and unease has been the principle of sovereignty. Against European integration, the 'ever closer union', we still, in these northern lands, hear voiced the rhetoric of national sovereignty. And it may not be coincidental that the attachment to the national currency is strongest in countries where the coinage bears the image of the sovereign. Of all the Nordic nations, only the republic of Finland has exchanged its mark for the euro, without resistance or complaint. The three Nordic nations whose currency is the crown Denmark, Norway, Sweden remain, albeit on disparate trajectories, outside the European Monetary Union, as does sterling.

Tax Policy in the European Union: A Review of Issues and Options

‘Determined to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe’, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Rome in 1957 establishing the European Economic Community. In the course of the years, another nine countries joined the Community, subsequently called the European Union (EU) following the ratification of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992. In 2000, the EU encompassed 376 million people and generated a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of 8.5 trillion euro. In comparison, the United States (US) had 276 million inhabitants in that year and its GDP was 9.2 trillion euro. Accordingly, per capita income in the US (adjusted to reflect purchasing power parity) is almost 50 percent higher than that in the EU. Table 1 shows these figures as well as the percentage distribution of the EU’s GDP and population and the index of per capita income per Member State. As an economic union, the EU shares important features with the US, which is a federation. The economies of the EU Member States, like those of the US states, form a single integrated market free of restrictions on the movement of