The European project in the 1990s

In Maastricht, on 7 February 1992, the Foreign and Finance Ministers of the 12 Member States of the European Communities signed the Treaty on European Union.

Helmut Kohl, the German Chancellor, said in 1992: “The European Union Treaty... within a few years will lead to the creation of what the founding fathers of modern Europe dreamed of after the war: the United States of Europe.” 

The Treaty of Rome was amended again, this time by the 7 February 1992 Maastricht Treaty (which came into force in November 1993). The agenda set out under the Single European Act in 1986 took a significant step forward by ostensibly creating a “European Political Union” (EPU).

The Maastricht Treaty created:

• a new organizational structure based on three 'pillars': (1) economic relations, essentially controlled by the Commission and which incorporated the three Communities, (2) foreign affairs and (3) home affairs controlled by the European Council;
• the European Union (EU);
• Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), which lead to the Euro (2002), reinforcing the economic responsibilities of the European Community;
• an expanded European Council giving national governments more say.

Cartoon by Steve Bell

The Treaty is seen as a central moment of European integration. However, it met strong opposition from eurosceptics; the Danes only ratified it after a second referendum, and John Major’s Government only narrowly won the vote on the treaty in the British House of Commons. Douglas Hurd, the British Foreign Secretary from 1989 to 1995 summed up British recalcitrance: “Those in favor of the creation of a European state want to see all European co-operation channeled through the institutions established by the Treaty of Rome. We do not accept that model.”

The Treaty resulted in the widening of EU responsibilities (to include a Common Foreign and Security Policy, home affairs, and the environment) and the deepening of integration. This meant using supranational structures in some areas while using intergovernmental ones in others. The process of closer integration through Monetary Union made it vital to have closer political co-operation.

The deepening measures of the Treaty pushed forward a federalist model of European integration, based on the supranational institutions. Jacques Delors, the EU Commission President, said in 1993: “We're not just here to make a single market, but a political union.” However, the British Government succeeded in including the principle of subsidiarity in the Treaty (the idea that the EU should act only when member states cannot act), which helped counter-balance federalist tendencies. Even Delors recognized that the European Union was in fact more a "federation of Nation States".

In the 1990s, Europe underwent important changes following the end of the Cold War. German reunification in 1990 meant that Germany was to become more powerful; Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand ensured the continuing constructive French-German relationship. The war in ex-Yougoslavia from 1991 to 1999 showed that, despite its CFSP, the creation of Eurocorps in 1992 and Eurofor in 1995, the EU was incapable of coordinating its efforts to deal with a major conflict even within the continent without help from NATO or the USA...

Signatories of the Amsterdam Treaty, 2 October 1997

The 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam was the third major amendment to the 1957 Treaty of Rome. It changed the operation of the Council of the European Union, absorbed the Schengen Convention and increased the role of the EU in home affairs, pushing forward the model of a supranational European Union at the expense of intergovernmental co-operation.

The Treaty of Amsterdam:

• gave the framework for the future accession of ten East European member states;
• incorporated the Schengen Convention into EU law;
• expanded the role of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) by creating a High Representative for EU foreign affairs;
• extended the powers of Europol, the European police agency;
• increased the number of decisions covered by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV), including on some foreign policy issues;
• gave the Commission a say over the majority of Justice and Home Affairs;
• created the idea of enhanced co-operation to allow some members to co-operate without unanimous agreement;
• it recognized the idea of constructive abstention (a member state could opt out of security or foreign affairs without preventing other countries from going ahead), which effectively created a two-speed Europe.

The European project in the 1980s

The Le Monde cartoon above is by Plantu. It comments the outcome of the Fontainebleau European Council (June 1984). Thatcher is happy with the rebate she obtained on the UK’s contribution to the European Communities budget, and Mitterrand, who lead the Council, proudly holds up the first European passport. Plantu mocks everyone here: Thatcher for her self-satisfaction and the others for their "togetherness". Margaret Thatcher had said: "We are not asking the Community or anyone else for money, we are simply asking to have our own money back". The UK (which was not as wealthy at the time as it is today) was going to become the biggest net contributor to the EU budget (it gave twice as much to Europe as it received back, mainly because it did not benefit from agricultural subsidies as much as the others). Thatcher's stance (symbolized in the Plantu cartoon by her standing apart) was seen as being typical of her anti-federalist attitude.

In 1981, Greece joined the European Communities. In 1986, Spain and Portugal joined too. These three countries were poor and joining the Common Market was a means of development for them; it meant also that there were henceforth disparities of wealth and standards of living between the member states.

In June 1985, the Schengen Agreement abolishing border controls was signed (it came into force in 1995, and the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty incorporated it into European Union law). In the Schengen Area, there is free movement of people. The outside borders of the area have been reinforced.

Jacques Delors

The Single European Act (SEA), signed in 1986, amended the 1957 Treaty of Rome with the aim of:

• achieving at last a full single market, concerning both the private and public sectors, by deregulation, i.e. overcoming barriers, namely: physical (border controls), technical (rules and regulations) and fiscal (different tax rates);
• strengthening democracy by giving greater legislative powers to the European Parliament;
• making it easier for laws to be passed by the Council of Ministers by increasing the number of areas covered by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV);
• expanding the role of the Commission;
• laying the basis for a common European Foreign, Justice and Home Affairs policies.

The SEA’s push for a more open market pleased Margaret Thatcher, who declared: “The Community is now launching itself on a course for the 1990s, a course which must make it possible for Europe to compete on equal terms with the United States and Japan... What we need are strengths which we can only find together. We must be stronger in new technologies. We must have the full benefit of a single large market.”

The SEA increased co-operation between member states on more areas of policy, i.e. it deepened integration, which was necessary in order to cope with new members. The ambition was summed up by Helmut Kohl, the German Chancellor, in 1989: “We want a European Union, we want the United States of Europe.”

The SEA also made it easier to pass EU legislation by loosening the voting rules in the Council of Ministers and emphasized the role of the European Parliament. Jacques Delors, the European Commission President from 1985-1995, said: “In ten years, 80% of the laws on the economy and social policy will be passed at a European not the national level...”

Mitterrand and Kohl at Douaumont

The European project 1973 to 1979

French poster for the 1979 elections to the European Parliament

In 1973, the same year the UK, Ireland and Denmark joined the Common Market, the first petrol crisis started, multiplying the cost of petrol by four. This made the process of European integration difficult as nations struggled to cope with economic havoc and unemployment.

Enlargement meant that relations between countries of the Common Market needed deepening (i.e. an ever closer union). Hence the setting up in 1974 of the European Council which brought together the Heads of State or of Government several times a year to determine policy (it was not, initially, any more efficient than the Council of Ministers which was handicapped by the rule of unanimous voting on "important issues").

Simone Veil, first president of the elected European Parliament from 1979 to 1982

In 1979, elections by direct universal suffrage gave the European Parliament more credibility but it continued to have little more than a consultative role. Subsequent European Parliament elections have suffered from increasing abstention rates, despite the increasing powers of the institution, due to citizens' indifference, incomprehension, or even hostility; Euroscepticism was already on the rise...

Also in 1979, the EMS (European Monetary System) was created to improve cooperation regarding financial matters.