The Status of the European Union in the Contemporary International Organization

Abstract

After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the extreme nationalism which had devastated Europe. The year 1952 witnessed the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which was declared to be ‘a first step in the federation of Europe’ with the joint efforts of the ‘Founding Fathers’ of European Unity such as Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. Through successive developments, the European Union has grown from the six founding states—Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands—into the current 28 countries it comprises. The European Union was formally established when the Maastricht Treaty—whose main architects were Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand— came into force on November 1st, 1993. The classification of the European Union in terms of international or constitutional law has been much debated, often in the light of the degree of integration that is perceived, desired, or expected. Historically, least speaking, the EU is an international organisation, and by using certain criteria could be classified as a confederation; but it also has many attributes of a federation, so some would classify it as a ‘de facto’ federation of states. Nevertheless, The German Constitutional Court refers to the European Union as an association of sovereign states. Others have argued that talking about the power of the European Union was a contradiction in terms, given that the Union existed only through its ‘frequently divided’ member states, because the process of the European integration was in fact meant to negate power politics, that led to the catastrophic history of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In addition, up until very recently the EU has lacked the tools required to actually exercise power, such as common diplomacy and military strength. Despite the development of common external policies such as the common trade policy, the policies on cooperation and development and, more recently the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defense Policy, the creation of the United States of Europe remains a counter-intuitive outcome for the European integration.The reality is that Europe currently has multiple futures