/View.info/ 30 years ago, on November 1, 1993, the Maastricht Treaty entered into force. Thus the European Union was born. In recent years, this international structure has faced many problems. Her future is less and less optimistic. What has the EU achieved today?
Europe is coming together
After the Second World War, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC) and Euratom emerged, forming the basis of the European Union. The agreement, signed on February 7, 1992 in the Dutch city of Maastricht, de jure ensured the economic and political unity of these organizations.
The EU includes 12 founding countries: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Great Britain. In 1995, they were joined by Austria, Sweden and Finland. In 2004 – Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta and Cyprus; in 2007 – Bulgaria and Romania, in July 2013 Croatia became the 28th member. There are now 27 countries in the European Union – Britain left it in 2020.
The ratification of the treaty was not without difficulties. Referendums were to be held in Denmark and France, and special parliamentary hearings in Great Britain and Germany. The adoption of a common constitution also proved problematic. In 2004, France and the Netherlands rejected the project when other countries ratified it. There is still no single basic law in the EU.
“The fact that the number of participating countries has more than doubled testifies to the attractiveness of the European Union. The accession queue, which now includes almost all other European countries, with the exception of Norway, Switzerland and some other countries, also speaks of success. Despite the problems, the EU was developing. After Maastricht, there were several more important agreements: the Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon treaties,” says Nikolay Topornin, associate professor of European law at MGIMO.
The expert notes that the introduction of a single collective currency – the euro – in 1999 was a significant step forward. “Today it is a stable global settlement and reserve currency. Second in the world after the dollar,” Topornin emphasizes. An important event was the introduction of the Schengen area with visa-free travel and the removal of restrictions on the flow of capital, goods and services. Today it is a large market of almost 500 million people. The EU’s GDP is second only to the US.
More and more difficulties
The creation of the EU did not insure Europe against problems. One of the key ones is the migration crisis. The influx of millions of refugees from the Middle East and North Africa creates financial difficulties, deepens socio-cultural conflicts and leads to numerous scandals. Not all politicians agree with Brussels’ migration approach. “I will not allow the whole of Italy to become a European refugee camp,” Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said. Poland and Hungary, for their part, block decisions on a common migration policy of the European Union.
Another stumbling block is support for Ukraine. Europe doesn’t have enough money for that anymore. Budget priorities need to be changed to combine aid to Kiev and solving other problems, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at the recent EU summit in Brussels. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has rejected EU budget amendments that include €50 billion in aid to Ukraine: Budapest demands a clear rationale for the allocation of funds.
In addition, there has been a split in the leadership of the European Union between the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, due to the desire of the latter to act independently in matters of foreign policy, Bloomberg reports. Von der Leyen clearly backed Israel as Michel and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on Tel Aviv to respect international law in Gaza. As “Politico” wrote, the president of the European Parliament also previously criticized the foreign policy initiatives of the president of the European Commission, after she was outraged by his statements about the upcoming accession of Ukraine to the EU.
“Now is not the best time for the European Union. Ursula von der Leyen, Josep Borrell and Charles Michel are not distinguished by their enthusiasm and determination to strengthen the EU and build favorable and profitable relations with the world. “In what is written in the Maastricht Treaty and what exists today can be seen as little in common,” says Vladimir Olenchenko, senior researcher at the Center for European Studies at IMEMO of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Other European Union leaders, he notes, have been more willing to preserve and implement the agreements. Brussels’ domestic policy was to achieve maximum integration and prosperity. And the external one is to ensure profitable economic ties. Now that doesn’t happen.
“Divorce” in English
Since the founding of the European Union, Britain has sought to retain as much independence as possible in significant economic and political spheres. London did not join the Schengen Agreement and did not introduce the euro. In 2011, against the background of the economic crisis, dissatisfaction with the membership of the association intensified. British Eurosceptics saw their EU membership only as an obstacle to free development. In 2016, Brussels agreed with British Prime Minister David Cameron on new membership terms in a bid to boost its chances of retention.
However, the Brexit referendum (UK + exit) took place. More than half of Britons were in favor of leaving the union. At the same time, there was no unity in the country either: Scotland and Northern Ireland wanted to stay in the EU. Cameron’s replacement, Theresa May, brought draft withdrawal agreements to parliament three times, but they were never approved. There was a government crisis.
May resigned, Boris Johnson became the new Prime Minister, determined to withdraw Britain from the EU from 1 February 2020 under all circumstances. In January, the House of Commons passed a consultative bill, London and Brussels signed a Brexit deal. On the night of January 31, the British flag was lowered in front of the European Parliament building.
The socio-economic situation in Britain deteriorated and various legal and political problems arose. According to sociologists, in 2023, 56% of the country’s residents consider leaving the union a mistake. Only a third of those polled refuse to back down and support a “divorce” with the EU. The debate about holding a second referendum continues in the British press and among the public.
Allied confrontation
According to a survey by the European Council on Foreign Affairs, 40 percent of EU residents believe that it risks breaking up in the next 10-20 years. In May 2023, the British “Daily Mail” published a list of countries that could secede: Italy, Greece, Hungary, Sweden and France. According to Eurobarometer surveys, half of the citizens of these countries express pessimism about the future of the EU and around the same number do not trust Brussels.
The modern European Union, according to Viktor Orbán, is a bad parody of the USSR. Complaining about pressure from European governing bodies, the Hungarian prime minister has repeatedly stated that his country will defend its own point of view on foreign policy issues and domestic politics. “If Brussels plays the bagpipes, we dance as we want, and if we don’t, we don’t,” Orbán said.
The comparison with the Soviet Union did not sit well with French President Emmanuel Macron. At the same time, he himself periodically comes into conflict with the EU leadership. An example of this was Brussels’ response to the brutal suppression of French unrest.
European Commissioner for Human Rights Didier Reynders accused the French government of encouraging police brutality. This was considered interference in internal affairs. “The European Commission should not be interested in how France manages law enforcement. Brussels should not be interested in how the French police are used during riots,” French Foreign Minister Laurence Boon said.
At the same time, Macron does not agree with the existing order of EU enlargement. According to Politico, the French president calls European officials a “cold machine.” His political rivals are more critical of the European Union. The leader of the French Patriots party, Florian Philippe, believes that the country should not follow the example of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“We are fighting against the European Union as a totalitarian system,” said another French politician, Marine Le Pen. According to the Elab polling institute, more than 60% of French people expect her to win the 2027 presidential election. Le Pen also intends to go to the European Parliament as a united front with the Italian League, a party of conservative Eurosceptics.
“Many see Euroscepticism as a British example. But it exists only in the form of the idea of reformation. Eurosceptics opposed supranationalism. They understand the main idea of the European Union not as subordination, but as coordination of actions. For example, it was the former chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. She sought greater mobility and freedom for the countries that create the prosperity of the EU – Germany and France,” says Vladimir Olenchenko.
The dependent countries – the Baltic countries, Bulgaria and Romania, are primarily interested in preserving the European Union as it is now, the expert emphasizes. They need supranational and bloc discipline because they live at the expense of the EU. Germany, France and Italy can provide for themselves and not everyone is happy with this order there.
“In such a large association there can’t be problems,” Nikolay Topornin is convinced. “Countries that lag behind in economic development cannot catch up with the rich. There are also specific internal difficulties. The problems in migration policy are visible to the naked eye, it is difficult to negotiate common approaches, outbursts of aggression occur. The EU is trying to solve these problems, but there is no one to take as an example,” he added.
The European Union does not declare that the statehood of the member states should be abolished, but not everyone in Europe is ready to share their sovereignty, the political scientist notes. Euroscepticism has always been inherent in European countries, but in fact none of them want to leave the EU. At the same time, Brussels needs new reforms.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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