European Regionalism

Brian Rizky Bimantara (I92214016)–International Relations Departement

Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Ampel Surabaya

Europe is a continent that comprises the western most part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.[1] In its historical background the European continent was the theatre of conflicts, which brought millions of dead humans and lots of destruction. For all of the centuries, Europe had a lot of bloody wars, only France and Germany for the period 1870 to 1945 fought three times.[2] 

Beside World War I and World War II, actually Europe has its own conflicts among countries in Europe continents such as France and Germany. Because of those adverse war, in 1950 the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed integrating the coal and steel industries of Western Europe, which led to the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 – the predecessor of today’s European Union. But if traced back to the past, actually the idea to unite European politically originated in 17^th century. But all of those are failed which means it didn’t give a big effect. So we may say that actually after the world war I, all the proposal or organization had no effect in order to unite or integrate state within Europe area. But some of the integrations after World War II could run well in order to developed the integration until European Union.  These kind of integration could be happened because European leaders came to the conclusion that only economic and political integration can secure the peace between their countries. The vision of a new Europe, which would overcome antagonistic nationalism, finally emerged from the resistance movements, which had resisted totalitarianism during the Second World War.[3] 

There were so many treaties and agenda in European Regionalism such as, The European Coal and Steel Community in 1952, European Economic Community, European Atomic Community in 1957, Fusion of The Institution in 1967, European Monetary System in 1979, Second Enlargement in 1981, Third Enlargement in 1986, Single Act fro 1986, Maastrict Treaty in 1991, Amsterdam Treaty in 1997, Nice Treaty in 2000, Fifth Enlargement in 2004, and so on. Thus treaty and phenomenas could explained clearly the good integration in the Europe Regionalism, especially after the establishment of European Union as the new form of European Coal and Steel Community. The change form of ECSC to EU was the way of Europe to stabilize their stability to become more stable. By merging economic and political section it is easier for European Union to resist all the challenges. Because economy and politics are linked each other. They will influence each other as big as it can.

The integration development within European Regionalism is getting more integrated day by day, this cases could be best explained by using the matrix of widening and deeping. The widening of European Union as institutional form of European Regionalism shows the successive enlargements of the Union from its origin to the historic expansion of 2004 when eight new countries from the former communist bloc were reunited with Europe, together with Cyprus and Malta, and The Deepening explained the treaty among nation in European Union is getting deeper by tracing back from Free Trade Area in 1967, Customs Union in 1967, Internal Market in 1992, Monetary Union in 2002, Political Union in 2004. The most ‘highlighted’ one is a single currency in European Union. This single currency made the tie between member of European Union was getting more tight. The need for a single currency to complement the single market was argued as the need for macroeconomic stability to underpin the intensive trade integration of the internal market.[4] Historically, the creation of a national currency was associated with the emergence of nation-states in Europe. As we know, after the reunification of German, German tried to bind its large into the integration process and to consolidate European integration which means that we have to concern about the position of Germany in European integration.

Many advocates of European Union always considered single currency (Euro) as an essential element of the integration process. But this deeper integration especially single currency form was so debatable. Some of scholars said that it’s good but some said it is not. Critical economists agued that a single market does not need a single currency because they saw that a single currency would put the EU at a competitive disadvantage, that it would lead to less intra-EU trade and more macroeconomic fluctuations as member states lost control over monetary policy and the ability to determine their exchanges rates. However, the scholars who see single currency as an advantage said that the euro would bring including lower transaction costs, increased trade, increased competition and economies of scale, all of which were likely to boost economic growth and compensate for the disadvantages argued by the critics of the euro.

We also can use the existance of The European Central Bank, and we have to understand that actually ECB has not replaced national banks. It has taken over some of the functions previously performed by national central banks, but policy implementation is at the national level.

Just like the author said before, beside economy, European Union also had a strong signal that political integration would be moving up the agenda from then on. The Maastricht Treaty is one of the example that could be best explained because in Maastricht Treaty had programs such as European citizenship, a common foreign and security policy, and internal security.[5] The establishment of European Court of Justice shows us that EU treaties as a constitutional charter of law which make the supremacy of European over national law had been recognised.

Before the author end this journal review, the author suggest the reader to clarify ‘who does what’ in the EU and to draw a clear demarcation line regarding to the International Political Economy aspect of European Regionalism. If we traced back in the beginning of European Union until its succesed today United States of America admit themselves as they had a big role in the success of European Union. As we know, there was a changing of  international political economy  after world war II. The situation in Europe is so miserable and shifted. Especially in its economy aspect.

U.S and USSR as the winner of World War II had got so much advantage and profit belongs to them. But because of they have very different ideology, it made a cold war. In order to spread its ideology, U.S, which tried to against Communist, US gave West Europe a financial aid which is called Marshall Plan. With Marshall Plan Europe can raise from their deterioration. Thus program started from 1947 and end at 1951. With the Marshall Plan, the basics of formation made closer cooperation between the countries of Western Europe in the development of its economy. Since 1951, the United States prefers consolidation of defense against the possibility of the spread of communism.

The end of bretton wood system also can explain the existance of European regional monetary union. The European regional monetary union appeared in order to recover themselves in the collapse of international political economy while bretton wood system has collapsed the  U.S dollar is no longer become the one and the only single exchange currency to the gold.[6] 

As an International Relations students, the writer assumed that The United States see integration in European Regionalism as their opportunity in replacing the Hegemony of United Kingdom in European to achieve their national interest. By having a big role in European Union, U.S.A can conduct the international political economy easily then in the future  they absolutely can hegemone world from international political economy easily by making U.S Dollar as the single currency measurement in the world.

In the last, the writer want to summarize that actually the integration in Europe took a long time to successfully run. For the writer, the biggest step was Marshall Plan which was followed with the next success integration of europe until the establishment of European Union. Based on Balassa, the integration in Europe is almost complete to become integrated economically.

REFERENCES:

Farrel Mary. 2005. Global Politics of Regionalsm. London: Pluto Press

History of EU Parliament of Georgia

Mario Telo. Introduction to Globalization, New Regionalism, and The Role of The European Union. Ashgate

www.europa.eu/index_en.htm, accesed in Oct 11 2015

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[1] www.europa.eu/index_en.htm, accesed in Oct 11 2015

[2] History of EU Parliament of Georgia. Page 1

[3] Ibid

[4] Farrel Mary. Global Politics of Regionalsm. Page 237

[5] History of EU Parliament of Georgia. Page 3

[6] Mario Telo. Introduction to Globalization, New Regionalism, and The Role of The European Union. Page 4