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European Political Co-operation

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Not to be confused with theTreaty establishing the European Political Community(1952) or theEuropean Political Community(2022).

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TheEuropean Political Co-operation(EPC) was the common term for the co-ordination offoreign policybetweenmember statesof theEuropean Communities(EC) from its inception in 1970 until the EPC was superseded by the newEuropean Union's (EU)Common Foreign and Security Policy(CFSP)pillarupon the entry into force of theMaastricht Treatyin November 1993.[1]

Background

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In the 1950s and 1960s, theEC member statestried twice to give theinternal marketa foreign policy dimension but failed on both attempts. The concept of EPC had been under consideration from early 60s but due to opinion difference between General de Gaulle and his partners, its implementation had been halted. Subsequent development of both political and economic activities in countries outside Europe forced the members to review their foreign policies. This was after General de Gaulle retired from political office.[1]

Creation

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The idea of the supranationalEuropean Defence Communitycame about following a summit in The Hague (1969) in which the EC heads of state and government instructed their foreign ministers to "study the best way of achieving progress in the matter of political unification, within the context of enlargement."[2]The foreign ministers subsequently drafted the Luxembourg/Davignon report(1970), which created an informal intergovernmental consultation mechanism where member states could achieve "politics of scale" (Ginsberg, 1989).[3]

While EPC adopted theintergovernmentalnature of theFouchet Plans,it disregarded the 'French grandeur' of theCharles de Gaulleera. The involvement of theUnited Kingdomguaranteed itsAtlanticistnature. TheEuropean Commissionwould furthermore be able to express its opinion if matters within its competencies were concerned.[4]Finally, the EPC did not have the strongParis-basedSecretariatof the Fouchet proposals. TheNetherlandshad always been anxious about this idea, as they thought that it might turn into a competitor for the European Commission.[5]

Changes

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On 6 January 1981,Hans Dietrich Genscherin his speech emphasized on the importance of EPC strengthening.[1]

The EPC was amended and strengthened in the Copenhagen report (1973) and London report (1981). It was codified (formalized) with theSingle European Act(1986).

The EPC turned out to be a "mixed success." During the 1970s, it was an active player inthe Middle East conflictand in the creation of theConference on Security and Co-operation in Europe,the predecessor of theOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.TheSoviet–Afghan War(1979) and the handling of theYugoslav Wars(1991–1995), however, showed the weakness of the EPC.[citation needed]

Transformation into the Common Foreign and Security Policy

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The EPC was superseded by theCommon Foreign and Security Policyin theMaastricht Treatyof November 1993.[6]

Since the end ofWorld War II,sovereignEuropeancountries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (orpooled sovereignty) in an increasing number of areas, in theEuropean integration projector theconstruction of Europe(French:la construction européenne). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of theEuropean Union(EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its present responsibilities from theEuropean Communities(EC), which were founded in the 1950s in the spirit of theSchuman Declaration.

Legend:
S: signing
F: entry into force
T: termination
E: expiry
de factosupersession
Rel. w/ EC/EU framework:
de factoinside
outside 		European Union(EU) [Cont.]
European Communities(EC) (Pillar I)
European Atomic Energy Community(EAEC or Euratom) [Cont.]
///European Coal and Steel Community(ECSC)
(Distr. of competences)
European Economic Community(EEC)
Schengen Rules European Community (EC)
'TREVI' Justice and Home Affairs(JHA,pillar II)
/North Atlantic Treaty Organisation(NATO) [Cont.] Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters(PJCC,pillar II)

Anglo-French alliance 		[Defence armhandedtoNATO] European Political Co-operation(EPC) Common Foreign and Security Policy
(CFSP,pillar III)
Western Union(WU) /Western European Union(WEU) [Tasksdefined following the WEU's 1984reactivationhandedto theEU]
[Social, cultural taskshandedtoCoE] [Cont.]
Council of Europe(CoE)
Entente Cordiale
S: 8 April 1904
Dunkirk Treaty[i]
S: 4 March 1947
F: 8 September 1947
E: 8 September 1997
Brussels Treaty[i]
S: 17 March 1948
F: 25 August 1948
T: 30 June 2011
LondonandWashingtontreaties[i]
S: 5 May/4 April 1949
F: 3 August/24 August 1949
Paris treaties:ECSCandEDC[ii]
S: 18 April 1951/27 May 1952
F: 23 July 1952/—
E: 23 July 2002/—
Rome treaties:EECandEAEC
S: 25 March 1957
F: 1 January 1958
WEU-CoE agreement[i]
S: 21 October 1959
F: 1 January 1960
Brussels (Merger) Treaty[iii]
S: 8 April 1965
F: 1 July 1967
Davignon report
S: 27 October 1970
Single European Act(SEA)
S: 17/28 February 1986
F: 1 July 1987
Schengen TreatyandConvention
S: 14 June 1985/19 June 1990
F: 26 March 1995
Maastricht Treaty[iv][v]
S: 7 February 1992
F: 1 November 1993
Amsterdam Treaty
S: 2 October 1997
F: 1 May 1999
Nice Treaty
S: 26 February 2001
F: 1 February 2003
Lisbon Treaty[vi]
S: 13 December 2007
F: 1 December 2009


  1. ^abcdeAlthough not EU treatiesper se,these treaties affected thedevelopmentof the EU defence arm, a main part of the CFSP. The Franco-British alliance established by the Dunkirk Treaty wasde factosuperseded by WU. The CFSP pillar was bolstered by some of the security structures that had been established within the remit of the 1955Modified Brussels Treaty(MBT). The Brussels Treaty wasterminatedin 2011, consequently dissolving the WEU, as themutual defence clausethat the Lisbon Treaty provided for EU was considered to render the WEU superfluous. The EU thusde factosuperseded the WEU.
  2. ^Plans to establish aEuropean Political Community(EPC) were shelved following the French failure to ratify theTreaty establishing the European Defence Community(EDC). The EPC would have combined the ECSC and the EDC.
  3. ^TheEuropean Communitiesobtained common institutions and a sharedlegal personality(i.e. ability to e.g. sign treaties in their own right).
  4. ^The treaties of Maastricht and Rome form the EU'slegal basis,and are also referred to as theTreaty on European Union(TEU) and theTreaty on the Functioning of the European Union(TFEU), respectively. They are amended by secondary treaties.
  5. ^Between the EU's founding in 1993 and consolidation in 2009, the union consisted ofthree pillars,the first of which were the European Communities. The other two pillars consisted of additional areas of cooperation that had been added to the EU's remit.
  6. ^The consolidation meant that the EU inherited the European Communities'legal personalityand that thepillar system was abolished,resulting in the EU framework as such covering all policy areas. Executive/legislative power in each area was instead determined by adistribution of competenciesbetweenEU institutionsandmember states.This distribution, as well as treaty provisions for policy areas in which unanimity is required andqualified majority votingis possible, reflects the depth of EU integration as well as the EU's partlysupranationaland partlyintergovernmentalnature.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^abc"European Political Cooperation (EPC) - Historical events in the European integration process (1945–2014) - CVCE Website".www.cvce.eu.RetrievedFebruary 12,2023.
  2. ^The Hague Communiqué 1969,article 15.
  3. ^Zupančič, Rok; Pejič, Nina (2018), Zupančič, Rok; Pejič, Nina (eds.),"Assessing Normative Power in Peacebuilding: A Theoretical Framework",Limits to the European Union’s Normative Power in a Post-conflict Society: EULEX and Peacebuilding in Kosovo,Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 9–32,doi:10.1007/978-3-319-77824-2_2,ISBN978-3-319-77824-2,retrievedFebruary 12,2023
  4. ^"FAQ EU competences and Commission powers".europa.eu.RetrievedFebruary 12,2023.
  5. ^"Press corner".European Commission - European Commission.RetrievedFebruary 12,2023.
  6. ^"EUR-Lex - a19000 - EN - EUR-Lex".eur-lex.europa.eu.RetrievedFebruary 12,2023.

References

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Highly recommended reading

  • Nuttall, S.J. (1992),European Political Co-operation,Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  • Smith, M.E. (2004),Europe’s Foreign and Security Policy: The Institutionalization of Cooperation,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Further reading

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  • Allen, D., Rummel, R. & Wessels, W. (1982),European Political Cooperation: Towards a Foreign Policy for Western Europe,London: Butterworth Scientific.
  • Ginsberg, R.H. (1989),Foreign Policy Actions of the European Community: The Politics of Scale,Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
  • Holland, M. (ed.) (1991),The Future of European Political Cooperation: Essays in Theory and Practice,Basingstoke: Macmillan.
  • Pijpers, A. et al. (eds.),European Political Cooperation in the 1980s: A Common Foreign Policy for Western Europe?,Dordrecht: M. Nijhoff.
  • Regelsberger, E., De Schoutheete de Tervarent, P. & Wessels, W. (eds.) (1997),Foreign Policy of the European Union: From EPC to CFSP and Beyond,London: Lynne Rienner.
  • Smith, H. (2002),European Union Foreign Policy: What it is and What is DoesLondon: Pluto Press.
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