Offering a fresh take on a crucial phase of European history, this book explores the years between the 1980s and 1990s when the European Union took shape. Whilst contributing to existing literature on the Maastricht Treaty and European integration at the end of the twentieth century, the book also brings those debates into the twenty-first century and makes connections with longer-term issues. The transformation of the European political climate in the wake of the global financial crisis in 2008, and the watershed Brexit vote in 2016, has made it all the more urgent to reconsider the way scholars and opinion-makers have looked at European integration in the past. Drawing from recently released archival documents, the authors analyse European cooperation as part of the broader international history in which it unfolded, taking into account the changes in the Cold War order and the advance of a new phase of globalisation. Comparing and contrasting the debates, objectives and achievements of the 1980s and 1990s with the current political landscape of the European Union, this book proposes a novel interpretation of the choices that were made during the Maastricht years, and of their longer-term consequences.
Author(s): Michele Di Donato, Silvio Pons
Series: Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 361
City: Cham
Preface and Acknowledgements
Contents
Editors and Contributors
About the Editors
Contributors
List of Figures
1 Introduction
Part I The European Community and Late 20th Century Globalization
2 The Single Market: A Race to the Bottom or Convergence Towards High Standards (1985‒1997)?
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The Adoption of the Single Market Programme
2.3 The British Push for Deregulation in the Single Market
2.4 The Neoliberal Offensive: Competition Policy
2.5 Conclusion
3 The Economic and Monetary Union
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Road to the EMU
3.3 Explanations for the EMU
3.4 The Road to the Banking Union
3.5 Explanations for the Banking Union
3.6 Conclusion
4 Global Europe at the End of the Cold War: The Demise of the North-South Dimension?
4.1 The European Community and Its Global Dimension During the Cold War: The Imperial Legacy
4.2 Civilian Power Europe and the European Community as a Privileged Partner of the Third World in the 1970s
4.3 The Long Way to Maastricht: The Normalisation of European Global Power
5 The Accession of the Neutrals: (Re)Assessing the First Post-Cold War Enlargement of the EU
5.1 The Single Market as an Incentive
5.2 The Fading Obstacle of Neutrality
5.3 From the European Economic Area (EEA) to EU Accession
5.4 Conclusion
Part II Political Cultures and Societal Actors
6 The End of European History? The European People’s Party and the Transformation of Europe from Cold War to Post-Cold War
6.1 Social Capital: Trust in Turbulent Times
6.2 Agenda-Setting: Repertoire of Programmatic Proposals
6.3 Intergovernmental Negotiations: Excluding Thatcher and Facilitating Compromise
6.4 Conclusion
7 The European Social Democrats: Neoliberalism or Internationalism?
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Social Democracy and Its Other
7.3 The Shock of the Global and Afterwards
7.4 The Many Europes of the Social Democrats
7.5 Conclusion
8 The European Trade Unions Confederation: A Labour Movement Among EU Institutions and Their Constraints
8.1 The Origins of ETUC
8.2 Towards the Delors Era
8.3 ETUC in the 1990s
8.4 The New Millennium
8.5 Conclusion
Part III Negotiating the New Europe: National Perspectives
9 Flawed Designs? France and the Maastricht Treaty
10 Negotiating the New Europe: Germany
10.1 German European Policy in the Late 1980s
10.2 General Approaches and Visions in German European Policy
10.3 Sectoral Approaches
10.4 Reform of the CAP
10.5 Debates on Monetary Union
10.6 Conclusion
11 The High Point of British Europeanism? John Major, Britain and the Maastricht Negotiations
11.1 The Legacy of Thatcher’s Fall
11.2 A New More Positive Approach
11.3 A Satisfactory Outcome
12 Italy and the Maastricht Treaty: A Fateful Choice?
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Italy’s Path to the Maastricht Treaty
12.3 Conclusions: Joining the Euro
13 Greece and the Maastricht Treaty: The Fortress That Wasn’t
13.1 Introduction
13.2 The Long Period Ante Portas
13.3 From Denial to Demands 1981‒1988
13.4 The Maastricht Treaty and the Quest for Stability
13.5 The Miracle in Waiting: Post-EMU Fatigue
13.6 The Incomplete Treaty
13.7 Concluding Remarks
14 The Iberian Peninsula and the Challenges of European Integration
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Democratic Transition and the Europeanisation of the Iberian Political Systems
14.3 Accession Negotiations and Intra-Iberian Relations
14.4 From the SEA to the Maastricht Treaty: Expectations and Uncertainties
14.5 Conclusions
Part IV Conclusion
15 Europe Beyond the Cold War
Index
