essay one on EU

7/24/2019 essay one on EU

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The European Union as a reality built from ideas - a realistic perspective on

enlargement.

Lozonschi Alexandru-Mihail, MPE I

When thinking about Europe, most people dont have a clear idea of what Europe

really is. A continent? Just another place on the map where people live their lives? Except the

geographical location and some widely-agreed ideas, people from other parts of the world

dont think or contemplate about what a specific place really is and dont have enough

information about how individuals live their lives. If this can be said about Europe, how can

we even begin to define the European Union?The ambiguity of the concept of Europe has characterized both the geographic scope

of this entity, as well as its political sphere because of the vague delimitations of its borders

and the way cultures are fragmented. All this stands in the way of analyzing and defining the

European identity, seen now as a complex subject.

What is Europe? is a question that many philosophers and intellectual elites tried to

answer over the course of time and in the first part of this paper, I aim to show how the idea

of a European Union was born and how many of those characteristics still apply today. In the

second part of this paper, I focus on the enlargement of the European Union in the last few

years and I try to explain from a realist perspective the implications this has on

communications and on the future of the EU, seen now as a two-speed Europe.

I chose the realism theory not only because its a current tha t influenced international

relations and I tend to view the world from a realistic perspective, but also because of that fact

that the term realism is under the peoples skin and I think that is hard to compete with a

paradigm that is called realism. In short, realism is a theory essentially about power and

security. From a realism point of view, states relentlessly seek power and security because

they exist in a self-help system. So they seek power, security, prestige but most of all, states

seek autonomy because in a world where you can tnever trust anyone you dont want to be

inter-depended. Throughout this paper, I appeal to the realism theory in order to analyze how

states interact in the European Union.

In the next few paragraphs, I want to talk about the intellectual elites that wrote about

a united Europe before the European Union was created and to show what part of their ideas

still exists today. As we found out earlier, the idea of a united Europe is old and countless


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intellectual elites have contributed through relevant work to the idea of perpetual peace. The

main argument behind this perpetual peace was the fact that the survival of Europe depended

on the cooperation of the states that composed it. In the following paragraphs, I will offer

more details about these ideas.

Jean Jacques Rousseau believed that a united Europe would have resisted the hard

circumstances of time marked by different conflicts, but he doubted that the Kings of different

states will subdue to a common European representative assembly unless their interest would

be met. Is this still applicable today? If we are to think about the realism theory of

international relations developed by Thomas Hobbes and Machiavelli, we find out the fact

that the human nature is characterized by egoism and because of that people are always after

the bigger piece of the cakeand that is why we live in a state of war or even worse, a war of

all against all.This doesnt necessarily mean that war occurs every time but it means that

the danger of war lurks behind the curtains of international policies. This is how realists view

the world and in my opinioneven though the world made great progress in securing peace

realism still applies today in a great sense and we can see that daily on the news.

Claiming the existence of pure reason which governs the actions of men, Immanuel

Kant, advocates in his book Project on perpetual peace the removal or war as a mean of

settling different disputes. He mentions an essential condition for maintaining peace and that

was a disarmament plan which was to be applied on the international stage by a general peace

treaty. If we are to think about the year 1951 when The European Coal and Steel Community

was born, we will notice the fact that this international organization that later became the

European Union we know today, followed Kants plan and disarmed France and Germany

two countries that were always in conflictby putting the production of steel and coal under

a High Authority.

Another partisan convinced of the idea to forge a united Europe was the Count of

Saint-Simon who believed in the superiority of Europeans over other races and suspected that

Europe was in the past a confederation that was united by common institutions. Saint-Simon

wanted the European nations to be connected to a single political body, but at the same time,

each country to preserve their national independence. This meant that the common institutions

should be harmonized, to work together with the member states. He also proposed the

establishment of a European Parliament invested with the power to judge the contradictions

between member states. Even if today the European Parliament doesnt have the

responsibilities that Saint-Simon tought about, most of his ideas became a reality.


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Victor Hugo was another thinker that saw a united Europe by securing the peace

between France and Germany. He held a speech at the Congress of Pace in Paris in 1849

where he mentioned the fact that there will come a day when the war between Paris and

London, Petersburg and Berlin, Vienna and Turin will sound absurd and be impossible!1102

years later, the foundation on which ECSC was being built was the peace treaty between

France and Germany.

As we have seen so far, there have been more than a few examples of intellectual elites

that contributed to the construction of a united Europe and many of their ideas are the

foundations of the European Union we known today.

Now, after I offered a general view on what European Union is and how we can

analyze it from a realist point of view, in the second part of my paper, I want to focus on the

enlargement strategy in the last few years starting with 2004, in order to show how the EU

developed and what new challenges it faces in the field of communication and inter-state

relations.

In the last 10 years the European Union has grown from 15 to 28 member states. In

2014, the European Union drafted the Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2014-15

where it stipulates three main benefits of enlargement as follows: first of all it makes Europe a

safer place by promoting democracy and reinforcing peace and stability; second of all, it

improves the quality of the peoples lives and it makes the Union more prosperous.2It seems

that every time the EU was facing hard times, they just invited more states to join the

organization in order to face new challenges. From a realist perspective, by solving old

challenges, new ones came to life because the European Union had to integrate the new

member states and support them in their journey towards a better economy and democracy.

As the UE began to grow, the communication system was also affected because the same

message had to be transmitted through more channels to even more people that were part of

the new member states that didnt had a clear knowledge of what EU really is and according

to the euro barometer, in Eastern Europe especially, most people still dont know how EU

works. Starting with 2004, there have been many improvements made in the in all areas that

concern integration but many issues are still visible.

As we have seen in the first part of this paper, scholars that adopt a realist point of

view and not only them, would define the EU as a two speed Europe because there are huge

1Hugo, Victor, My Revenge is Fraternity, Opening Address to the Peace Congerss, Paris, August 21, 1849.

2

Strategy Paper, taken fromhttp://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-strategy-paper_en.pdf
http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-strategy-paper_en.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-strategy-paper_en.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-strategy-paper_en.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-strategy-paper_en.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-strategy-paper_en.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-strategy-paper_en.pdf


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discrepancies between East and West, most of them visible in the economic field. Many

scholars criticize the EU for taking too long to enlarge and for imposing burdensome

conditions on the candidate states. Also, other scholars warned that enlargement without

substantial federalizing reform will lead to crisis in the EUs institutions. There are many

consequences for the European Union as a whole when we talk about enlargement and the

conventional view is that the increase in the number of member states and the greater

diversity of their views will not only create pressure for the economy but it will also influence

the decision-making process and we have seen how EU developed over the last few years to

tackle these issues. Did the EU succeed? Most scholars agree that EU made great progress in

tackling every major issue individually but the battle is far from over when there are so

many factors at play.

In what concerns communications, it is widely agreed that it is an essential mechanism

that operates for supporting the production of democratic legitimacy. Communication

becomes the key to obtaining legitimacy and if we take a closer look at the way EU

communicates, we will observe that its exactly what its trying to do to build more

legitimacy. Communications are done in many ways such as providing information, raising

awareness and influencing behavior towards specific policies. Communication is a

particularly important strategic resource for the EU because it covers different dimensions of

communicating towards civil servants, Member States, journalists, governments. Also, the EU

institutions addresses to more than one public due to its multi-level nature (supranational,

national and local) as well as different types of actors involved in the policy-making process

such as governments, experts, associations. Knowing how the European Union communicates

with its different publics can help to better understand to what extent the EU is still suffering

from legitimacy, as well as a democratic deficit, and how communication could help in

solving this issue. We can also view the EU communication with its citizens from a

diplomatic perspective. Its clear that the EU uses many strategies of public diplomacy to

achieve its goals and in this kind of strategy aims is to make people understand mutual

cooperation. Studies show that the EU communication policy must be designed in such a way

that makes people more interested in the EUslife by offering clear information. The citizens

want to understand how the EU works and how it influences their lives but they should not be

bored with technical details.

It becomes obvious now that the European communication policy faces many

challenges. The European Union has a complex system of decision making that is difficult tounderstand and there is lack of interest from the national education systems to teach more


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about EU. Even national decision makers tend to accuse the EU when unpopular measures

need to be introduced and to win credit for popular decisions. This is a grave issue that sadly

has no solution yet on the short and medium term. Realists and not only would say that the

member states and national politicians dont have any interest in communicating the EU.

Despite numerous measures and projects to improve communication with citizens, the

European Union, or better said, European institutions are often accused to be lacking

transparency. Many describe the European communication as being fragmented,

contradictory, divergent and inefficient. So why doesnt European communication work so

well?

To be credible, effective and to achieve long-term objectives, any communication

exercise should be based on reality, fairness, real transparency and dissemination of

information in a very simple and clear way to the general public that is affected. In my

opinion, I dont think this happens the way the EU wants it to happen. Of course, over time,

great efforts were made to improve this process and we can say that it will continue to

improve even if the large number of member states creates many new difficulties.

If we are to take a closer look at the relationship between EU and its citizens, we can

characterize it as a stagnating relationship which awakens from time to time during the

referendums that often have negative results. The citizens remember the EU when they are

dissatisfied and the EU remembers its citizens when they reject certain projects. As we have

seen so far, different scholars explain that this situation happens because of the lack of

communication.

To sum up, in this paper I wanted to show a different perspective on how a united

Europe was imagined before 1951 and what elements from the old days are still alive inside

the mechanism we call European Union. As everything else in life, this organization grew

stronger with time and we can see that not only in the number of member states but also the

benefits that it provides to its citizens. However, this development is a two-way street because

it also created new challenges for the EU as a whole. We explored in the second part of this

paper some of the implications the enlargement had on EU and we focused mostly on

communication, because its the most essential mechanism that provides legitimacy for the

EU. One thing is for sure: the European Union is still working to integrate the new member

states and that might take more than a few years to accomplish. We should be content that it is

on the right path and we should contribute to the EU by becoming more interested in its work.


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Bibliography:

Books:

Thomas Hobbes,Leviathan, Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Pure Reason, Pacific Publishing Studio, 1999.

Edgar Morin, Thinking Europe.

Websites:

https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/communication_and_visibility_manual

_en.pdf

http://www.euractiv.com/priorities/eu-communication-policy-linksdossier-188232

http://www.academia.edu/197988/PUBLIC_COMMUNICATION_IN_THE_EUROP

EAN_UNION._HISTORY_PERSPECTIVES_AND_CHALLENGES

http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-strategy-paper_en.pdf
https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/communication_and_visibility_manual_en.pdfhttps://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/communication_and_visibility_manual_en.pdfhttps://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/communication_and_visibility_manual_en.pdfhttps://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/communication_and_visibility_manual_en.pdfhttps://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/communication_and_visibility_manual_en.pdfhttp://www.euractiv.com/priorities/eu-communication-policy-linksdossier-188232http://www.euractiv.com/priorities/eu-communication-policy-linksdossier-188232http://www.academia.edu/197988/PUBLIC_COMMUNICATION_IN_THE_EUROPEAN_UNION._HISTORY_PERSPECTIVES_AND_CHALLENGEShttp://www.academia.edu/197988/PUBLIC_COMMUNICATION_IN_THE_EUROPEAN_UNION._HISTORY_PERSPECTIVES_AND_CHALLENGEShttp://www.academia.edu/197988/PUBLIC_COMMUNICATION_IN_THE_EUROPEAN_UNION._HISTORY_PERSPECTIVES_AND_CHALLENGEShttp://www.academia.edu/197988/PUBLIC_COMMUNICATION_IN_THE_EUROPEAN_UNION._HISTORY_PERSPECTIVES_AND_CHALLENGEShttp://www.academia.edu/197988/PUBLIC_COMMUNICATION_IN_THE_EUROPEAN_UNION._HISTORY_PERSPECTIVES_AND_CHALLENGEShttp://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-strategy-paper_en.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-strategy-paper_en.pdfhttp://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-strategy-paper_en.pdfhttp://www.academia.edu/197988/PUBLIC_COMMUNICATION_IN_THE_EUROPEAN_UNION._HISTORY_PERSPECTIVES_AND_CHALLENGEShttp://www.academia.edu/197988/PUBLIC_COMMUNICATION_IN_THE_EUROPEAN_UNION._HISTORY_PERSPECTIVES_AND_CHALLENGEShttp://www.euractiv.com/priorities/eu-communication-policy-linksdossier-188232https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/communication_and_visibility_manual_en.pdfhttps://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/communication_and_visibility_manual_en.pdf

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