Magazine / Politics / EU-Enlargement / Article | 19/03/2007

The EU needs reforming

The EU has grown from 6 member states to 27. Its institutions, structures and processes must be adapted in order to ensure its ability to function internally and externally. The author makes some suggestions.

The European Union (EU) is at the crossroads in history. After having been enlarged to nearly five times its original size, the institutions, their structures and processes, originally designed for six member states, need to be adapted to the current state of affairs. Both governability and community spirit, the EU's identity, are being put to the test.

Expand, deepen or reform? Which path needs to be taken if capacity to act and identity are to be retained?
Photo: Photocase.com

There are different ways of setting the course: Should the Union either reverse its development and become an economic community again or should it be expanded into a political union? Should either the model of a liberal or a social Europe be advanced? Is it possible to develop political structures that keep the balance between the EU's institutions and the institutions of national governments, or will the project of political integration disintegrate into a loose confederation of states similar to the German Confederation in the 19th century, or even into the medieval structures of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation? How much cohesiveness is necessary to balance the mentioned tensions? These questions will be discussed and resolved in the present article.

This new situation is primarily the result of the rapid enlargement of the EU. After the first enlargement in the 1970s (United Kingdom, Denmark, the Republic of Ireland), the second in the 1980s (Greece, Portugal, Spain), and the third round in the 1990s (Sweden, Finland, Austria), ten new countries from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean region joined the EU in the fourth round of enlargement on 1 May 2004. Since 1 January 2007, the EU has consisted of 27 member states, including Bulgaria and Romania. The start of accession negotiations with Turkey was agreed at the end of 2004. The next possible candidates to join are Croatia, and the western Balkan states of Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Albania, swelling the EU to more than 30 member states.

With these and future periods of growth, the European political project is coming up against limiting factors. The immense expansion in the first decade of the 21st century has been completely different from earlier rounds of enlargement in terms of quantity and quality. While in earlier decades only three countries were accepted at a time, in the fourth cycle, twelve countries joined. This enormous enlargement was only possible because of the far-reaching political events at the end of the Cold War which helped overcome the division of Europe.

The set of rules which took effect with the Treaty of Nice merely set the course for the following rounds of enlargement. However, the Treaty did not increase the EU's ability to act. What impact does the expansion have on the deepening of the EU? How close or far removed is the EU's development from its citizens? What about transparency and regional connections (vertical integration), or transnational transactions (horizontal integration)? Is it possible to broaden and deepen the EU in parallel, which has always been so characteristic of the EU, or will enlargement weaken the EU in the end?

When talking about the 'New Europe' to be created, we neither mean the historic difference between the 'old' and the 'progressive' Europe, which Marx and Engels described in their Communist Manifesto, nor the historically inappropriate differentiation between the 'old' and the 'new' Europe used by an American Secretary of Defense at the beginning of the War in Iraq. What we like to refer to with the term 'New Europe' is the Europe which came into being after the dissolution of Europe's post-WWII division, that is to say, the Europe after EU enlargement in Central, Eastern and Mediterranean Europe. This round of enlargement as well as the possible accession of Turkey mark a qualitative leap in terms of the political development of Europe. Unique both in its extent and scope, the expansion of the EU's geographic-political area challenges the old internal structures of the European Union in its old set-up. The dispute about Turkey's membership has ignited a discussion about Europe's cultural identity and has provoked a redefinition of its geopolitical and geo-strategic location. The new challenges to the internal structure of the European Union result from its heterogeneity, complexity, and differentiation due to the growing number of member states. The capability to act, the self-conception, and the finality of the politically 'old' Europe are put to the test. The course has been set: The EU will either succeed in maintaining, or even expanding its existence as a political union, or it will regress to a loose economic association of states. Either a political community or an economic free trade area seems to be the natural alternatives. From a foreign policy perspective, the latter option would mean that the dream of a 'civil trading nation', a 'gentle world power' or a 'cosmopolitan empire' is over; the Union would be governed by a liberal economic ratio. This would probably entail the parting of ways from the socio-cultural project called the European Union as well as from the right to be a player in world politics.

The most striking shortcoming produced by EU enlargement includes the EU's reduced ability to act internally and externally, the economic and social imbalances within the Union, and the loss of a common identity holding the Union together. From an organisational sociological perspective, the ability to act is still given in a body of 15. The EU27, however, has long grown past this size. European institutions are supposed to be both representative and efficient; the two are not always compatible. One who stands on many feet, stands safer, but is also less mobile. Economic mergers prosper most when the gap between the richest and the poorest country does not exceed a ratio of 5 to 1. With an EU of 27 member states, this ratio is 8:1. Eventually, centrifugal forces increase with the accession of more member states, the community spirit dwindles, and European identity, which is already underdeveloped, is weakened further despite persistent enlargement euphoria.
There are possible ways to make the EU system more capable of acting, more transparent and more balanced. First of all, the EU would need to adopt the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, which should be altered and reduced to the minimum necessary for an integrated Union. Second, the accrued discrepancy between enlargement and consolidation can be overcome by shaping European federalism based on the principle of subsidiarity. Third, the Economic and Social Union needs to be created in parallel, and fourth, internal flexibility and external differentiation must be advanced.

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