1 - Basic Principles

Summary

Some basic, very basic principles, determine the success or failure of an economic integration: positive sum game, step by step, clear political objectives, the role of problem grinder, links to the domestic political system, impose discipline/self-discipline on member states, balance between small and large/ powerful member states, political will to compromise and accommodate other member states, demonstrate in practice what the integration is doing and why it cannot be done without integration, avoid blurring the distinction between what the member states are doing and what falls under the competence of the integration, one or more member states as driver for the integration.

POSITIVE SUM GAME

The result on the scoreboard drawn up by each member state must show that it is at ease, better off, more comfortable, inside compared with the alternative of staying outside as a non-member. Politically and economically it must feel stronger, more powerful, and more capable of tackling challenges and problems. The integration should enlarge its room for manoeuvre to shape and guarantee domestic political preferences. Living standard, accumulation of wealth, and economic growth must be judged sustainable at a higher level inside rather than outside.

If or when a member state doubts or questions whether this is the case, the political understanding and links holding the integration together start to unravel. Superficially the integration may go on, but it will soon dawn upon the member states that the climate has soured.

In 1965 France took the view that the transition from unanimity to qualified majority voting on issues deemed to be crucial for France (aspects of the Common Agricultural Policy and its financing) was detrimental to its interest. France insisted on maintaining unanimity even if the transition to qualified majority voting was written into the Treaty of Rome. The other member states failed to perceive the depth of the French attitude and wanted to proceed. After a six-month French boycott of the institutions of the then European Economic Community, the impasse was broken. A political compromise was reached. If a member state deemed a question to be of vital importance, unanimity should be sought within a reasonable time span, even if the Treaty stipulated qualified majority voting.