Integration and cooperation at the European level led to the formation of the European Union and the Eurozone. The EU enlargement process is still ongoing.
Origins of European integration
The history of the European continent remembers a number of large territories integrated under a single rule: the Roman Empire, France under Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Empire and Europe under Napoleon. In these cases, as a rule, one nation was brutally subjugated by another nation.
Finally, the problem of security and the economic aspect of the problem is exacerbated by the problem of security in this third Europe: threats at the borders, terrorism and successive refugee crises have made the process European integration in the eyes of Europeans more solution, part of the problem.
Regardless of how many continue to claim that we were better off outside the Union, or that Portugal fulfilled its potential well, reality belies them. Not everything went as it should, this is a fact leading to the current sense of disengagement between Europeans and European integration, as well as a feeling in Portugal that is increasingly visible. Portugal has modernized itself, the level of health care has become civilized. We are finally a European country.
After the catastrophe of World War II, the idea of creating a united Europe received active support: interethnic rivalry needed more effective control and had to be stopped. The United States also advocated European unity, as they hoped that this political move would restore the economy in Western Europe and, most importantly, keep Soviet influence. This is how Western European politicians, in particular Churchill, immediately after the end of the war formulated the demand for the unification of Europe. In this way, it would be possible to provide protection against the Soviet threat, strengthen the economy in Europe and include Germany in the commonwealth of states in order to prevent a possible re-aggression with German side. The decisive prerequisite for the unity of Europe was the reconciliation of Germany and France.
And whenever one thinks of solutions other than the simplistic and demagogic calls for a rejection of the Union, it is about strengthening the integration that counts; if we look at the public discourse, but also in the many demands and outbursts that we read everywhere, in the opinion published in newspapers or in in social networks, it is always or almost Europe, and not otherwise.
We are Europeans by origin, but also by choice. It is the world's largest economic bloc, known for the free movement of goods, people and goods and the adoption of a single currency: the euro. The Benelux was a bloc created during World War II and was named after the initials of the member countries: Belgium, Holland, the English "Netherlands" and Luxembourg. The purpose of this block was to unite these three countries into a single and single market by reducing customs tariffs. Despite the existence of the current European Union, the Benelux still exists under the name "Benelux Union".
First steps of integration
In 1949, the Council of Europe was founded with the aim of supporting cooperation between member states and social integration. In 1950, Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed the creation of an alliance that would control coal mining and steel production in France and West Germany. This plan paved the way for the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which was founded in 1951 by France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Great Britain feared for its sovereignty and refrained from joining. The ECSC chaired the Supreme Body of the Member States, thus becoming the first independent, supranational institution of an integrated Europe.
Because of this, it was also called the Europe of the Six. The main goal was to establish an agreement with West Germany on the division of coal and iron ore mining in Alsace-Lorraine and the Saarland. These regions are on the border of the two countries and have historically been involved in territorial disputes between the two countries.
Stage 3: Common European Market or European Economic Community. In addition, for the first time in the economic bloc, it became possible to allow the free movement of people among member countries. Stage 4: Maastricht Treaty. Since then it has been Europe for 15 years.
This first step towards unity was followed by plans for a political and military federation in the form of the European Defense Community (EDC) and the European Political Community (EPC). Within the EOC, US demands for the rearmament of West Germany within the framework of European unity were to be met. When the French National Assembly rejected the ratification of the EOC, for the first time the creation of a political community had to be abandoned.
It is to be hoped that the Croats will soon adopt the euro as their sole currency. However, there are some factors that hinder their implementation. Firstly, there is a great geopolitical risk, since part of Turkey's territory is the Middle East. Due to the frequent attacks in the region due to the great political instability, there is a fear of European countries that see Turkey as a possible gateway for terrorist groups in Europe.
Secondly, there are also cultural and religious differences that can provoke the main movements of xenophobia and religious intolerance on the European continent, since the majority of the Turkish population is Islamic. With regard to thirty years of Portugal's accession to the European Community - a historical journey from the most remote regions of Portugal.
European Economic Community
The signing of the Treaty of Rome on March 25, 1957, and consequently the founding of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), marked another important step towards European integration. The EEC was supposed to create a common market and contribute to the convergence of the economic policies of the member states. The goal of Euratom was the joint peaceful use of atomic energy. In 1967, the EEC, Euratom and the ECSC were merged into the European Communities under the Treaty of Brussels ("Merger Treaty"). The common bodies were the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. In 1979, the first direct elections to the European Parliament took place in the participating states.
In this way, Community Europe acquires a privileged presence in the Atlantic through the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira and the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands. In this article, we propose to reflect on the importance of the ultraperipheralism of the Atlantic within the framework of the European Union, namely the role it plays as the frontier of the European project. And in an even more concrete perspective, follow the course of European integration of the Portuguese most remote regions.
Keywords: Portugal, European Communities, outer regions, European integration. The European Community thus obtained a privileged position in the Atlantic through the integration of the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira and the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands. This article proposes to analyze the importance of the most remote regions of the Atlantic Ocean within the framework of the European Union, emphasizing their role as further borders of the European project. In particular, the history of the process of integration of the Portuguese outer regions will also be drawn.
Extension
France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy were founding members of the EEC. Great Britain initially refused to join, because it believed that participation in the European Customs Union would adversely affect its trade within the British Commonwealth of Nations. In the 1960s these fears were put aside, and Great Britain joined the EEC, since the Customs Union was more economically advantageous for her than the low-profit trade in the Commonwealth of Nations. True, the British petition for entry came up against a veto by French President Charles de Gaulle. Only his resignation in 1973 allowed Great Britain, as well as Ireland and Denmark, to become members of the Economic Union. In Norway, the government's intentions to join the union were frustrated by the results of the referendum. The change of authoritarian governments in Greece, Spain and Portugal in the mid-1970s. allowed these states to become members: Greece joined in 1981, Spain and Portugal - in 1986. Austria, Finland and Sweden entered the next stage of enlargement in 1995, while the Norwegians again spoke out against EU membership.
In our time, the "region" was not the engine of history, but of the nation. Until recently, regionalist theses do not seem to have had much acceptance or a great future in Europe. Thus, the founding treaties almost completely ignore the regions. At present, the historical, political and social development turned out to be an excuse for those who considered it necessary to create and consolidate the region as a “subject endowed with political power” and participate in the process of European integration. A quick observation of reality allows us to say that in parallel with the deepening of the process of European integration, many participating States have decentralized politically, creating new level government approaching the citizens.
After the collapse of the USSR and the fall of the communist regime in Eastern Europe, a number of states of the former Eastern Bloc applied for membership. In December 2002, the EU in Copenhagen agreed to the admission of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Slovak and Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta and Cyprus. Since enlargement on May 1, 2004, the European Union has 25 member states. Romania and Bulgaria were admitted to the EU in 2007. With Turkey, whose accession to the EU is being actively discussed, the next talks are planned.
Thus, we can argue that regionalization and integration are not contradictory processes, but are two sides of the same phenomenon: the crisis of the state as the only level of government capable of solving all the problems that affect society.
The Maastricht Treaty reflects this reality and for the first time introduces the region as "a subject with political power and recognizes mechanisms for participation in the decision-making process": the Committee of the Regions was created. In this context, Carlos Eduardo Pacheco do Amaral, in an article entitled “Regional autonomy and freedom. 25 years of European integration of the Azores,” he says and deserves a mention.
European Union
The Treaty on the European Union (Maastricht Treaty) was signed on February 7, 1992. The central point of the agreement was to support social and economic progress in the participating countries. Internal borders were to be abolished. In addition, the Economic and Monetary Unions merged, and union citizenship was introduced. Within this framework, the EU took over the leadership of the Customs Union and the conduct of the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policy. Members of the EU were called upon to coordinate their future policies in a variety of areas, from environment to traffic safety.
We, in particular, agree with this statement, since it becomes clear that Europe has also become its regions, as Carlos Amaral argues. Confirmation of the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands in the European Community. Against this background, it is very useful and important to note that the third enlargement, Portugal and Spain, introduced a new geopolitical dimension to the process of European integration and allowed Europe to move away from states and states for the first time. Among these islands, will some of them benefit from a certain status? the most remote regions.
An important objective of the EU is to maintain a Common foreign policy and security policies (CFSP) with predetermined standards that the participants adhere to, although they have the right to make their own foreign policy decisions independently. The tasks include the signing of the EU charter and the observance of democracy and human rights. The EU has become an international organization that serves its members to reach agreements on trade and aid, to implement sanctions and arms embargoes. Plus deep cooperation between the police and justice in areas such as drug trafficking, political asylum and border control. Many internal EU borders are now open.
In fact, are there regions that correspond to a very specific geographical, political and historical reality within the European Union? outer regions. Portugal remains a unitary state, but it grants political and administrative autonomy to the island regions of the Azores and Madeira. For its part, Spain became a multi-regional state with 17 autonomous communities with balanced autonomous statutes.
Thus, the Portuguese state is unitary and respects in its organization the principles of autonomy of local authorities and democratic decentralization and government controlled. The archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are autonomous regions, endowed with political and administrative statutes and their own governing bodies. Each archipelago has a regional assembly, elected for four years by direct and universal suffrage, and a regional government composed of a president and regional secretaries.
Amsterdam and Nice - EU Constitution
The Amsterdam Treaty (1997) was a continuation and development of the Maastricht Treaty, its purpose was to prepare the EU for future enlargement and provide its citizens with more opportunities to participate. New reforms of the EU's much-criticized bureaucracy spawned the Nice Treaty, which entered into force in 2003. As the union expanded, the number and composition of EU institutions were reduced. At one time there were plans to replace existing agreements and treaties with a single European constitution.
The regional assembly exercises legislative power, votes on the budget, and controls the regional government, which exercises executive power. In relation to the Canary Islands, the institutional organization is based on a Legislative Assembly, elected by universal and proportional suffrage, in a Council of Governors, which exercises executive and administrative functions under a President, elected by the Assembly and appointed by the King of Spain. Moreover, the Spanish Constitution is based on the inseparable unity of the nation, the common and indivisible homeland of all Spaniards.
Drafted in 2003, the constitution requires the approval of all participating countries, which must be ratified either in parliaments or by popular vote. In France and the Netherlands, the European constitution was rejected in referendums.
Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)
The Maastricht Treaty provided for the creation of an Economic and Monetary Union. So the common currency was supposed to facilitate the coordination of economic and financial policies within the EU, support internal trade and provide people with greater freedom of movement. On January 1, 2002, twelve of the 15 countries introduced the euro as legal tender.
It recognizes and guarantees the right to autonomy of the nationalities and regions within it and to solidarity among them. One of the conclusions we can draw is that autonomy, on the one hand, and European integration, on the other hand, constitute the two main axes of the fight against internal asymmetries, and also represent the means for political unification in these regions. On this issue, Avelino de Freitas Meneses, in his article titled "The Islands of Portugal in the Construction of Europe" writes the following.
It is also important to consider that the submission of Portugal's candidacy to the European Communities presented a huge administrative and administrative problem with respect to the recent autonomy of Azore and Madeira. Thus, the regional governments of the Azores and Madeira supported during the period of accession negotiations the member responsible for European integration, which accompanied, on behalf of their respective regions, the negotiation process with the European Commission.
Potential euro countries left the European Central Bank to control their financial policies. Before the introduction of the euro, a country must testify to the stability of its economy by passing the convergence criteria. Great Britain, Denmark and Sweden refused to enter the eurozone. Great Britain and Denmark, following the will of their national parliaments, were able to agree that Maastricht should include clauses exempting them from the provisions of the agreement.
Under the new institutional structure, accession negotiations with the European Communities in the Azores were coordinated within the framework of the Regional Commission for European Integration, chaired by the government member responsible for the process. In other words, the Government of Madeira, in the framework of the negotiations on the integration of Portugal into the European Community and measures to protect the specific characteristics of the region, has always followed the negotiation process through its representative in the Commission for European Integration.
In view of the aim here and now, it seems to me important to emphasize that the process of integration of the Portuguese and Spanish outer regions followed different paths once these territories were included in the Community of Europe. Thus, Madeira and the Azores opted for full membership, allowing them to benefit from all European structural assistance initially. Although the Canary Islands accept a more eclectic formula under certain conditions, especially in a customs union and in an economic and fiscal union, as outlined in the Protocol annexed to the Accession Treaty, the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla are curious.
04.09.2017
A serious step in the economic rapprochement of the countries of the European Union was made in 1991 with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty - the Treaty on Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Initially, it was signed by seven countries with the most stable economies: Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Luxembourg and Ireland.
The Maastricht Treaty fixed extremely strict criteria for economic convergence (convergence) of member states that agreed to switch to a single currency. The level of inflation in these countries was not to exceed 2.6%, the state budget deficit - 3%, and the total public debt - 60% of gross domestic product (GDP). Most of the EU member states moved towards meeting the convergence criteria with great difficulty.
The difficult process of adapting to the Maastricht convergence criteria in all European countries, and especially in the countries included in the EMU, was accompanied by an increase in unemployment. But already in 1999, unemployment began to decline.
From January 1, 1991, in accordance with the convention signed in June 1990 in Schengen Castle (Luxembourg) between the Federal Republic of Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Denmark, the Benelux countries, the borders were actually eliminated, which remained only on geographic maps; there are no border guards or customs inside the Schengen area. Since 1992, the Schengen Agreement has extended to other EU members. In Europe, a single and homogeneous economic complex was born, within which capital from one country could flow into another.
The Commission of the European Communities consists of an elected chairman and 16 members appointed by the governments of the EEC countries. The European Parliament has advisory functions, which since the 1980s. expand, he is elected by direct universal suffrage of the population of the participating countries for a period of five years according to the norms of representation in proportion to the population of the state. Monthly sessions of the European Parliament are held in Strasbourg (France), extraordinary meetings - in Brussels (Belgium), where the committees of the European Parliament work; its secretariat is located in Luxembourg.
The second stage in the implementation of the monetary and economic union began in 1995. It was marked by the establishment of the European Monetary Institute, whose task was to coordinate the monetary policy of the Union states and create the European Central Bank, which controls the new currency - the euro.
In 1997, the Amsterdam Treaty was signed, according to which, since 1999, the new currency, the third stage of integration has begun.
Much of the management of the economy has been handed over to the European Central Bank; he had to control emissions, establish basic interest rates and impose sanctions on countries that overspend or default on loans. National governments were still free to decide what to spend money on, but bank limits effectively set a limit on how much each country could spend, and no country could solve economic problems by devaluing the currency or issuing money. .
The EU countries pledged to follow a common course in the field of foreign policy and security, in matters of domestic economic policy, law enforcement, in the fight against crime, including drug trafficking, etc. A single European citizenship was established. The newly created European Monetary Institute made it possible to implement a single monetary policy. material from the site
In 1992, the European Community united 12 countries: Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, France. In 1992, the European Union was formed on its basis. In 1995, Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU. On May 1, 2004, 25 countries were already members of the EU. The EU includes Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Cyprus. In 2007, after the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU, the total number of its members reached twenty-seven.