A new structure for Europe

The Soviet Union falls apart

The collapse of the Communist bloc in 1989 had inevitable consequences for the USSR, where demands for increased autonomy from national minorities coincided with harsh criticism of the head of state and party leader Mikhail Gorbachev from various quarters. For conservatives, his reforms went too far, while democrats considered them insufficient. But the mass of the population was reserved in its reaction to Perestroika. In this situation, Gorbachev entered into compromises with conservative, anti-reform forces, which finally weakened his position and drained the concept of Perestroika of its credibility. On August 19, 1991, a group of orthodox communists attempted a coup against President Gorbachev to stop a new treaty for voluntary union between sovereign republics, which was due to be signed the following day. Although the coup was put down, Gorbachev returned to office severely weakened in political terms. In spite of intensive efforts, he was unable to halt the decay of the USSR, and he resigned soon after. He was replaced by Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first elected president, who thus possessed greater democratic legitimation. December saw the founding of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a much looser alliance of states than the USSR, but still dominated by Russia.

Changes and enlargement of NATO

The cards were so thoroughly reshuffled. With the dissolving of the Warsaw Pact on March 31, 1991, the security situation in Europe totally changed: the external threat to which the Western alliance of NATO was a response no longer existed. This raised the question of what NATO’s new function should be. One answer to the question of the ongoing legitimacy of the western defence alliance was NATO's willingness to supply the UN or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) with troops for peacekeeping measures.
To allay Russian concerns over its former allies joining NATO, the accession of new members was prepared over a long period. The various steps in this direction were: firstly, the founding in 1991 of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), which includes not only all NATO member states, but also all former Warsaw Pact countries and all ex-Soviet states; secondly, a security partnership with individual states from January 1994 but still without granting NATO membership; and thirdly, the signing in May 1997 of the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and the Russian Federation. Accession protocols were signed with Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, coming into force in 1999.

New tasks for the CSCE

In November 1990, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) officially adopted the “Charter of Paris for a New Europe” which declared the end of the division of Europe. The reshaping of the CSCE, especially by the accession of new member states, aimed to create a binding framework for future pan-European cooperation. From January 1, 1995, with the change to Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, this new role as an organization aimed at preventing non-military conflict was also reflected in the name. Unlike EU agreements, CSCE documents are not binding treaties under international law. Their political effectiveness depends on the signatory countries implementing them on an essentially voluntary basis. In addition, over years of discussions, the CSCE has contributed hugely to establishing a set of values which the EU shares as its base.

EU enlargement

After 1989, the states of Eastern Europe were strongly attracted to the European Community (EC). Before long, they undertook steps towards democracy and market economy and began efforts to join the EC. On the other side, the EC was unable to turn its back on their problems, as they represented a danger to European stability as a whole. Due to the development gap and the huge task of reforming economic, political and social structures, as well as the education, justice and health systems, the planned EC-entry of these countries required long-term preparation.

On a Franco-German initiative, government-level talks took place throughout 1991 between the twelve members of the then European Community about its development towards a European Union. The core of the Maastricht Treaty signed on February 7, 1992, consists of regulations governing economic and monetary union, a process which found its visible conclusion in the introduction of the Euro on January 1, 2002. The other two main focuses of the treaty are Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and cooperation in the fields of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA). During the ratification procedure for the Maastricht Treaty, fiery debates were conducted among the member states, especially concerning the loss of national sovereignty on monetary policy.

One signal of the political union aimed for in the Maastricht Treaty is the introduction of European citizenship, allowing all citizens to live wherever they please within the Union and to vote and stand for election in local government elections. One of the aims of the CFSP is “to gradually define a common defence policy (...) which could lead to a common defence”. The low level of funding made available for the common foreign policy provoked criticism, as did the member-states’ lack of enthusiasm in this domain. The powerlessness of European politics became tragically clear during the war in the former Yugoslavia. On the question of whether and in which way to support the American position in Iraq, EU member states have been seen to pursue contradictory strategies. Nonetheless, the innovative character of this attempt at establishing a common foreign policy should be kept in mind. The community’s attractiveness in the eyes of its neighbours was certainly not diminished, with Austria, Finland and Sweden joining on January 1, 1995.

Over the following years, EU governments continued to hold talks aimed at resolving obvious objections to the Maastricht Treaty and at bringing the Union closer to its citizens. The Treaty of Amsterdam signed on October 2, 1997, was the third revision of the EEC Treaty after the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty. Its goal was to render the EU more capable of action, to prepare it for enlargement, and to give it a political weight befitting its economic importance.

At the Copenhagen Council in 1993, the EU had already defined accession criteria to be fulfilled by accession candidates: within the country, democracy and its institutions must be stable, rule of law must be guaranteed, as well as an ordered market economy and respect for the rights of minorities; the candidates must be able to assume the duties involved in EU membership; and they must subscribe to the aims of political union as well as economic and monetary union. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe have undergone a complex process of adaptation to the political and economic norms of the European Union. On May 1, 2004, ten new member states joined as part of the process of EU enlargement: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, as well as the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta. A further round of enlargement is being considered for 2007.

The enlargement of the community heightens the need for internal reform of the EU, whose structures were originally designed for a small number of member states. In this context, conflicts of interest are emerging: poor member states that have previously received support from EU programs fear a reduction in payments due to their richness in comparison to the candidate countries; states that have benefited from EU agricultural subsidies see their share jeopardized; the richer states fear additional financial burdens which would cement their positions as “net payers”. In border regions between the EU and the states of central and eastern Europe, there are various reservations: while on the western side the controversy focuses on freedom of movement due to worries over a potential flood of cheap labour, the fears of those on the eastern side include large-scale buying up of land. Such fears are being taken into account in transitional solutions. But after the proposed EU constitution (which must be ratified by all 25 members states in order to come into power) was rejected by a referendum in France on May 29, 2005 – at a time when nine other members states had already approved the proposal – the most burning issue is that of a constitution for the European Union. What is at stake here, among other things, is the basic legitimization of European decisions through a common constitution, as well as the potential impact this might have on the parliamentary system and politics as a whole in the nation-states.

In 2000, a Charter of Fundamental Rights for the EU was signed in Nice, establishing the ability of the Union to intervene directly if fundamental rights are being violated in one of its member states. In the words of the former Swedish EU President Göran Persson, the EU has become “both an economic community and a community of values”. The peaceful revolutions of 1989 not only ended the dictatorships in Eastern Europe, but also created an opportunity to re-establish contact with a shared European history and culture. This process is changing the face of Europe: beyond the economic sphere, it is becoming a place of cultural dialog.