From the economic Europe to a political Europe

The article analyzes European treaties article by article, proceeding along a backwards chronology that has perfect hindsight, regarding not only the changes undergone by particular texts, but regarding also the contexts in which they were conceived and written. Over and above legal and practical considerations, an attentive study of the succession of changes allows us to grasp the changes occurring in European society over decades. Europe was an economic arrangement in the beginning; it is evident that since the Treaty of Maastricht (1992) it has become steadily more political. “The treaty in fact becomes more and more political”, says Quentin Michel. “With Lisbon we are getting closer, in particular, to a treaty that is constitutional in scope”. This political Europe is not visible to most European citizens, who don’t understand it very well, or who aren’t very interested except to complain, often along with their own government, on behalf of their national policies. It appears evident that European citizens are not excited about their institutions. Who knows, for example, that the Day of Europe, a celebration of the declaration by Robert Schuman, made in 1950 and considered as the Ur-text of the construction of Europe, takes place on May 9? Who knows that the official hymn of Europe is the “Ode to Joy”, words by Schiller and music by Beethoven? On the other hand, the fact that politicians from many Member States, including a number of experts and people who specialize in knowledge of European institutions, denounce those same institutions in order to win elections (infringing the truth in the process) horrifies Michel a little.
 
“Contrary to what one often hears, even now, it is not the Commission that has the most power at the European level, but it is definitely the Council. The Council brings together the heads of State and of government of the Member States. In other words, the Member States themselves decide on European policies. These policies are implemented by the Commission under the watchful eyes of the Parliament and the Council. European institutions, with the exception of the Parliament, are controlled by the Member States, and so it is false and even dishonest to blame the institutions for the political positions of the Union”. These political positions are still frequently affected by the preferences of nations. “This is one reason why we have 28 European Commissioners, one per Member State. The Commission doesn’t need so many commissioners but the Member States think that if they have their own Commissioner they will be able to influence things. In reality that influence is not great. If a commissioner decides to play things too heavily in favour of his own country, he’s going to have problems with 27 other commissioners and he won’t get the result he wants”.

An analytical basis for research

This book is a compilation of the texts of European statutes, and its purpose is to give students and other persons interested in the construction of Europe a platform for the analysis of the changes undergone by different articles from treaty to treaty. From a practical point of view, each article of the Treaty of Lisbon (2007) is compared to its previous versions in terms of additions, subtractions and replacement texts, etc., and each modification is clearly indicated. Further, there is a table at the beginning of the book that guides the student through the development of a particular article, indicating when that article changes number, as may happen in respect of different treaties. The table also serves as a table of contents. So not only is the book the fruit of an enormous amount of work, but it also offers an original approach to the contruction of the European Union, in which can also be read the history of the economic, social and political evolution of Europe from Rome to Lisbon. The story is far from over; the future chapters will be written by the 28 countries that are the members of the Union of today.