iCES Seminars
Twenty Years On: The EU since the Fall of the Berlin Wall
The twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9
November 2009 was a highly appropriate and symbolic moment on which
to review how far Europe has travelled since 1989.
A recent seminar jointly organized by iCES and the Senior
Experts group was aimed at reviewing developments in the EU over
the past twenty years and at taking stock of the situation in
2009.
Three exceptionally well qualified and experienced commentators
on Europe spoke at the seminar: Lord Brittan of Spennithorne QC;
Lord Hannay of Chiswick; Professor Jan Zielonka.
Changes in the EU since 1989
Leon Brittan divided his comments between a review of changes to
the EU itself and an analysis of actions taken by the EU in the
exercise of its competences.
He focused on enlargement, the euro, federalism and sovereignty,
the European Central Bank (specifically its role in dealing with
the global financial crisis), the single market and liberalisation,
and the EU and world trade negotiations.
EU Foreign Policy
David Hannay examined what he referred to as the `asymmetry
between internal and external policy developments’ in the EU.
He emphasised the transformational impact on EU external
policies not only of the fall of the Berlin Wall, but also of the
enlargement process, increases in the economic scale of the EU, the
growing collective strength of the EU in protecting national
interests and the rise of the main developing nations, especially
in Asia.
Disillusionment with the EU?
Jan Zielonka, whilst agreeing with both Leon Brittan
and David Hannay
on the successes of the European Union, turned his attention to
what he perceived as the growing disillusionment with the EU in the
minds of the citizens of Europe, the steady erosion of the
`permissive consensus’ on Europe, and an over preoccupation with
institutional engineering.
Such a preoccupation, he maintained, ignored the concerns of
people as embodied in politics, economics and culture, and was
leading inevitably to a loss of legitimacy in which elites are
increasingly detached from the electorate.
Twenty Years On: EU policies and European citizens
What was productive in the ensuing debate and what seems to
characterise the status of the EU in 2009 is a greater awareness of
the need to bring these achievements more forcefully into the
public sphere, to celebrate them more vocally and above all for
politicians to engage more effectively with the European public at
large.
The consensus emerged that the way to do this was to move beyond
abstract treaty declarations and constitutional theorising and to
engage in concrete work by doing things that had a positive impact
on the lives of ordinary citizens.
iCES Publications
The proceedings of the seminar, together with a background paper
produced by the Senior Experts are published by iCES in its
Occasional Paper series.
Download here the iCES Occasional
Paper 02 Twenty Years On: The Eu since the Fall of the Berlin
Wall
Institute of Contemporary
European Studies
Regent's College
9th November 2009
Page last updated 12/8/2009