The economic superstate
Woyle, John
SINGLE EUROPEAN ACT THE ECONOMIC SUPERSTATE CLOSING UP A CONTINENTAL When the Treaty of Rome was signed in countries which cdinprised the newly created European Common Market had as their...
...believes that closer cooperation on questions of security would contribute in an essential way to die development of a united European identity...
...That "decoupling" maybe more psychological than physical, but it presents die possibility of NATO developing two distinct pillars...
...The Single European Act did not come into being without a good deal of debate and argument...
...expanded to embrace all of Europe (except for Austria and Switzerland) and the British Isles, the need for internal cohesion became even more urgent...
...SINGLE EUROPEAN ACT THE ECONOMIC SUPERSTATE CLOSING UP A CONTINENTAL When the Treaty of Rome was signed in countries which cdinprised the newly created European Common Market had as their ukiinate goal a United Europe without barriers to the free movement of trade, commerce, and people...
...For yean- it has been clear that a major rejuvenation of the Common Market spirit was necesto counteract the endless internal bickering over the Ooawrion Agricultural Policy and the E.E.C...
...s decision-making procedute...
...Denmark, in which there remains, a strong anti-E.E.C...
...Furthermore, any Council decision debated and rejected by Parliament will have to he passed again by the Council with complete unanimity, rather than a qualified majority...
...European Act is to eventually turn Western Europe'into as economic super-state...
...The E.E.C...
...Its decision, handed down in April, was a victory for the objectors...
...Thirty years later the Common Market has become the' European Economic Community...
...countries, of &£ Single European Act...
...When Spain and Portugal joined the community last year and the E.E.C...
...The Act is seen as striking the right balance between giving the Parliament more work to do and yet not allowing it to infringe Upon the sovereignty of individual governments...
...This means, in effect, that seven countries can make decisions for the entire community...
...operates as a result of the new Act: the community will be able to-co-ordinate positions more swiftly and easily on major international developments...
...The enormous surplus amounts of agricultural, produce, which became a topic at the Venice economic summit in June, exist because' of the Community's policy of intervention buying...
...For die European members of NATO, this is important if they are to eventually sell defense equipment to die U.S...
...The necessity of reaching Unanimity was underlined last year when the E.E.C...
...But it failed to allay the fears of a growing number of people, and on Christmas Eye 1986 an Irish economist, Raymond Crotty, obtained a court injunction restraining the government from formally fatifyingthe Act and lodging it with the E.E.C...
...The community experienced a similar impasse last year when it attempted to formulate a coherent policy on sanctions against South Africa...
...That optimism, coupled With new determination to present a united front to the rest of the world, has already been in evidence this year daring the community's trade war with the U.S...
...If a majority voted "yes," then Ireland would remain a oeutral country but the clause in the Constitution establishing neu550 trality Would be followed by a simple statement of support for the Single European Act...
...The drive for a United Europe is being relaunched this year with the ratification, by all twelve E.E.C...
...The rest of the world will see one major alteration in the way in which the E.E.C...
...intends to become an independent military organization, it does suggest that there is a faction within die E.E.C...
...The Act's eaaptuuis, on security and high technology, white it marks a significant change in E.E.C...
...Another significant change brought about by the Act is a modest enhancing of the role and stature of the European Parliament...
...ft also declares that the twelve countries will co-ordinate their positions more closely on the political and economic aspects of security, and that the community is determined to maintain die technological and industrial conditions necessary for its own security...
...551...
...What die Community is hoping for now is a new mentality, a new zeal for Ewopew integration...
...A qualified majority will be fifty-four votes...
...The streamlining qf the E.E.C.s decision-making procedure will have an immediate effect on trading practices within die community, asd sharpen the community's ability to react in trade disputes with ether Hading blocs and individual countries...
...In the past, the European Council has taken a hard line on the use...
...In mid-January 1987 the Irish Supreme Court began hearing arguments on the Act...
...Nonetheless, die referendum debate in Ireland did serve to clarify seme of those potential problems...
...But European integration u not synonymous with a United Europe...
...While intervention was originally designed to be.a jmcjc- and market-support mechanism, it has, over tune, becoowaqead in itself for countries such as Ireland) Greece, and Portugal with poorly developed markets and nuricetug strategics...
...The Irish government, unprepared for this campaigrTagainst the Act, insisted that the Act covered only areas of general political cooperation...
...While this is some distance from a clear indication that die E.E.C...
...It declares that die E.E.C...
...It does not mean, however, that the smaller countries can always be forced to go along with majority decisions...
...Eventually, Denmark voted to adopt the Act and, ironically, became the first country to ratify it...
...To date it has been impossible, btecauie of die unanimous voting procedures, to dismantle the ihtetverse tion buying process...
...The E.E.C's growing butter and grain mountains and wise lakes are not merely an international embarrassment, they are also expensive* to maintain...
...The government was then free to ratify die Act and lodge it with the E.E.C...
...A major aim of die Single European Act is to redress the principal regional imbalances which have caused die food mountains to grow...
...The most dramatic change brought about by the hew Act will be a streamlining of the E.E.C...
...It is hardly coincidental that while the Single European Act was being debated tiiroughout die Community, die European Parliament passed,a resolution calling for a European peace, policy, and for setting up a security which would articulate a distinctly European position on^ disarmament and on chemical and biological weapons...
...is no longer unnerved by American threats of trade sanctions or the possibility of trade disputes damaging political relations-between the tJ.S...
...was unable to act quickly in the wake of the Chernobyl accident...
...That is sometiiing which the Single European Act, like most Europeans, can only cautiously aspire toi , JOHN DOYALE John Doyle is a free-lance journalist and a number of the faculty at York University, Toronto...
...The Parliament, to which, members from all E.E.C...
...Afar greater problem turned out to be Ireland...
...Urftil now...
...operates internally and deals with the rest of the world...
...Under the new act, a qualified majority will be sufficient...
...For weeks after the disaster, as rainfall carried varying degrees of contamination onto crops in most of the twelve countries, mutual distrust prevented the Community from reaching a quick decision on maximum toleration levels...
...of the Luxembourg Compromise, rarely allowing it to be used for blatantly frivious or self-serving reasons...
...and Europe...
...The Act will bring about majorcfcangw 549 in the wfey in which the E.E.C...
...Council: (The Council had set a deadline of January 1 for ratification by all twelve countries, and the injunction was a major embarrassment for, the Irish government...
...While many Europeans believe that the five-year timetable is unrealistic, the Single European Act has created an air of optimism that hasn'tbeen evident in the E.E.C: since Britain, Denmark, and Ireland became members in 1973...
...Britain, Denmark, and Greece originally opposed the idea of amending the Treaty of Rome...
...Only 46 percent of the Irish electorate voted in the referendum, indicating a lack of any real concern about the potential problems of the Act...
...Britain and Greece were appeased when it became clear that a veto power would be retained...
...In essence, the Act commits die E.E.C...
...countries have been directly elected since 1979, has never had the power to bind the community by its decisions...
...It has, more often than not, been a forum for grandstanding on issues mat concern the smaller countries...
...buys up certain products, if die market cannot absorb dtent...
...While security and military issues only galvanize Europe when international events demand a response, H is the twite mundane issue of agriculture which dominates mucho^the European Council's time and energy...
...In the end, only an ad-hoc solution was reached, and countries decided on their own regulations...
...to increased development of high technology in order to lessen dependence on the U.S...
...The Single European Act is clearly not a magic wand for solving all the E.E.C.'s internal problems...
...and Japan...
...budget...
...The Act leaves intact the so-called Luxembourg Compromise, under which countries can veto a majority decision on the grounds that national interests are compromised...
...All three major political parties in Iceland were united in urging a' 'yes" vote and opposition was limited to the left-wing groups, who took the opportunity to condemn Ireland's very membership of the E.E.C., and by right-wing religious groups who feared that the majority voting procedure would mean that divorce and abortion legislation would be foisted on the country...
...When the votes were counted on May 26,70 percent of the voters supported the amendment...
...as well as buy from it...
...For a country like Ireland, rihefl half the butter produced yearly is sold into interventionthe end of intervention buying would mean a radical resfettcttuiitg of die entire agricultural sector of die economy...
...If it achieves nothing else, it has already clarified die Community's probkntf of reaching agreement on basic issues...
...Intervention is die process whereby the E.E.C...
...It has doubled in size to twelve,eountries, and has a population of 320 million people, ft is still trying to achieve its goal...
...The Irish Parliament had actually passed the Act without much debate last Then, at the end of the year, a number of prominent Irish citizens, including* Nobel Laureate Sean McBride, began to voice opposition to the Act, arguing that the Act's qualified voting procedure would undermine Ireland's traditional independent neutrality...
...There will be seventy-six .votes spread among the twelve countries, with the four largest (Britain, Prance, West Germany, and Italy) having ten votes each, and the remainder divided up among the smaller countries on the basis of size and contributions to the E.E.C...
...The final section of'die Act covers die technological, and industrial conditions necessary for European security...
...which favors a "decoupling" from NATO...
...Now the Council will be required to take into account the Views and proposals expressed by the Parliament before the Council reaches any decisions that affect all twelve countries...
...Council...
...The twelve countries have now set the year 1992 as their deadline for removing all internal trade barriers...
...lobby, put the Act to its citizens in * referendum, which turned into & full-scale debate on whether Denmark should remain in the Community...
...The source of contention for the Irish objectors was an article in die Act which deals with European security...
...budget...
...The court decided that the Act would contravene Ireland's constitutionally entrenched neutrality, and Prime Minister Charles Haughey, in office for less than two months, had no choice but to call a snap referendum...
...the European Council, made up of the heads of state and governments, had ta readi unanimous agreement before a decision could be implemented...
...The, question pat before, the Irish people in the referendum asked if the Constitution should be amended slightly to accommodate the Act...
...They were concerned about a change to qualified majority voting...
...policy, is unlikely to have any visible effect on die Community or NATO in die foreseeable future...
Vol. 114 • October 1987 • No. 17
