Europe: Grand deal, big deal, or no deal?

Harold James

doi:10.5771/1610-7780-2017-1-141

Contents
- Chapter Expand | CollapseAuthorsPage
- Titelei/Inhaltsverzeichnis
- 1–2 Editorial Joachim Jens Hesse Joachim Jens Hesse 1–2
- 3–15 Die Europäische Union im 60. Jahr Dieter Grimm Dieter Grimm 3–15
- 16–31 60 Jahre Römische Verträge – Dezennien feiern, Krisen nutzen, Zukunft haben Frank Schorkopf Frank Schorkopf 16–31
- 32–49 Zurück zum Recht oder: Die Rechtspflicht zum Austritt aus der Währungsunion Reiner Schmidt Reiner Schmidt 32–49
- 50–69 Eine Eurozone souveräner Staaten Johannes Becker, Clemens Fuest Johannes Becker, Clemens Fuest 50–69
- 70–83 Institutional reforms of EMU since the crisis: an assessment in view of recent DNB research Jakob de Haan, Patrick Kosterink Jakob de Haan, Patrick Kosterink 70–83
- 84–118 Towards a more democratic Europe: De-constitutionalization and Majority Rule Fritz W. Scharpf Fritz W. Scharpf 84–118
- 119–140 The Treaties of Rome, 60 years on. Where do the European Union and the United Kingdom go from here? Brendan Simms Brendan Simms 119–140
- 141–155 Europe: Grand deal, big deal, or no deal? Harold James Harold James 141–155
- 156–172 Die Gesellschaften der Europäischen Union: Zusammenwachsen und Krise 1957-2017 Hartmut Kaelble Hartmut Kaelble 156–172
- 173–199 Abschied von der ever closer Union: Wege zu einer besseren und realitätsnäheren Europäischen Union Joachim Jens Hesse Joachim Jens Hesse 173–199
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ZSE Zeitschrift für Staats- und Europawissenschaften | Journal for Comparative Government and European Policy , page 141 - 155

Europe: Grand deal, big deal, or no deal?

Autoren

Harold James

DOI
- doi.org/10.5771/1610-7780-2017-1-141
- ISSN: 1610-7780
- ISSN online: 1610-7780
Abstract

2016 will be remembered as the year when globalisation turned sour and deglobalisation began - with the Brexit vote in the UK, and then the Trump election in the USA. By 2017, it also looked as if Europe had lost its mojo. The reversal of globalisation and populist mobilisation pose a fundamental challenge to the EU. Each election - in the Netherlands, then in France, then in Germany, then in Italy - looks like a cliff-hanger, not just for that country but for the whole of Europe. Jyrki Katainen, vice-president of the European Commission, recently explained the need for reform in order to “avoid the situation where every year, in some member states, elections create an existential threat to Europe. It is not sustainable.” The departure of the UK is an obvious sign of a problem, or, as an often used analogy has it, of a marriage that is not working. The new European Commission White Paper sketches out a menu of five alternative options, including carrying on in the same way, retreating to just a single market, coalitions of the willing on particular issues, doing less more efficiently, and moving to much further and deeper integration. The first and last look doomed to failure, and Jean-Claude Juncker is certainly right to think that new and imaginative approaches are needed. But the document is fundamentally a confession of helplessness and of failure, a statement of the fragility and vulnerability of multilateral institutions and governance in a world of de-globalisation. The European integration process was imagined in the mid-twentieth century as a way of thinking about issues that look very actual - how to manage political discontent and the instability of democracy; and how to handle transformative economic change. But in both cases the answers that are hard-wired into the Brussels outlook appear rather out-dated in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Thus while the problems are still there, in an acute (but mutating) form, the remedies are not. The White Paper accurately reminds its audience that by mid-century, no existing member state would have more than 1 % of the world’s population and on this insubstantial material basis could not really carry much weight in the shaping of global rules; and thus if global issues are to be addressed there is a clear need for European coordination.
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