Abstract
According to E. Bomber and A. Stubb (2003) , the European integration is ‘a process by which sovereign states relinquish (surrender or pool) national sovereignty to maximize their collective power and interests.' We notice that European integration involves different institutions where states relinquish their sovereignty: the European Community, (EC) the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the Western European Union (WEU) or even NATO, that ‘played an active role in shaping the emerging political and security architecture in Europe'. (Stirk & Weigall, 1999 ) Brigid Laffan distinguishes three components of European Integration: the economic, political and military integration. In relation to our question, we can say that ‘security' stands for the military integration and ‘stability' refers to economic and political stability.
We will define the post-Cold War Europe starting in 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, (the symbol of the end of the Cold War) and ending in 2004, which refers to the accession of the post communist European states.
We shall analyze the success of European integration in promoting the security and stability in post-Cold War Europe as well as the failure of carrying out this mission, utilizing each time the distinction set down by Brigid Laffan.
Extract
[...] 'In the years after 1989, [the enlargement] threatened to overwhelm the EC. [ . ] Problems of institutional balance, of economic and financial adjustment, of security provision, and of popular acceptability all flowed from substantial enlargement.'31 Indeed, the institutions of the EU needed to be reformed to cope with the future enlargement and to ensure political stability, which was not done in time. 'Member states avoided the contentious question of institutional reform in the Amsterdam Treaty [in 1999], agreeing instead to undertake an institutional overhaul in another IGC in 2000. [...]
[...] One of the major roles of the EC in the European integration after 1989 was to provide an economic assistance to the Eastern and Central European Countries. 'Association agreements [as between EC and Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary] are the first step in "rejoining" Europe. In the aftermath of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the EC has regained its original role in promoting peace and stability in inner-state relations.'11 Indeed, that is the purpose of the Group 24 (industrialised countries) that developed, in June 1989, a program of aid for Poland and Hungary, giving the EC Delors Commission the co-ordinating role in the development of this aid package. [...]
[...] The military security insured by "European organizations". According to Deutsch, the security 'integration applies to [ . ] a 'security community' characterized by a well-established expectation of violent inner-states relations.'4 To Brigid Laffan, NATO, CSCE, WEU and EC are the main regional components of any new security order, a way to replace the failure of the European Defence Community in 1954.5 One of the main instruments of the military prosperity in the post cold war Europe was the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE). [...]
[...] The Conference in Security and Cooperation in Europe demonstrated its incapacity and incoherence within the first three months. NATO and WEU were caught up in an absurd duplication of naval patrols in the Adriatic.'20 We can state the same thing about the two wars in Chechnya between 1994-96 and 1999-2009. Indeed, 'it did demonstrate once again that in most fields the OSCE inevitably faltered in the absence of the political will of the member states [and that] the EU declined to sign an interim trade agreement in protest at human rights violations in Chechnya.'2122 'There was some irony in the fact it was NATO, the product and embodiment of the cold war whose fate was cast in doubt by the supposed disappearance of its raison d'être, and not the EU, which led the eastern enlargement of the western based institutions.'23 Indeed, NATO played an active role into the security integration in Europe and only withdrew progressively since the 90's after the destruction of the Berlin Wall when the US began to reassess its involvement in European security.24 B. [...]
[...] It aims to be both the European pillar of the Atlantic alliance and the security dimension of European integration.'9 Afterwards, this famous military intervention in Bosnia highlighted the need for a real European Security and Defence Identity. Others institutions have been created to promote military security: the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), (second pillar of the Maastricht Treaty), backed by the creation of the European Security Defence Policy. Moreover, we have the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC) at the November 1991 Rome Summit, that involves the Soviet Union and the central and east European states.10 B. [...]
