Graduate School of International Studies Ajou University
Publication Year
2005-08
Language
eng
Alternative Abstract
In May 2004, the European Union had a great enlargement up to 25 member states. Several months later, all Heads of national governments and states signed the Treaty establishing the Constitution of the Europe. The Constitution and its contents of figureing out the fundamental elements of a 'federal' EU state are the most controversial issues in political fora in Europe at European level as well as national level. In the beginning, EU was just a Community of Coal and Steel with six founder states. How could EU evolve so rapidly both in member enlargement and in deepening integration? And what is waiting for the EU in the future?
This study argues, from neofunctionalist perspective, that the European integration would eventually result in a single European polity - more exactly - a federal Europe. Although neofunctionalism was sometimes discredited by the developments within the European Community but it enjoyed a resurgence of interest and support in the recent time due largely to the renewed momentum of European integration generated by some important treaty such as Maastricht treaty, Single European Market, Nice treaty and the most recently Constitution treaty (not in effect).
There really are milestones for the evolvement of the EU and which would help people concerned to understand what has done and what would be done in the EU's operation and evolvement. This thesis would figure out those milestones by applying spillover effect concept (functional spillover and political spillover) of neofunctionalism to the significant treaties during over the fifty years of EU existence. The functional spillover had the effect on the evolvement in the treaties such as treaty of Paris, treaty of Rome and Single European Act. And political spillover had the effect on integration progress in treaty of Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and the last one - Constitutional treaty.
As the result of such great evolvements after a series of treaties, European Union is more and more becoming a ?federal? state. But, before the Constitution treaty would be in effect European Union cannot be called a federal state as applying traditional political analyzation. Just only when the Constitution comes into effect, it would be really a federal state as many federalists in Europe hope.