European policy
European policy refers to policies pursued by state or societal actors and international organizations that are focused on Europe. Today, the term predominantly refers to the European Union and its institutions. However, it occasionally also refers to other organizations such as the Council of Europe.
In the member states of the European Union, the goals of European policy are primarily to strengthen European integration while simultaneously asserting national interests in European decision-making processes. In candidate and accession countries, European policy is geared towards the introduction of the "acquis communautaire" and accession to the Union.
In some countries, European policy is interpreted as part of foreign policy. In others, however, there are also dedicated ministries or state secretaries for European affairs.
European policy of individual countries
Germany
European policy in Germany is pursued by a multitude of actors. The most important actor is the Federal Government, which responds to European policy issues according to the principle of ministerial responsibility. Furthermore, the German federal states are very active in European policy. The Bundestag and Bundesrat are actors strengthened by the Treaty of Lisbon. The most important instrument for state actors in European policy is.The influence of lobbyists, who are active in European politics in Brussels and Strasbourg, as well as in the federal capital and the state capitals, is often underestimated in Germany. The role of German Members of the European Parliament, who are nominated by their parties and operate relatively independently in the increasingly powerful Strasbourg Parliament, is also underestimated. This may be related to the fact that the European level is often still neglected by parties, which is also evident in election campaigns for European Parliament elections, where predominantly national rather than European issues are addressed.
Traditionally, German European policy was part of foreign policy, but due to the within the EU, it is becoming increasingly common to speak of European domestic policy. In practice, disputes over competence regarding European coordination regularly arise, particularly between the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Chancellery. The German federal states also strive to influence European policy, both through the Federal Council and the Federal Government, and directly through their state representations in Brussels. Overall, German European policy, regardless of the parties in power from Adenauer to Merkel, can be described as having a pro-integration stance, in contrast to, for example, British European policy. Since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2007, it has become increasingly problematic that integration-oriented European policy is an elite project for which public support – not only in Germany – is declining.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom was only admitted to the European Economic Community on 1 January 1973, after initial negotiations by Prime Ministers Harold Macmillan in 1963 and Harold Wilson in 1967 had twice failed due to the French veto of Charles de Gaulle. The successful accession negotiations were led by the Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath, who also secured the accession through domestic politics.By 1973, the economic growth forces that had driven the first phase of European integration had lost their momentum as the first oil crisis began in October 1973. Also in 1973, the Bretton Woods system, which had established fixed exchange rates for the participating currencies, collapsed. In Great Britain, this led to a surge in inflation for various reasons, followed by stagflation.
All of this seemed to confirm the views of British Eurosceptics who had rejected joining the EU, anticipating more disadvantages than advantages. A key argument of the EC/EU opponents was, and remains, the fear that the sovereignty of the two chambers of the British Parliament: the House of Commons and the House of Lords in decisions concerning central issues of British policy could be restricted or jeopardized if too many powers were transferred from Parliament to EU institutions. Conservative critics viewed excessive transfers of power as a breach of the constitution; the political left feared in the 1970s that the EC could make it more difficult or even impossible for them to implement national socialist policies.
In May 1979, the Conservative Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister and remained so until November 1990. Her famous demand, "We want our money back!", which she had been making in various forms since 1976, represented her uncompromising negotiating strategy. In 1984, she succeeded in negotiating the so-called British rebate for payments to the EU.
File:The Prime Minister Attends the Cenotaph Ceremony.jpg|thumb|272x272px|The British prime ministers from left to right: Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and John Major.
Thatcher's successors, John Major, Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown, gave greater priority to European policy and advocated for a more constructive European policy for Great Britain compared to Thatcher. It was in the 2000s that the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party gained in prominence. In 2012, the Conservative prime minister David Cameron announced that, if re-elected, he would hold another referendum on Britain's continued membership in the EU by 2017. There had long been disgruntlements from his backbenchers over the European issue. In the referendum the UK voted to leave the EU by 52% to 48%.
Cameron resigned as Prime Minister and was succeeded by Theresa May who intended to pursue a policy of "Brexit means Brexit"; appointing Boris Johnson to the role of Foreign Secretary. After the 2017 United Kingdom general election resulted in a hung parliament, the European Union became the primary issue in British politics. The Brexit debate was also difficult for the leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn who pledged a "soft brexit". The customs union and the single market were particularly important factors. By 2019, the Brexit negotiations had broken down completely. The Conservatives suffered a crushing defeat in the 2019 European Parliament election to the Brexit Party of Nigel Farage. Theresa May resigned and was replaced with Boris Johnson who called a snap election which resulted in a landslide victory. The Brexit withdrawal agreement passed and Brexit concluded when the UK left the European Union on 31 January 2020. Since 2020, the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol was challenged by Unionists in Northern Ireland. The Windsor Framework in 2023 dealt with post-Brexit trade arrangements. Keir Starmer has pledged a reset of relations with Europe.
France
France is one of the six founding members of the EEC, the precursor to today's EU, and, like Germany, is still considered an important driving force behind European integration. Through European integration, France seeks to prevent a loss of its own country's influence in the world. Another goal is to integrate Germany into Europe and prevent it from becoming too powerful. France has always been in favor of increasing integration and therefore views enlargement critically, as more member states slow down the integration process.French European policy is primarily shaped by the French president, who often has considerable influence over foreign, European, and security policy. Especially when the president and government belong to the same party, the president has a free hand. However, as soon as a cohabitation period occurs, in which the president and head of government belong to different parties, competition can arise, particularly if the incumbent prime minister has ambitions for the presidency. In these cases, the prime minister faces a dilemma, as he must, on the one hand, establish his own profile in European and foreign policy, while on the other hand, he does not want to diminish the president's power, since he himself aspires to the office.
De Gaulle, as the first president of the Fifth Republic, played a significant role in French European policy, having shaped its beginnings, particularly through reconciliation with Germany. For him, as for most of his successors, France's sovereignty and political power were paramount, which in European policy led France to prefer intergovernmental EU institutions such as the council to the supranational European Parliament. In European policy controversies, de Gaulle often succeeded in asserting his position; for example, in the two British accession applications that failed due to his veto in 1963 and 1967. A method in French European policy of his time that was not well received by its European partners was the "empty chair" policy of 1965. De Gaulle also proposed the Fouchet Plans. One consistent aspect of French European policy is the following objective: within and through the EU, France aims to maintain a special political weight in Europe and the world, something that seemed self-evident during de Gaulle's presidency. Therefore, France has always strived for a common foreign and security policy and a European security and defence policy.
Another key issue is the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, as the French agricultural industry in particular benefits from it. When Gerhard Schröder, during his time as Chancellor of Germany, proposed that the principles of agricultural policy be decided more strongly at the national level, France opposed this, fearing that it could lead to the loss of EU subsidies. President Jacques Chirac and Schröder finally agreed in 2002 that nothing should change until 2007 and that funding for agriculture should not increase thereafter. British proposals for reforming the costly EU agricultural policy were also generally rejected by France.
The period from 1990 to 1992 under François Mitterrand is referred to as the "golden age" of French European policy. In 1992, the French electorate rejected the Maastricht Treaty in a referendum. Ten years later, they rejected the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe in a referendum. After Nicolas Sarkozy became French president in 2007, he announced France's return to Europe.
France was critical of the 2004 EU enlargement, as it made Germany the new center of the EU, while France felt marginalized. President Sarkozy proposed the idea of a Mediterranean Union, which, however, met with little enthusiasm within the EU. Ultimately, the Union for the Mediterranean was created as a compromise.
On 15 May 2012, François Hollande became the new president, the second socialist president of France after Mitterrand. Since the Socialists won the parliamentary elections in June 2012, there was no cohabitation. The 2017 French presidential election was won by Emmanuel Macron who defeated Marine Le Pen. Macron has pursued a pro-European foreign policy with founding the European Political Community.