Thursday, June 21, 2007

Poland returns to WWII

Poland seems willing to say anything to increase its power in the EU at Germany's expense. Now it's this: "Poland is challenging population-based voting rights in the EU by saying it would have more people if Germany hadn't slaughtered Poles." The BBC has a good summary of the issues facing the European Summit including the Poles' war of words. Der Spiegel has good coverage of the row including the German reaction here and here. Finally, the Center for European Reform has some good advice on what you do with a problem like Poland.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Germany, the Square Root of Poland's Problem

A few months ago, I wrote about Poland's proposal to base voting in the Council of Ministers on the square root of a member state's population. As European leaders meet in Brussels this week for a European Council Summit, Poland's proposal is proving to be the biggest stumbling block in reaching agreement on a mini-treaty to reform the EU's institutions. Below I have compiled some data showing the equivalent votes member states would have in the Council under three different proposals — the current system from the Nice Treaty, under the now dead European Constitution, and under the Polish proposal. You can see from the graph that Poland's proposal is solely aimed at Germany. In fact, both Germany and Poland receive the fewest votes under the Polish proposal.

Equivalent Votes in the Council of Ministers based on Three different proposals

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Spillover in the Mail: EU postal monopolies may end by 2011

Despite its importance to understanding the process of European integration, spillover is a concept many of my students have difficulty grasping. However, I have found a new example that I think demonstrates the concept in an assessable way — the liberalization of postal services in the European Union.

Yesterday, a committee of the European Parliament voted in favor of liberalizing EU postal services across the 27 member bloc in four years time, a move that could eventually mean the end of national monopolies in the delivery of letters and postcards. While there is still several legislative hurdles to overcome before postal services in Europe are opened to private competition, this vote suggests it just a matter of time before liberalization happens. Why would European states want to have standard mail delivered by private firms? Spillover provides a good explanation.

For those who have not taken a class in international relations or European politics, spillover is one of three mechanisms which Neofunctionalism, a theory of regional integration, says drives the integration process. According to neofunctionalists, economic integration between states in one sector creates incentives for integration in further sectors and thus integration in one sector "spills over" into additional sectors. For neofunctionalists, economic integration has simply created pressure to integrate mail delivery.

Mail is a very important part of doing business (In the EU, 90 percent of mail is sent by businesses). This mail could be delivered far more efficiently in Europe if there was a common European-wide postal service, but the Europe Union does not have the capacity or the mandate to provide this service. Therefore, in order to provide European businesses with the efficient postal service their interstate economic integration demands, the EU has to find some way to promote integration of the national postal services. Their solution is to turn to the free-market and let all firms compete for the right to deliver the mail. The fact that businesses operate across national borders in Europe just like business operate across state borders here in the United States makes having a common postal system desirable, but the EU is not the United States so they have to liberalize instead of Europeanize the mail.