UNITED EUROPE IS 50

The end of March marked the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Rome agreement on the establishment of the European Community. Over the past period, this alliance, which was renamed the European Union 15 years ago, achieved impressive success. After its expansion in 2004 and 2007, the EU now has 27 member states and unites almost all of Europe from the Atlantic Ocean to the borders of the CIS. Most of the European Union has had its single currency - the euro - for a long time now. In the international arena, the EU is the second powerful economic centre (more than 80 per cent of US GDP) and one of the main "players" in international politics.

The time of serious test

The achievements of European integration are indisputable, but for some reason many politicians and citizens, recognizing this success, do not conceal their deep concern. Quite recently, Jacques Delors, the former president of the European Commission (1985-95), who made an outstanding contribution to the cause of European integration, publicly said that the EU is experiencing the most difficult crisis in its history and that united Europe has lost its orientation and common vision of the future.

Indeed, in the last few years member states of the EU failed to reach agreement on issues of paramount importance twice. In 2003, they split into two camps, taking opposite positions on the US military invasion of Iraq. In 2005, the French and Dutch rejected the draft European constitution in their referendums. In 2006, the member countries failed to agree on a single energy strategy, and specifically, on a coordinated approach to energy cooperation with Russia. There are contradictory opinions regarding the limits of the possible expansion of the European Union. For the time being, only the fate of two official candidates - Macedonia and Croatia - is more or less clear. As for Turkey's membership, there is still no consensus. The prospects for Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia joining the EU are still questionable.

The European Union also has serious problems in the sphere of demographics and immigration. The wave of clashes and violence in France, the Netherlands and other European countries at the beginning of the last year, in which mainly young people from immigrant families were involved, graphically showed the importance and enormity of this problem. We have to take into account that according to forecasts, by the middle of the 21st century almost one third, if not more than that, of the EU's population will consist of immigrants and their descendants. In these conditions, it will be even more difficult to preserve civil solidarity and traditional European culture, the competitiveness of the economy, as well as the effectiveness of the social system.

Is the European Union capable of coping with its problems and solving its tasks? Its success in the past could become a point of support. But it may also turn into a dead cargo. The problem is not only about the lack of solidarity. European politics, many people think, lack imagination and aggressiveness.

Top EU officials in Brussels, as well as politicians and analysts, who are trying to move the process of European integration forward, agree that in order to achieve success, the EU needs to accomplish several important but incomplete projects in the next few years: These projects are the following:

-To complete the process of ratifying the European constitution and reforms in EU institutions designed to increase their political status and most importantly, their effectiveness;

-To complete the architecture of the single domestic market and currency union (switch to the euro) by including all EU members in it;

-To make progress on the economic and social rapprochement between the old and new member states, as well as on the real integration of the "newcomers";

-To switch to a comprehensive common foreign policy, as well as to a common European policy in the sphere of security and defence.

It is obvious that the next 15-20 years will seriously test not only the strength of the European Union, but also the viability of the very idea of European integration, or as they say now, European identity. "Euro-optimists" still think it possible to set up a European federation. This idea is invisibly present in the European constitution which confirms the official status of "European citizenship", founds the post of EU foreign minister, considerably expands the sphere in which decisions are made not on the basis of a consensus, but with a majority of votes. "Euro-sceptics", on the contrary, believe that the extremely expanded European Union will be marking time at best and will probably make a reverse evolution. Another scenario suggests the implementation of the strategy of "integration at different speeds". It is planned that the central group of six countries which initiated the integration, as well as other states that are close to them by their level of development and are ready to unite into a federation move forward without waiting for those who are not ready or are still in doubt.

However, the future of the European Union depends not only on the will of the Euro-bureaucrats in Brussels, politicians and major corporations. The moods of the Europeans themselves, their desire to integrate and dissolve their own national identity in single European identity are of great importance. According to Eurobarometer (a sociological service of the European Commission), in autumn 2004, 42 per cent of residents of member countries of the European Union maintained that they have never sensed their affiliation with Europe as a whole and remain citizens only of their own national state. Another 37 per cent have had a sense of European identity only rarely, while 7 per cent said that they are first of all Europeans and then citizens of their own countries. These figures show that the EU is still more "united", but not "single" Europe. However, the same poll showed that 53 per cent of the Europeans do not doubt that membership of the EU is of benefit to their countries.

Balance between the rule and exception

Despite the existing difficulties, it is still possible to unite national and European interests by means of flexible principles and EU institutions. According to Article 3B of the agreement, "...In areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Community shall take action, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved by the Community". The basis of this principle is the idea that decision-making should be carried out at the maximum lowest level. Such an approach makes it possible to solve relatively easily the issue of protecting the sovereign rights of member countries in every specific case. It clearly defines the national powers (sovereign rights) as a rule and the powers of the Community as an exception.

The flexibility and strength of the structure of the European Union is mainly the contribution of the true architect of this integration process, Jean Monnet. Unlike the romantic federalists, cunning Monnet understood very well that attempts to deprive the European states even of the insignificant part of their sovereign rights are pointless. For this reason, he offered a unique mechanism of unification which allows the states to preserve all the powers without any exception on the one hand and on the other, to derive additional benefits from putting their potentials together.

Such an approach is still evident in the process of developing and deepening European integration. For example, it is known that 80 per cent of the laws regulating economic activity in EU countries have been drawn up by the European Commission in Brussels. But in essence, this means only that decisions on them were adopted by the governments of national states at the common European negotiating table. Since October 1999, there has been the post of secretary-general of the Council of the European Union and EU high commissioner for common foreign and security policy. At present, it is occupied by one of the most experienced diplomats and former secretary-general of NATO, Javier Solana. Without trying to substitute or overshadow the foreign ministries of member states, Solana is mainly playing the role of a coordinator of the EU's foreign policy and undertakes only missions that member states prefer to avoid for this or other reason.

In connection with the 50th anniversary of the Rome agreements, the Berlin declaration was adopted, which says that the main thing which unites members of the European Union are common ideals based on respect for personality, its dignities and rights. It was also stressed that the European Union will continue promoting democracy, stability and prosperity beyond its borders. This does not mean the limitless expansion of the European Union at all. On the contrary, the admittance of new members has become quite a disputed issue. The main emphasis is placed on the new European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) which has been offered to most countries situated close to the EU borders. According to this policy, it is planned to develop relations and cooperation in all directions as far as partner countries are ready. The ENP is not seen as a preparatory stage for future membership, but has quite an independent nature. The following formula is also suggested: "neighbours get everything but EU institutions", i.e. everything but the opportunity to participate in decision-making. This idea is attributed to Romano Prodi (former chairman of the European Commission and now Italian prime minister).

Azerbaijan and the EU

Although the prospects for Azerbaijan's membership of the EU seem to be quite illusory today, our country is moving towards European integration step by step. Along with membership of the Council of Europe and participation in NATO's partnership programme, the strengthening of cooperation with the EU is also of special importance. This is proved by Azerbaijan's foreign economic turnover, 60 per cent of which falls to EU countries. The priority of the European direction in Baku's foreign policy also graphically manifests itself in the number of Azerbaijani embassies that have been opened on this continent and official visits paid here. Since last year, Azerbaijan has been participating in the European Neighbourhood Policy. A relevant agreement has been signed, and an action plan to confirm the intentions and commitments of the parties and an indicative programme for the next three years have been adopted. Brussels allocated 92m euros for its implementation.

Another important component of Azerbaijan's partnership with the European Union is the sphere of energy. According to most member states of the EU, excessive dependence on oil and gas imports from Russia threatens their energy security. In the latest period, these fears have become more intense due to problems in Russian supplies because of Moscow's disputes with Kiev and Minsk on energy prices. Brussels is looking for possibilities to diversify its sources and ways of delivering energy resources, which is why it pays attention to the Caspian basin. It is not by chance that having joined the European Neighbourhood programme, Azerbaijan also signed an agreement on cooperation with the EU on the basis of the European energy charter.

European integration is a sphere of activities and attention not only for government agencies and politicians. Businessmen and the population also have a growing interest in it. Monitoring of public opinion carried out in the last few years by the Puls-R sociological service headed by the author of this article is graphic proof of this. Several years ago, about one third of participants in the poll supposed that Azerbaijan should remain neutral and cooperate with all countries, and the CIS and the European Union gained equal votes - 23-25 per cent each. The results of 2006 showed that the share of supporters of European integration exceeds 43 per cent, while the number of CIS supporters has fallen to 15.5 per cent.

In order to strengthen European orientation among the wide strata of the population, it is necessary to remove barriers standing in the way of contacts between people. Brussels also understands this. The EU commissioner for foreign relations, Ferrero-Waldner, recently publicly called for the visa regime to be simplified for the countries participating in the ENP and spoke out in favour of facilitating the access of their goods to the EU market. In her opinion, in the end this will cause the EU and the countries covered by the European Neighbourhood programme to form a vast zone of free trade and travel.

In turn, the public is turning out of a passive object of the process of European integration into its active subject. This is proved by the establishment last year of the Azerbaijani National Public Committee for European Integration (ANOKEI), which unites about 50 prominent public figures, NGO heads and experts. ANOKEI sees its task in establishing partnership between the civil society and government in order to expedite the process of Azerbaijan's European integration and move the country towards European values. This is the key to the successful modernization of the Azerbaijani state, to its security and prosperity in the single family of European peoples.