Building the European Union: Supranational Dynamics and Intergovernmental Configurations

This chapter, together with Chapter 3, analyzes the evolution of European integration. These chapters view integration as a dynamic process, driven by a variety of forces and actors that, through their interactions, build and shape the institutional structure of the European Union. For analytical purposes, I divide the history of European integration into four phases (see also Gillingham 2003). For practical purposes, I have chosen to present this history in two separate chapters. This chapter looks at the first three phases, which were instrumental to building the European polity in its multifaceted dimensions and in its unique combination of intergovernmental and supranational institutions. In contrast, Chapter 3 considers only the fourth phase, where the Union has already evolved into a full-blown, mature polity. During this fourth phase, the EU continues to evolve in terms of its size, its institutional structure, and its decisionmaking procedures. However, these changes generally serve more to expand, consolidate, and diversify the existing system than to bring about a fundamental transformation of it. Accordingly, a close look at the respective evolutionary processes will highlight the continual dynamics of system-building beyond the nation state that characterizes the EU.