Europe adrift after the Cold War
For 45 years Europe had been divided by the Iron Curtain. Though tragic and often tense, the Cold War nonetheless imposed stability on Europe and allowed the western sector, at least, to prosper as never before. The end of Communism, therefore, posed several vexing questions. Would a united Germany dominate Europe economically and waver dangerously between East and West in foreign policy? Could the new democracies of east-central Europe achieve Western levels of prosperity and avoid the ethnic strife that had sparked two world wars? In the short run, the worst fears were not realized. Chancellor Kohl took every opportunity to reaffirm Germany’s commitment to the idea of a united Europe, while the high cost of rehabilitating the former East Germany allayed fears of a German economic hegemony. Europe’s long-term stability, however, depended on the continued vitality of institutions built up during the Cold War. Would the EC and the NATO alliance remain vigorous in the absence of a Soviet threat?
In the 1980s the dynamic Jacques Delors had revived the momentum of European integration by promoting the Single European Act, under which EC members were to establish full economic and monetary union, with substantial coordination of foreign and social policies, by 1992. Most of Delors’s provisions were embodied in the Maastricht Treaty approved by the 12 EC member states (Spain and Portugal had been admitted in 1986) in December 1991. This unprecedented surrender of national sovereignty worried governments and voters, however. A national referendum in France barely approved the treaty, the Danes rejected it the first time around, and the government of John Major, Thatcher’s successor as British prime minister, nearly fell from power before persuading Parliament to ratify Maastricht in July 1993. The treaty went into effect on November 1. In order to create “an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe,” Maastricht replaced the old EC with a new European Union (EU), enhanced the powers of the European Parliament at Strasbourg, promised monetary union by 1999, promoted common policies on crime, immigration, social welfare, and the environment, and called for “joint action” in foreign and security policy. The EU promptly voted to “broaden” as well as “deepen” its membership by approving the applications on March 29 of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Austria (although Norwegian voters later rejected joining).