Converging Pathways- Itinerarios Cruzados

← 20 | 21 → Introduction

Cristina BLANCO SÍO-LÓPEZ and Susana MUÑOZ

Researcher in European Integration Studies,Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE)
and
Head of the European Integration Studies Department,Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE)

This edited volume explores the vectors of convergence, the cohesion factors and the changing paradigms in Spain and Europe’s converging pathways and, at a time of change when key questions are being asked, seeks to propose mechanisms for interdisciplinary analysis that facilitate the study of the contributions each entity has made to the other and the challenges that each dimension raises. The concept of convergence implies, from this viewpoint, an intersection of willingness in progressive dialogue or, at least, a tendency towards the search for a meeting point, for an alignment of perspectives thanks to variables and actors which recognise their probable similitude. In this sense, the converging pathways of Spain and Europe are conceived as a spherical and non linear structure, where the intersecting points of the past are transformed into the roots of new rapprochements and new possible derivations.

This publication is one of the results of the CVCE research project “Spain and the European integration process”, directed by Dr. Cristina Blanco Sío-López, which covers the period from the end of the Second World War to the present day. It considers the relations between the various Spanish political and socio-economic actors and the European Union, together with their interaction with other European organisations.

On the 16 and 17 of April, the CVCE and the European Academy of Yuste Foundation (FAEY) held a research conference focusing on the project’s principal research priorities. The conference took place at the Royal Monastery of Yuste, the main site of the FAEY in Cuacos de Yuste (Spain) and enjoyed the participation of many international experts whose work and debates form the basis of this monograph. The ← 21 | 22 → conference included a keynote speech by Carlos Closa (IPP-CSIC, Global Governance Programme RSCAS-EUI) and a round table discussion that sparked a lively debate between two key Spanish players in the European integration process: José María Gil-Robles Gil-Delgado and Enrique Barón Crespo. Both these former Presidents of the European Parliament had also been interviewed as part of the CVCE’s programme on the oral history of the European integration process.

The principal lines of research of the CVCE project “Spain and the European integration process” consider various areas and address Spain’s European policy from different angles, while also analysing parallels and identifying differences with Portugal in the broader framework of motivations, strategies and discourses on the Community enlargement that included Spain and Portugal. The areas that are analysed are the following:

– Spain’s impact on and contributions to the process of European integration.

– Modalidites of Europeanisation in Spain.

– A cross-comparison of Spanish and European views on Spain’s European dimension.

– The European integration process in Spain and Portugal: Parallelism and divergences.

These contributions originate in various disciplines such as the history of European integration, political science, European Union law and economics.

José María Gil-Robles reflects upon the identity issues which emerge from Spain and Portugal’s accession to the European Communities; accession and transition to democracy, in his view, constitute two sides of the same coin. He also reminds us of the value of the solidarity principle, which he perceives as the key axis of an authentic multilevel integration process, above all, in a context characterised by the crisis and the questioning of the European model, which invites us to reexamine the value and implications of the essential experience of shared citizenship.

His contribution is complemented by that of Enrique Barón, who analyses the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon as a support to parliamentary democracy in the European Union. He defines parliamentary democracy as an essential structuring principle and studies its necessary reinforcement as a key element of policy-making at the European level. Barón also considers that the European integration process cannot only be the fruit of diplomatic and intergovernmental collaboration: he affirms that the Parliaments of all EU member states ← 22 | 23 → should fully participate in the definition of the EU’s political orientations.

The first part of this monograph reviews Spain’s impact on the European integration process and its contributions to this process. One major objective in this area is that of assessing the impact of Spain’s accession on the European Communities and its interaction with other European organisations, especially through the analysis of Spain’s contributions to that process, an area of research that is still unexplored and that the authors of this monograph address in a very innovative way.

The purpose of Víctor García Soriano’s chapter is that of presenting the historical context of the 4^th International Congress for the European Movement, celebrated in Munich in 1962. It was the first meeting of the Spanish internal and external opposition against Franco’s regime and thus a fundamental turning point in Spain’s European path. The author suggests to view this conference as the consequence of the consolidation of an international network of Spanish political and intellectual elites. These elites have an international dimension which includes important figures linked to the European Movement as well as Spanish ones with two orientations: one is constituted by the Spanish political and intellectual elites in exile while the other is made up of a set of intellectuals internally opposing the regime and undergoing a phase of progressive politicisation. Such politisitation process is developed within a context defined by a renewed interest in the Spanish political situation on behalf of the international public opinion.

María Martín de Almagro and Scott L. Greer study the complex articulation of EU political preferences and national interest formation, taking into account the specific case of Spain’s experience in the framework of the EU’s Health Policy. Both authors conclude that Spain has been an effective leader in this sector, but only when there is a high level of engagement on behalf of the political representatives, which also implies a stronger capacity to set the EU policy-making agenda. In any case, the observed difficulty in EU agenda-setting is clearly compensated by a remarkable ability to influence the EU political debate, which highlights Spain’s role as a “selective engager”, rather than as a “selective coordinator”.

Luis Bouza García analyses the modes of interaction between Spanish civil society organisations and EU institutions; he does this through two case studies which are illustrative of the evolution of the participation trends of Spanish citizens in the European integration process: the debate on participative democracy in the framework of the European Convention, and the scope and development of the 15M movement in 2011. The author underlines the importance of both cases: he views them as catalysts of manifestations of a politisation of the ← 23 | 24 → Spanish society, of a crisis of political representativity and of the contribution of Spanish civil society organisations to the changing models of a European governance. This contribution, thus, explores a fundamental tendency in current European debates, which revolves around the search, the implementation and the impact that alternative cooperation and integration strategies have in a European context.

Cristina Barrios maintains that the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) confers on the European integration process an especially symbolic value, for it touches upon states’ sovereignty and consolidates the European Union as an independent entity in International Relations. The author affirms, in her chapter, that Spain – since the beginning of accession negotiations – supported the consolidation of the CFSP and cooperation in defence issues, which evidences its integrationist perspective. The author examines how the integration dynamics of the CFSP has been influenced by a debate on the EU’s identity and capacities as a soft or hard power. She concludes that the EU’s Security Sector Reform (SSR) has developed foreign policies by which armed forces and the police sector are being democratised in unstable states. Hence, Barrios considers SSR a landmark in the integration dynamics of EU’s CFSP.

The monograph goes on to study the impact of the European integration process in Spain, in other words, its progressive Europeanisation. The concept of Europeanisation is understood as a process of “(a) construction, (b) diffusion, and (c) institutionalisation of formal and informal rules, procedures, policy paradigms, styles, ‘ways of doing things’, and shared beliefs and norms which are first defined and consolidated in the making of EU public policy and politics and then incorporated in the logic of domestic discourse, identities, political structures, and public policies.”¹ Accordingly, this section focuses on areas related to the adjustment of the Spanish system of government and its policies regarding the European integration process, without excluding other related areas.

In this second part, Fernando Guirao and Víctor Gavín Munté analyse the role of the European Community in the external dimension of Spain’s transition to democracy. Both authors emphasise the fundamental character of the endogenous changes in the success of the political, economic and social transition, reinforced by the indirect influence of the relation of Spanish players with foreign interlocutors, that is, the representatives of the EC member states and institutions. ← 24 | 25 → Such influence was implemented through different vectors: the value attributed to Western European political and institutional systems; the support of the main Spanish players in the process and the direct foreign intervention in the establishment of an equilibrium in the new Spanish political spectrum in the making. On the other hand, this chapter evidences the correlation between the development of a Spanish Welfare State and the consolidation of the country’s Europeanisation through the transition process, which undoubtedly constitutes the deepest economic and social transformation in its contemporary history.

Donato Fernández Navarrete studies the economic impact that Spain’s accession had on the European Communities from 1986 to 2010 in two fundamental and highly diverse phases: Before Spain’s adoption of the euro (1986-1998) and after its adoption (1999-2010). The author’s analysis culminates with a reflection upon the current debt crisis and its long-term consequences.

Francesc Morata examines the europeanisation of the financial crisis in Spain and maintains that the strict austerity measures imposed on Spain have aggravated the effects of the crisis, transforming Spain into an intervened and thus dependent EU member state. In this sense, Spain has been deprived of the credibility which it had solidly obtained ever since the first few years after its accession to the European Communities. Morata also analyses the lack of willingness, or of the capacity, to reinvest the benefits of accession in a productive economy. In addition, the author advocates for a sustainable development model in Spain, as well as for the consolidation of more efficient and transparent national institutions; he views these as conditions to recover a European credibility.

Cristina García Nicolás addresses the issue of the transformation of EU regional policy through the concept of cohesion as a response to the increase of regional disparities in Europe, especially after the accession of Mediterranean countries to the European Communities. Furthermore, the author tackles the building of Spanish autonomous communities from a regional point of view after the democratic constitution of 1978. She also studies the launching of the Interterritorial Fund (FCI) in 1982, as well as the relation between the FCI and the FEDER. García Nicolás offers a very complete and critical review of the evolution of the solidarity principle and its related funds in Spain, and a prospective analysis of the next planning phase for these funds (2014-2010).

Raúl Ignacio Rodríguez Magdaleno studies the influence that Spain’s accession to the European Community had on Spanish legislation and its related policies – which had already been acknowledged by the Spanish Constitution. The author reckons that the Spanish Parliament is also shaped by this process: it undergoes fundamental changes, in its ← 25 | 26 → structure, which are exemplified in the creation of a Mixed Commission for European Union issues. The new discourses used in policy-making are also modified accordingly. Such evolution has contributed to the excision of EU issues from the foreign policy agenda, to the point that constitutional reforms in Spain have been justified by the changing needs of the overall European integration process.

David Ordóñez Solís focuses on the study of the transformation of the language used by Spanish judges at the European level. In particular, the author observes the consequences of such mutation in the discursive power of Spanish judges and reminds us that these consequences can be perceived not just within a juridical dimension but also within a linguistic and cultural one. In this sense, the europeanisation of juridical language holds an extremely important cultural value which is manifested, at once, in the use of a very precise terminology and in the social exercise of power.

This monograph also undertakes a cross-comparison of Spanish and European views on Spain’s European dimension. The aim here is to chart the change in perceptions, expectations and considerations of government bodies, civil society and Spanish public opinion in relation to the concepts, projects and implementation of public policies resulting from the European integration process in Spain. This approach also seeks to identify vectors of change from different European perspectives in various member states, in the European institutions and in the European public opinion in relation to Spain’s interests and the particularities of Spain’s accession to the European Communities, alongside the country’s role in the European integration process.

In this third section, Harald Wydra links competing imaginations of “Europe” to different experiential backgrounds by examining the cases of Spain, (West) Germany, and Poland. He argues that aspirations to a “European sacred” have been shaped and re-shaped in the intergenerational search for meaning, and that memory struggles for such European sacred cannot be accommodated around some predetermined collective imagination formulated from a – however conceived – European centre. He concludes that transcendence and the sacred cannot be rationally planned; rather, they occur to societies participating in concrete liminal situations in which markers of certainty dissolve, fear and anxiety arise, and disorientation needs to be consciously balanced.

Stefan Bielański addresses the influence of the process of democratisation and Europeanisation in Spain on Poland during the eighties and nineties. His comparative analysis takes into consideration similarities (both countries were under dictatorship regimes) and some significant differences (very different ideologies of the governing forces in both countries). The author also encourages a deeper cooperation ← 26 | 27 → between these two EU member states at the European level, and explores the basis for such rapprochement from a Euro-Atlantic perspective.

Joaquín Roy highlights the meaningful political and economic restructuration of Latin America in the last decade, as well as Spain’s need to reinforce its links with the subcontinent at the European level. Roy defines Latin America as a crucial partner for Spain, not only for historical and cultural reasons, but also for economic and strategic ones. Thus, the author argues that Spain should choose between the continuity of political and economic relations with Latin America and their reform according to Spain’s own conditions and interests. Hence, Roy analises the main dimensions of the Spain-Latin America relation and the potential paths for their eventual adjustments. Last but not least, he includes ten socio-economic recommendations to encourage such developments.

Massimo Piermattei reflects upon the lack of a proper Mediterranean dimension in the European integration process. In order to counterbalance such trend, he proposes to examine the mediating role of a Mediterranean Europe, warning against the growing regionalisation of the Mediterranean in EU policies, measures and trends, thus accelerating and accentuating the already strained North-South relation of the EU. Through the comparative analysis of the Spanish and Italian case, the author examines their forced excision from the European integration realm.

Stelios Stavridis critically examines the traditionally assumed Europeanisation of Spain’s foreign policy through a careful revision of the implications which the Europeanisation concept entails, and of concrete cases which evidence Spain’s lack of integration in the EU foreign policy schemes.

Finally, the last section of this monograph focuses on a comparative approach to the process of Spain and Portugal’s integration into ← 27 | 28 → the European Communities. The aim of this final section is to provide a context for Spain within the broader framework of the enlargement of the European Communities to include Spain and Portugal. Indeed, it is through a comparative analysis that we can examine the diverse evolutions of a country that experienced a dictatorship where the EC accession process played out at the same time as a transition to democracy. This section seeks to identify not only the similarities between the European paths of the two countries but also the differences between them, for those differences serve to highlight each country’s distinguishing historical, political, legal and economic features.

In this last section, Agustín Ulied and José María Brandão de Brito conduct a comparative analysis of Spain and Portugal’s integration in the European Communities, taking into account how their cooperation, especially in the economic realm, represents a decisive answer to the challenges of globalisation, and facilitates the creation of more significant and more efficient transnational enterprises. Despite the credibility problems that Iberian markets face in the framework of the current crisis and despite the multiplication of asymmetries between these markets and those of other member states – which is the result of the dismantling of the Welfare State which occured two decades after EC accession – both authors consider that these and other modalities of bilateral cooperation could potentially stop the development of new isolations and could cohesively relaunch the European integration process.

Maria Fernanda Rollo proceeds with a comparative historical study of the dialogue between Portugal and Spain during the process of European integration, essentially based on Portuguese testimony. Her aim is to identify the rhythms that characterised Spanish and Portuguese approaches to Europe between the end of the Second World War and the accession to the European Communities. In addition, Rollo presents the main features which underlie and determine the perceptions, the mutual influences and the factors which characterise Portugal and Spain’s European path.

Rafael García Pérez reminds us that cross-border cooperation between Spain and Portugal is one of the most intense fields of bilateral activity after the accession of both countries to the European Communities. The successive impulse which was given to this cooperation that was implemented via neighbouring regions by both governments in the Community framework, has allowed the promotion of numerous initiatives of great social scope, resulting in economic dynamism and useful shared services. The former frontier between both countries is being successively and irreversibly transformed into a more diffuse and permeable one, thus opening a new gate for effective integration. This allows the multiplication of collaborative activism, of framework programmes for territorial cooperation and their institutional development at the local level. In this context however, the changes of scenario caused by the current crisis tend to limit initiatives and interactions as a result of austerity measures.

In their chapter, Michelle Egan and Helena Guimarães assess Spain and Portugal’s compliance with single market law. Although there have been a number of general studies on Europeanisation, specific studies on its impact on Iberian states are relatively rare. The authors thus focus on the presentation of empirical findings which define whether these two states circumvent free movement in the single market for goods through non compliance with EU laws; furthermore, they appraise Spain and ← 28 | 29 → Portugal’s modes of addressing the infringement proceedings opened by the European Commission. Using a large data set of complaints against member states for non compliance due to persistent trade barriers, the authors conclude that the two countries are not laggards; that they made credible commitments in implementing the single market for goods, and responded to complaints about their regulatory practices that still undermine single market operations. The authors’ findings on the decrease of infringements on the free movement of goods seem in line with political economy approaches. However, they reckon that research would benefit from extending towards the other freedoms, in order to compare compliance across different market conditions and factors of production.

In conclusion, this monograph explores the questions that are being raised about the European social and economic model in the light of the measures which are being taken to manage the current crisis – a crisis which is having such a significant effect on the Southern Member States of the European Union. It also seeks to provide a mirror of pluralism, of complexity and of diversity that may highlight the positive contributions made by that model to be assessed as part of the Community acquis, so that we may commonly consolidate a European governance based on a dialogued search for consensus in an increasingly interdependent world. ← 29 | 30 →

¹Radaelli, C., “The Europeanization of Public Policy”, in Featherstone K., Radaelli C. (eds.), The Politics of Europeanization, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 30.

← 30 | 31 → Introducción

Cristina BLANCO SÍO-LÓPEZ y SUSANA MUÑOZ

Investigadora en Estudios Europeos,Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE)
y
Responsable del Departamento de Estudios Europeos,Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE)

La presente obra colectiva explora los vectores de convergencia, los espacios de cohesión y los paradigmas cambiantes en los itinerarios cruzados de España y Europa y aspira a ofrecer, en un contexto de cambio y cuestionamiento fundamental, los mecanismos de análisis interdisciplinares para el estudio de las aportaciones mutuas y los desafíos de ambos actores. En ella, el concepto de convergencia implica una intersección de voluntades en diálogo progresivo, o, al menos, una tendencia a la búsqueda de un punto de encuentro, de un alineamiento de posiciones gracias a variables y actores que reconocen su probable verosimilitud. En este sentido los itinerarios cruzados de España y Europa se conciben como una estructura esférica y no lineal, en la cual los puntos de convergencia del pasado se transforman en raíces de nuevos acercamientos potenciales y nuevas posibles derivaciones.

Esta obra es fruto del proyecto de investigación del CVCE “España y la construcción europea”, dirigido por la Dra. Cristina Blanco Sío-López, cuyo arco temporal abarca desde el fin de la Segunda Guerra Mundial hasta nuestros días y explora las relaciones de los distintos actores políticos y socioeconómicos españoles con las Comunidades Europeas, así como sus interacciones con otras organizaciones europeas, incluyendo el análisis de la situación política y socioeconómica actual.

En este marco, el CVCE organizó, junto con la Fundación Academia Europea de Yuste (FAEY), una conferencia basada en los principales ejes de investigación de este proyecto. La conferencia tuvo lugar en el Real Monasterio de Yuste, sede de la FAEY en Cuacos de Yuste (España), del 16 al 17 de abril de 2012 y contó con la participación de numerosos expertos internacionales, cuyos trabajos y discusiones conforman las contribuciones de esta monografía. La conferencia contó ← 31 | 32 → con la Ponencia Inaugural de Carlos Closa (IPP-CSIC, Global Governance Programme RSCAS-EUI) y con una Mesa Redonda que ofreció un dinámico debate entre dos actores españoles clave en el proceso de construcción europea, tales como José María Gil-Robles Gil-Delgado y Enrique Barón Crespo. Ambos ex-presidentes del Parlamento Europeo habían sido asimismo entrevistados como parte del programa del CVCE dedicado a la Historia oral del proceso de construcción europea.

Las principales líneas de investigación del proyecto del CVCE “España y la construcción europea” examinan las siguientes secciones temáticas, abordando la cuestión de la política europea de España desde diversos enfoques, examinando – de manera complementaria – paralelismos e identificando divergencias con el caso de Portugal, en el marco más amplio de las motivaciones, estrategias y discursos de la ampliación de las Comunidades Europeas hacia el Sur:

– Impacto y contribuciones de España al proceso de construcción europea.

– Modalidades de europeización en España.

– Comparación transversal sobre la dimensión europea de España.

– El proceso de construcción europea en España y Portugal: Paralelismos y divergencias.

Las contribuciones presentadas en este ámbito se apoyan en diversas disciplinas, tales como la Historia de la construcción europea, la Ciencia Política, el Derecho de la Unión Europea y la Economía.