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Zeitschrift für Staats- und Europawissenschaften (ZSE)
Jahrgang VIII, Heft 1 (2010) Thomas Fehrmann The European Union in 2009: a Review The year 2009 marked a number of important anniversaries in the history of European integration: 60 years have passed since the political division of Germany entrenched the partition of Europe on the eve of the Cold War. In 1989 – a mere 20 years ago – this partition came to a swift and unexpected conclusion in the wake of Perestroika and Glasnost, accelerated by several peaceful revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe that eventually led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and thus facilitated the reunification of Germany. Moreover, as a result of this remarkable process, the European Union could celebrate the fifth anniversary of its most ambitious territorial enlargement to date: the accession of seven former members of the Warsaw Pact (as well as Slovenia, Cyprus, and Malta; followed by Bulgaria and Romania in 2007). These anniversaries coincided with a number of important political and economic developments on the European stage. The following review intends to summarise these developments in three steps: the first part (II) focuses on a number of extraordinary endogenous and exogenous challenges to the EU’s institutional and political system, including the co-ordination of Member States’ responses to the global financial and economic crisis, the development of a common position for the Copenhagen summit on climate change, and the ratification and implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon. The second part (III) will deal with three important periodic changes that took place in 2009: the general election to the European Parliament, the appointment of a new European Commission, and the selection of candidates for the two new offices created by the Lisbon Treaty. The third part (IV) will sum up a number of important medium- and long-term EU policy initiatives that were introduced, came to fruition, or required evaluation in 2009, before this review is concluded by a brief summary and outlook (V). |
