The European integration process developed in an international context characterised by a tight network of centres of multilateral cooperation, with which the European Communities have dealt and activated a long and varied series of collaboration agreements since the nineteen fifties.
From this point of view, whilst the interaction with regional organisms such as the OEEC/OECD, Council of Europe or NATO has been studied relatively in-depth, much less known are the relations with the central arena of multilateral politics after World War II: the United Nations system, with its galaxy of commissions, specialised bodies, funds, programmes and institutes.
Indeed, although a number of essays on the UN and European integration have been published, they cover only a minor part of the relevant issues. First of all because they mostly consist in juridical or political analyses, which mainly consider the formal or institutional aspects of the interaction (for example Adriaenssens 2008, Degrand-Guillaud 2009). Secondly, they are largely centred on the latest decades (Wouters/Hoffmeister/Ruys 2006) or on specific topics (Flockhart 2005) or institutions, such as the UN Security Council and General Assembly (Casarini-Musu 2007, Rasch 2008). Finally, they almost exclusively consider the “ascending” side of the relation, i.e. the influence of the institutions or member States of the EC/EU on the decision-making process of the considered organisms (Gstohl 2009, Luif 2003). The opposite process, i.e. the more or less direct role played by multilateral organisms in the community construction, is almost totally ignored, except by a few juridical works.
The workshop aims at beginning to fill this gap, by reconstructing the history of the relation between the UN and the European construction, both in the “ascending” and “descending” phase, since the first steps of the integration process.
With this aim, proposals on topics of any nature will be considered (political, economic, social, cultural, military, etc.), dealing with a UN organism, institution, agency, programme or fund and its interaction with the European construction or Community institutions.
Examples of such proposals are:
1. the role of UN organisms or institutions in European economic and social integration before the creation of the Communities;
2. the influence of UN institutions or agencies in the negotiations for the ECSC, EEC and Euratom treaties;
3. the agreements and other forms of cooperation between the Communities and specific organisations of the UN system; their historical evolution;
4. the contribution of the UN and their specialised agencies to the implementation of the European Community treaties and the achievement of their goals;
5. the role of the European Commission in specific international organisms;
6. the coordination of the EC member States in the framework of specific international organisations or institutions (UN General Assembly, UN Security Council, ECOSOC, International Labour Organisation, Unesco, World Health Organisation, etc.) in different phases of the integration process (for example before or after the launch of the European Political Cooperation and, later, the Common Foreign and Security Policy); successes and failures of this kind of coordination;
7. the effective role of the EC/EU in relevant decisions of specific international organisations;
8. the problems connected with the “asymmetric” representation of the member States in specific bodies; the positions of the EC/EU institutions and member States in the debates on the reform of specific bodies;
9. the influence of decisions, resolutions and normative acts from international bodies on the institutional structure, law and EC/EU position on specific topics.
10. the role played by the EC/EU in the creation and activation of specific UN institutions, conferences, programmes and policies.
Working languages: English and French.
The organisation will cover participants’ travel and accommodation expenses for the whole duration of the workshop.
The proposals (not more than 500 words in a word or rtf document) should be presented to the organising committee, together with the proponent’s CV, by July 15th 2010 at the latest.
The workshop will be the basis for the publication of a volume, the structure of which will be decided by the organising committee after the evaluation of every single contribution.