The Dream And The Reality Of The Unification Of Europe - European Integration Since The Maastricht Deepening And Expanding,

The European integration process after Maastricht is featured by the rapiddevelopment in both deepening and expansion of the integration. This dissertaion probes tofind out the forces driving this rapid development, analyze the realities and problems facingthe current integration, and predict the future tendencies of its development. It consists of fourparts. In the first part, it argues that the deepening of the European Union integration resultsfrom the pressure of the international politico-economic situations, and is also driven by theeconomic integration, the change of balance of power within the EU, and the "reunificationdream" which has long existed among Europeans. The expansion of the integration into theMiddle and Eastern countries is decided by both EU and these countries as an effective way topromote their respective interests, both in terms of politics and economics. The decision to"deepen while expand" results from a compromise between EU members. The second partanalyses the unbalanced development of economic integration and political integration, thenature of EU, and the unbalanced relationship between EU and its members. The third partpoints out four problems facing the EU integration. The first is the difficulty to hand-oversovereignty on the member states' side, which the deepening of the integration demands. Thesecond problem is the lag of political integration, which cannot keep up with the economicintegration. The third problem facing EU integration is the difficulty to reform EU'sout-of date organization structure and its decision-making mechanism, which is demanded byboth deepening and expanding needs. The fourth problem is the financial burden expansionbrings about. The last part concludes the dissertaion by predicting the future development ofthe integration. Firstly, the auhor predicts, the integration will not be reversed and its fuforetask is to finish its expansion and further its political integration. Secondly, the politicalintegration will not lead to a supranational entity, at least in the short run. Thirdly, with theexpansion of the integration and adoption of the "multi-speed Europe" strategy, member stateswill be divided within EU into groups, each pushing the integration process in a speeddifferent from that of the others. Lastly, EU wll not play a political role in proportion to itseconomic strength in the world.