Chapter 6: Samples of Regional Integrations

Introduction

The end of the Cold War and dissolution of the Soviet Union and its zone of influence led the creation of international organizations to conduct closer relations and harmonize their policies in various spheres. The states in the same geography usually have common interests in specific areas which makes it possible to cooperate within a single region.

Regional organizations are international organizations which bring particular states together mainly for economic and political purposes. They determine a set of policies for common interests in a selected area / areas.

European Union

European Union, is a regional organization which consists of 28 European states that aims at implementing a common economic, social, and security policies. Originally created in Western Europe, the EU expanded towards central and Eastern Europe following the end of the Cold War.

European Union dates back to 9th of May, 1950. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France at the time, Robert Schuman proposed the idea of establishing a common market for particular countries to delegate control of coal and steel sectors to an independent authority. A year after Schuman’s proposal, European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was established to integrate the coal and steel sectors in Western Europe. On 29th October, 2004, twenty-five member states of the EU signed the Treaty of creating a Constitution for Europe which would replace all the existing treaties.

From 6 to 28 Members: The Wave of Enlargements: After the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community by the mentioned 6 founding members, Denmark, Britain and Ireland joined in 1973, followed by Greece in 1981, Portugal and Spain in 1986 and Austria, Finland, Sweden in 1995. In 2004 the biggest enlargement of the Union was accomplished with 10 new members: Greek part Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Letonia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

In 1999, at Helsinki Summit, Turkey was announced as a candidate for full membership. The full membership negotiations started in 2005, and the process still continues. The capital of the European Union is Brussels and it uses Euro currency since 1999 except a couple of member states. As mentioned above, the EU has been enlarging since its foundation. In 2013, Croatia joined the Union which made the number of member states 28 and total population of the Union became 507 million.

The European Union does not only suggest to produce common policies in the economy but also in agriculture, transportation, energy, industry, politics and military fields.

Governance: The European citizens are represented by the European Parliament where the EU, as an institution, involves with governance via European Commission. The governments of the member states perform their duties through the Council of the European Union.

European Commission: The Commission exercises executive power within the institutional structure of the EU. It is responsible for looking after EU’s interests as a whole. The preparation of legislative proposals, the application of EU’s policies are among the duties of the Commission.

Main functions of the Commission are; preparing legislative proposals to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, application of EU policies and managing the EU’s budget, ensuring the acquis is enforced together with the European Court of Justice, representing the EU in the international level.

European Parliament: The European parliament consists of 751 members including a president and 750 members from 28 member states. The members are elected by direct votes of people who are citizens of the EU’s member states. Countries with larger populations have more seats than the ones with smaller populations.

The European Parliament shares the legislation power with the Council of the European Union. In today’s EU, the legal arrangements that are binding for all member states can be done by only approval of the Parliament and the Council of the European Union. In particular areas such as foreign policy, the Parliament has only an advisory role, its views are not binding.

Council of the European Union: It uses the authority to legislate together with the European Parliament. The Council of the European Union does consist of the ministers that serve in the member states of the EU. The member states, it adopts EU laws and coordinates EU policies. It develops EU’s foreign and security policy, adopts EU budget jointly with the European Parliament. The Council also concludes agreements that the EU conducts with other countries or international organizations.

European Council: European Council is the organ that gathers presidents, heads of states of member states in the EU. In addition to the top leaders of the member states, the European Council President and President of the European Commission participate the meetings. It does not have an authority of legislation; however, it sets the main goals of the European Union and its policy agenda.

European Union in Today’s World: Transferring some of their sovereignties led member states transmitting their authorities to make decisions relating the common interests. Thereby, the EU is positioned somewhere between the United States of America where a true federal system is present and the United Nations where an intergovernmental system operates.

The major accomplishment of the European Union since its foundation in 1950 is to create a single market where 500 million EU citizen may freely travel and live. Moreover, EU is the biggest provider of development and humanitarian aid programs all over the world.

The European Union is based on superiority of law. Besides, the supremacy law doctrine claims that the EU laws are superior to national legal frameworks of the member states.

Decision Making Process: Each law in Europe is based on a clause in a treaty that is named as legal base of the law. This would determine the legal process that should be followed.

The decision making process of the EU is known as the ‘Ordinary Legislative Procedure’. The Parliament and the Council share the authority of legislation. The process starts with the Commission’s legislative proposal. While the Commission prepares a proposal, governments of the member states, organizations, nongovernmental organizations and individuals express their opinions. These opinions are integrated to the Commission’s legislative proposal that is presented to the Council and the Parliament.

The Council and the Parliament read and discuss the legislative proposal. If there is no consensus in the second reading, the proposal is sent to the ‘Commission of Conciliation’ that is made up of equal number of members from the Council and the Parliament. When the ‘Commission of Conciliation’ reaches an agreement in itself, the text is sent to the Parliament and the Council for a third reading. Usually, an absolute majority is required in the Parliament while a qualified majority is enough in the Council.

There are various forms of instructions in the European Union’s regulation system. These are regulations, directives, decisions and recommendations.

Regulations: The EU’s regulations, are superior to the national laws of the member states. Regulations are the laws that all member states have to follow directly.

Directive: Directives are instructions that all member states have to consider in their national legislation processes. EU directives directly show an impact on daily life within the Union’s borders.

Decisions: Decisions may target some or all member states, communities and even individuals. They are strictly binding for all.

Recommendations: Recommendations are not binding for member states. Thus, member states are not obliged to follow them.

Foreign Policy of the EU: The foreign policy of the EU is under responsibility of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy who is appointed by the European Commission. The European Union External Action (EUEA) serves as diplomatic service and foreign ministry on behalf of the EU. It operates under the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The Council of the European Union takes decisions and develops policies in the foreign policy and security affairs.

ALADI - The Latin American Integration Association

The Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA) was created through 1960 dated Montevideo Treaty, signed by Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. The founders aimed at forming a common market in Latin America and proposed tariff reductions among the member states.

ALADI is the ultimate phase of an integration process started in the late 1950s. The initial stage was the foundation of the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA) in 1960 which failed to satisfy the expectations. LAFTA aimed at developing a common market in Latin America, however it never achieved its goal due to insufficient mechanisms to overcome political and economic indifferences. In 1980, LAFTA reorganized and turned into Latin American Integration Association (ALADI). Today ALADI has 13 members and all of them are located in the South American continent.

Governance: The bodies of ALADI are The Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, The Evaluation and Convergence Conference, The Committee of Representatives and Secretariat.

The Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs: It is the supreme body which issues general rules for the integration process. It examines the results of the tasks carried out by the Association.

The Evaluation and Convergence Conference: The Conference is responsible for examining the integration process and making recommendations to the Council to take corrective measures.

The Committee of Representatives: The Committee is the permanent body of the Association. It gives continuity to the activities of the new integration process, evaluates and guides the operation of the process.

The Secretariat: The Secretariat prepares recommendations for other Association bodies through the Committee. It carries out necessary studies to fulfill its technical duties assigned by the Council, the Conference and the Committee.

Andean Community

Andean Community is a trade bloc which aims at forming a customs union among the South African countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Initially, the economies of Andean member countries, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile, were mostly based on agricultural output and raw materials. While these countries lacked in industrialization, they used to lean on imported manufactured goods from the U.S. and Europe. They started an integration process to break through in economic terms and gradually formed the Andean Community.

The Cartagena Agreement which formed The Andean Pact in 1969 suggests a closed economic system among the member states where they are granted certain economic and tariff privileges. However, the closed economy system, which aimed at inward integration based on the import substitution model, left its place to open regionalism.

According to Cartagena Agreement, also known as the Andean Pact, the main purpose is to promote the balanced and harmonious development of the member states.

Governance: Andean Community consists of various bodies which aim at encouraging further integration among the member states. Andean Integration System (SAI) is the structure that connects and suggests various bodies to work harmoniously. These are: Andean Presidential Council, Andean Council of Foreign Ministers, Commission Headquarters, Andean Court of Justice, Andean Parliament and Latin American Reserve Fund.

The Andean Presidential Council: The Council is the supreme body of the Andean Integration System and it determines the guidelines on Andean integration.

Andean Council of Foreign Ministers: The duties of the Andean Council of Foreign Ministers are to develop member states’ foreign policy regarding the sub regional interest, as well as to supervise and coordinate the external efforts of different bodies.

The Andean Community Commission: The Commission is the principal policy developing body of the organization. It consists of representatives from each member states. The Commission carries out and evaluates the integration policy in the area of trade, investment.

Other Bodies: The Andean Parliament involves members of the national legislature representatives from the member states. The members of the parliaments are elected by the legislative parties of the signatory countries.

EurAsEC - Eurasian Economic Community

The Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC or EurAsEC) is a regional organization which aims at forming a Customs Union, Common Economic Space among the member states and coordinate the actions of member states’ integration into the world economy. It is primarily based in northern Eurasia. It focuses on enhancing the integration in economic and social realms.

In 1994, the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, initially proposed the idea of forming a “Eurasian Union”. Since then numerous treaties were signed to establish the trading bloc. It was created based on the Treaty of Establishment of the Eurasian Economic Community, signed by the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan in Astana city of Kazakhstan on October 10, 2000.

Main goal of the Community is to accomplish forming a free trade regime, a unified customs tariff and a unified system of non-tariff regulations measures.

Governance: The bodies of the Eurasian Economic Community are Interstate Council, Integration Committee, Commission of Permanent Representatives, Integration Committee Secretariat, Interparliamentary Assembly, Interparliamentary Assembly Bureau, Community Court of Justice.

Interstate Council: It is the supreme body of the Eurasian Economic Community. This Council evaluates the common principles in Community activities that have impact on member states, determine the strategies, directions for further integration.

Integration Committee: Integration Committee evaluates the issues of integration; it adopts resolutions by staying within the limits of its authority.

Commission of Permanent Representatives: Assembly aims at forming a coordinated Eurasec legal policy, coordination of legislative activities of the national parliaments to accomplish goals and objectives of Eurasec, assisting in forming organizational and legal conditions for harmonizing national legal codes of Community member states with treaties of Eurasec and organization of interparliamentary cooperation.

Community Court of Justice: The Community Court of Justice is tasked with settling disputes of the Parties in economic sphere related to the implementation of resolutions adopted by Eurasec bodies and treaties that are in force within the Community.

NAFTA - The North American Free Trade Agreement

The first step was taken by the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, who proposed a “North American Agreement” to constitute a regional cooperation where he argued that common market was the future aim. In the 1980s, Mexico remained indifferent to the proposal where Canada and U.S. came closer and signed a set of agreements which ended up with signing of Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in 1988.

NAFTA was actually a free trade agreement, however, it functioned as a base for further integration. NAFTA gradually removed most tariffs and other barriers on trading products and services among the United States, Canada and Mexico. The pact formed a free trade block among the three members. The goods that are imported by a NAFTA country from another, are regarded as “national” given such status. NAFTA also aims at guaranteeing intellectual property rights among the member countries to avoid industrial theft.

Criticisms: There are some circles looking from a negative perspective. Accordingly, NAFTA is leading a “deindustrialization” in the U.S. due to the fact that manufacturing oriented jobs migrate to Mexico. Besides, NAFTA is criticized by turning Mexico into an import oriented state where American goods dominate the Mexican market. The critics also argue that multinational corporations would seek to enhance their profits at the expense of the ordinary citizens such as personnel and consumers.

Structure: NAFTA’s structure of governance is simple and based mainly on two bodies that are Free Trade Commission and the Secretariat.

Free Trade Commission (FTC): The Free Trade Commission is the supreme body of NAFTA which supervises NAFTA’s performance and evolution. It also aims at settlement of disputes.

The Secretariat: The Secretariat functions as an administrator for the Free Trade Council and it is organized on a national basis, with each of the three partners.

Other Bodies: The Commission for Environmental Cooperation is a trilateral body emerged by the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation.

The Commission for Labor Cooperation is a trilateral body emerged by the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation which is based in Dallas city of the USA.

The board of directors of the Border Environment Cooperation Commission was created by a bilateral agreement between the United States and Mexico.

The Board of the North American Development Bank (NADBank) was created by a bilateral agreement betweeen the United States and Mexico. It is located in San Antonio, Texas, USA.

MERCOSUR - Common Market of The South

MERCOSUR, Mercado Común del Sur in Spanish or Common Market of the South, is a trading and political bloc of currently 5 countries in South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. In 1994, the member states signed the Protocol of Ouro Preto which officially determined its status as a customs union. By the

Protocol of Ouro Preto, MERCOSUR became an international organization with a legal entity under international law.

ERCOSUR was created in 1991 aiming at forming a Common Market, which suggests free circulation of goods, services and factors of production among member states. Besides, it aimed at establishing a common external tariff and adoption of a unified trade policy towards third parties, coordination of macroeconomic and sectoral policies and commitment to harmonizing legislations in pertinent areas.

Structure: The Protocol of Ouro Petro established three decision making bodies: are the Common Market Council (CMC), the Common Market Group (GMC) and the MERCOSUR Trade Commission (CCM).

Common Market Council (CMC): The primary body of MERCOSUR is the Common Market Council which consists of member states’ ministers of foreign affairs and finance. It is a high level platform for coordinating foreign and economic policies. It takes the decisions to guarantee the enforcement of MERCOSUR’s rules and objectives.

Common Market Group (GMC): It is the superior executive organ of MERCOSUR. Among the duties of GMC are observing MERCOSUR’s activities within the limits of its authority, proposing decision projects to the Common Market Council, determining working programs that assure the progress of the Common Market settlement.

Trade Commission (CCM): Its main functions are observing the application of the common instruments of the inter-Mercosur commercial policy and its application against the third parties, international entities, establishing the technical committees necessary for the adequate fulfillment of its functions, as well as directing and supervising their activities.

Secretariat: The Secretary is responsible for keeping all MERCOSUR’s documentation, it publicities and distributes the decisions taken within Mercosur. It organizes meetings of Common Market Council, Common Market Group, Trade Commission while supporting them logistically.

ASEAN - Association of Southeast Asian Nations

ASEAN consists of 10 member states. ASEAN was founded on 8th August, 1967, when the ministers of the five founding states, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, came together in Bangkok and signed the ASEAN Declaration, also known as Bangkok Declaration. It aimed at accelerating economic growth, social progress, cultural development and promoting peace and security in the Southeast Asia. Brunei joined ASEAN in 1984, who was followed by Vietnam in 1995. Laos and Myanmar became members in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999.

ASEAN took the place of the Association of South East Asia (ASA), which was formed by the Philippines, Thailand and the Federation of Malaya (Malaysia for the moment) in 1961. It mainly focuses on economic cooperation, encourages trade among ASEAN member countries while also promoting trading activities between ASEAN and the rest of the world. It also suggests joint research and development projects among the member states.

Structure: The ASEAN Charter came to force in December 2008, which designates the functioning of various ASEAN bodies.

The ASEAN Summit: It is the supreme policy-making body of the organization. The Summit also functions as an international conference where the world leaders attend the related summits and discuss various issues on strengthening cooperation.

ASEAN Coordinating Council: It takes decisions regarding the ASEAN’s engagement with other entities at the international level. ASEAN Community Councils include; ASEAN Political-Security Community Council, ASEAN Economic Community Council and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council.

The ASEAN Sectoral Ministerial Bodies: It gathers the ministers on particular sectors. They are charged with contributing to the cooperation on their sector, implementing decisions of the ASEAN Summit and submitting reports to the Community Councils.

The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR): The main purpose of AICHR is to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms of the peoples of ASEAN. It is a consultative body which does not have the authority to make judgments.

ASEAN Dialogue Partners: ASEAN Dialogue Partners are states or international organizations with whom ASEAN conducts relations on a formal basis. There 10 dialogue partners of ASEAN for the moment that are Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States of America. Besides these partners, United Nations Development Program also holds a dialogue status whereas Pakistan is a sectoral dialogue partner.