Liberal Intergovernmentalism

1 Pages 335 Words

PAPER ON “LIBERAL INTERGOVERNMENTALISM”

CAN WE APPLY THE LIBERAL INTERGOVERNMENTALIST THEORY
TO THE BARGAINS OF THE EUROPEAN AGREEMENTS
WITH THE VISEGRAD COUNTRIES (1990-1991) ?

The historical events of 1989 with the collapse of the Iron Curtain created a unique historical situation in Europe: a new reintegration period between two political parties of the continent. The European Agreements were the first attempt of this reintegration period.
When we look at the European Agreements made between the European Union and the Visegrad Countries (Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary) in 1990-1991, we see that they were signed after long bargaining period between both parties. In order to answer the topic question, we have to look at the basic aspects of the theory and the practices of the bargains of the European Agreements.
Basically liberal intergovernmentalism includes a preference analysis (demand) and an intergovernmental bargain (supply) analysis. The former should be reflected by the interests of the European Union and the Visegrad Countries as the two parties, but there was the problem of diversified trade interests between the South and North countries within the European Union. The latter was purely existing in this bargaining process and showed the strength of the European Union in the trade regime. The Visagrad Countries were the regime takers, and suffered for their weak bargaining position.
Another point was, that the European Agreemants had to be ratified in each member country just as constitutional changes have to, which illustrates the strong role of the state in the decision making structure, and this is also a main point in liberal intergovernmentalism.
Shortly, the answer of the topic question is positive and the bargaining process of the European Agreements between the European Union and the Visegrad Countries can be explained with the liberal intergovernmentalist theory. Although there was some...