“'Designer' Europeanization: Lessons from Jean Monnet"

Ugland, Trygve. (2007) “'Designer' Europeanization: Lessons from Jean Monnet". In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2007 (10th), May 17-19, 2007, pages 28, Montreal, Canada.

Abstract

The European Council called for a period of reflection in each of the member states of the European Union (EU) after the people of France and the Netherlands rejected the Constitutional Treaty in referendums in 2005. The present paper offers a contribution to this process by reflecting on the prospects for institutional design and redesign in the EU. It does so from a historical perspective, and the paper discusses what lessons can be drawn from Jean Monnet, viewed as an institutional designer on the European stage. It is argued that the successful establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ESCS) was a product of a robust deontological design in a constitutional moment for Europe, and that prospective designers in the EU can learn important lessons from how Monnet identified and exploited available spaces for institutional design.