Has re-unification fundamentally altered Germany's policy towards European Integration ?

Résumé du document

Even if Germany's policies underwent some changes since 1990, unification was not the earthquake many (perhaps particularly in France) feared. It did affect German's policies on a short-term basis, especially toward economics, because the unification cost was or is still amazing. But, these changes only affected the German attitude towards European regulative policies

Extraits

[...] The economic cost of the re-unification has sometimes forced German officials to escape from the market-orthodoxy. But the power Germany gained has been transformed into a legitimate influence that the same officials now accept. To me, this augurs well for the future, since that with the both enlargement and institutional reforms, Europe will need a true leader for a further integration. The only true leader is Germany for a long time, but only since the re-unification it looks like the German officials and perhaps the German population accepted to face their responsibilities in the European game. [...]

[...] From this point of view, Unification only affected the European Integration on the economic side, but not in a bad way. Actually, to reassure its European partners, Germany signed the Maastricht Treaty, that was leading to the European Monetary Union. If it is inaccurate to speak about continuity, because something important did happen in 1990, we have to acknowledge that the direction is the same The unified Germany seeks further integration. It is perhaps possible to say that, given the new parameters, the same goal can now be reached or pursued by different means. [...]

[...] Has re-unification fundamentally altered Germany's policy towards European Integration? Introduction On October the Federal Republic of Germany absorbed the German Democratic Republic. The German people turned to the hard work of integrating the new Lander, and two different societies, into one democratic state. The European Community emerged from the process of German unification transformed as well, France and Germany accelerated European integration in order to give a more powerful unified Germany a home in a unified Europe. During the spring and summer 1990 key decisions were made that led to the negotiation of the Maastricht treaty, The European Union was created when this treaty was signed in December 1990. [...]

[...] But at the end of the day, Germany's “wake is certainly a chance for a further European Integration. Indeed, since the German officials feel that they can express themselves, they lead the debate about further political integration. Instead of slowing the pace of integration, it could rather accelerate it, both in widening (enlargement) and in deepening (institutional reform). Indeed, and this has something to do with the re- unification, Germany is the actual link with the Eastern applicants. The majority of the public opinion is still against enlargement against and 36% for, which is not too bad). [...]

[...] Since 1990 indeed, the German monetary policy: a strong Deutsch Mark policy was applied to help with the problem of the mounting cost of the re- unification. But, with the creation of the Euro currency, the German “ideology” has been officially adopted as the European Monetary Union rules. Recently, they asked for a better representation at the European Parliament. This issue is relatively important because the German officials finally dared to ask for a fair share of the number of the Euro deputy. [...]