The presentation is about small states in Europe, how to define them, their main challenges as regional actors and the strategies to follow for an active participation in the European integration project.

1. INRL 6003
SMALL STATES IN THE GLOBAL SYSTEM
Small states in Europe
WEEK TWO
Dr. Jacqueline LAGUARDIA MARTINEZ
INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES
Jacqueline.Laguardia-Martinez@sta.uwi.edu

2. Why European states?
• In IIR most of the small states studies are devoted to European small states,
even if, so far the study of the EU has focused mainly on institutions and great
powers, largely ignoring the impact of small member states
• Europe as an region is a major global actor
• Europe has the deepest supranational organization
• The EU provides a good context in which small states can be studied
• Small states as protagonists of critical issues in the region nowadays
(separatism)
• To understand small states strategies to survive as states and gain recognition
by their most powerful neighbors
• To understand small states strategies to act as regional and global leadership
in the international system

3. European small states are different from the majority of the small states
1. Their insertion into the international economy occurred at an earlier date
2. They are not in the periphery of the world capitalist system
3. As they are located in the center of the imperialist core of colonialist
powers, the pioneers in the development of capitalism, they have been
benefited by political and economical conditions favorable to national
autonomy, free trade orientation, Nation-State order, bourgeoisie rising,
industrial development

4. What is a small state in the European Union?
Which are they?

5. • Again, there is no consensus about the definition of small states, and
the borders between such categories as ‘micro state’, ‘small state’ and
‘middle power’ are usually blurred and arbitrary
• Whether an EU member state is ‘big’ or ‘small’ is not always clear-cut.
It depends on whether we look at population size, potential or actual
influence on the integration process and its institutions, how the states
in question view their own role and influence in the Union, economic
and financial power (GDP), political power (votes in the Council of
Ministers)
• Better to examine the exercise of influence than the mere possession
of power

7. According Panke, European small states are:
• The ones with less than the EU-28 average of votes in the Council of
Ministers
• 20 out of 28 countries fall into this category
• Malta, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Luxemburg, Slovenia, Denmark, Finland,
Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Austria, Bulgaria, Sweden, Belgium, Czech
Republic, Greece, Hungary, Portugal and Croatia

8. Different approaches, different “small states”
• Realism: Small states seek a multi-lateral security environment (how small states
survive despite their lack of power by institutional affiliation with the great powers).
Example Mouritzen and Wivel explore EU- and NATO-mediated geopolitics prevail in
most of Europe and its consequences for small states’ foreign policies
• Liberalism: Domestic interest groups and participation in the integration process (small
states are expected to be more interested in developing regional institutions). Example
Sieglinde Gstöhl and Christine Ingebritsen stablish how economic interests have played
some role in the policies of Sweden, Norway and Switzerland towards the European
integration process
• Constructivism: Why some small states are consistently more reluctant or positive than
others towards EU integration by pointing to the importance of compatibility of
discourses at the national and the EU level or how discourses shape the
European/national/small state identity . Example Ole Wæver argues that the discourse
of smaller states ‘explains mostly their dilemmas and problems

9. Small States in Europe, traditionally…
Foreign policy Integration process
The group encompass
 old and new members
 with high and low GDP per capita
 and different rates in support for EU-integration

10. But today… they might have responses to urgent regional problems!
FINANCIAL CRISIS AND ECONOMIC RECESSION
• THINK SMALL!!!!!
• Solution?: To break up the present large states into smaller, more cohesive
and efficient political communities
• Popular and nationalist beliefs tend to argue that the Euro crisis and its
consequences can be alleviated by seeking sovereignty to their regions and
leaving their respective nation-state
• The future? A new Europe of small nations

11. Separatism and
nationalist
movements
• UK: Ireland + Scotland
• Spain: Basque Country +
Catalonia
• Belgium: the Flanders
• …

12. Scotland: Reasons for independence
• Referendum, September 18th, 2014
• Regaining the revenues from the oil production in the North Sea estimated
at 11 billion euros per year
• Tendency to left in politics (different from the more conservative UK)
• Looking at Nordic states as socioeconomic models
• Strong history and culture, there is definitively an Scottish Identity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yZz-76tZp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03EBShyWeo4

13. Burning questions
•Currency?
•Nuclear weapons?
•EU?
•NATO?

14. CONTAGION EFFECT!!

15. http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?63577-European-Secession-Movements

16. Catalonia

17. Catalonia
• Historical and cultural differences with Madrid
• Closer to Europe, intense trade through the Mediterranean Sea
• Earlier industrialization: Merchant presence while the rest of Spain
remained medieval and rural (pastoral economy)
• Support to the Spanish Republic instead to Monarchy or Franco Regime
• Own language: Catalan
• Renewed independence claims due to:
a) Economic crisis
b) Scotland referendum

18. Catalonia referendum: November 9th
• Spanish Parliament refuse the legitimacy of the referendum
• Spanish government has announced it will be opposed to the
enter of an independent Scotland
• Catalonian population is divided: around 50%-50%
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XvnV5Q0Ux4

19. Basque country (Spain)

21. Basque country
• Historical and cultural differences with the rest of Spain and Europe
• Geography that allows isolation (mountains), very peculiar historical
evolution
• Own language: Euskera
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxy3KjpHci4
• Strong repression during the Franco Regime
• Heavily industrialized region
• Deep nationalism: Athletic Bilbao, the region soccer team, has followed a
strict unwritten rule of only fielding Basque players since 1912
• Arm strategies in the claim of independence (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna ETA). In
2011 announced its refusal to the use of military actions

22. Belgium

23. Flanders
• They ask for more autonomy, nor independence
• Historically around 10% support among the Flemish population
• Own language: Dutch
• Flanders concentrates most of the national wealth of Belgium
• Current Flemish economy is mainly based on exports. Flanders has the highest
export per capita in the world
• It is an area that stands out in both the industrial and commercially, famous for
its cheeses, beers and paintings (leading painters in Northern Europe in the 15th
century)
• New Flemish Alliance: A nationalist and conservative political party in Belgium,
founded in 2001, regionalist and separatist movement that self-identifies with
the promotion of civic nationalism, part of the Flemish Movement and strives for
the peaceful and gradual secession of Flanders from Belgium

25. Padania and Veneto

26. Padania and Veneto
• Italy was a venture or Republics until the end of XIX Century
• Strong historical and cultural traditions: Milano, Venezia
• Own languages
• Vibrant economies: industrialized region, trade, tourism
• More strong in the 90s due to Lega Nord, a federalist and, at times,
separatist political party
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF--4KyZ16Q

27. http://recuerdosdepandora.com/geografia-2/mapa-de-una-europa-donde-triunfaron-los-independentismos/

28. What do all this separatist movements have in
common?

29. What might happen to new independent European states?
Will they be part of the EU?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xnveOPFX9s
Scotland case
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UdfNQo7yto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebmfvA12ROs (European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso)

30. Other solution proposed to the crisis
Deepening the integration process, alternative to separatism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsOC9GqtgM8

31. European regional integration: main challenges
• Besides economic crisis and rising nationalism;
1. To redefine the purposes of integration (Euro skepticism)
2. To make it appealing to European citizens and overcome the elite approach: leading
politicians istead of people‘s assemblies to determine the way
3. To redefine where the emphasis will go: enlargement or deepening
4. To defeat the phantom of the war or a renewed Cold War: Ukraine conflict and the
relationship with Russia
5. The EU does not have a single constitution a single government, a single foreign
policy, a single taxation system contributing to a single exchequer, or a single military
6. France and Netherlands reject the Constitutional Treaty in referendums in Summer
2005, EU leaders suspend the ratification deadline
7. The Treaty of Lisbon of 2009 has not being fully implemented

32. Tension between the principle of equality between member states and democratic representation
• Tensions between the principles of one-country-one vote and one-citizens-one vote
(principles of equality among states and proportional democratic representation)
• Three mechanisms established by the founding treaty have long helped reduce the
intensity of these conflicts:
1. the system of weighed votes in the Council of Ministers
2. the role and representativity of the Commission
3. the rotating presidency
• Successive enlargements have made these mechanisms ever less adapted to the
functioning of the Union
• The Treaty of Nice introduced a qualified majority system based on a new weighting of
votes and a demographic verification clause
• The Treaty of Lisbon seeks to extend the qualified majority to issues which were up until
now governed by unanimity

33. How small states participate in
the agenda-setting and decision-making in the EU
• How to influence on shaping EU policies, taking into account that:
a. Limited financial and administrative resources necessary for
building up policy expertise and exert influence via arguing
b. Most of the small members recently joined the EU
• Different dimensions to influence (Diana Panke):
1. voting/bargaining power
2. argumentative power
3. moral/institutional power

34. Diana Panke, The Influence of Small States in the EU: Structural Disadvantages and Counterstrategies

35. Small states can achieve influence at EU level but that influence
depend on:
1. availability of resources (both in Brussels and in home ministries)
2. the stage at which member states engage in negotiations
3. the different negotiating strategies employed
4. the experience a member state has in terms of length of membership
5. effective networking
6. adopting a constructive pro-European approach
• Human resources (motivated experts, no brain drain, stable working conditions),
and learning effects are crucial for the active involvement of small states in the
EU policy-making processes

36. Counterbalancing strategy commonly used by European small
states (according Panke)
1. Institutionalized coordination
2. Strategic bilateral partnerships to big countries
3. Prioritization of issues
4. Contacts to the Commission
5. “Honest brokers” in the Council
6. Presidency as opportunity structure for national

37. To European Small States
Is Europe the problem or the solution?

38. Small European microstates
Who are they?
What are their common characteristics?
Why microstates and no micro nations?

39. Small European microstates (smaller than 1,000 square miles, less 1 million inhabitants)
• Andorra (principality) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAZHgoP7xXo
• Liechtenstein (principality) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daDK83iSPXc
• Malta (republic) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Dy1jwSzko
• Monaco (principality) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDHoN2g_YVQ
• San Marino (republic) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5P6SV8m80A
• Cyprus (republic)
• Iceland (republic)
• Luxembourg (grand duchy)
• and Vatican City (papacy)

40. Small European microstates
1. Survivors from pre capitalist era
2. Geographic location that facilitates isolation (mountains, islands)
3. Open economies and dependence on global markets
4. Integrated in the EU and special agreements to use the euro
5. Service sector highly developed (financial sector and
creative/cultural industries as tourism, traditional productions,
coins collector, postage stamps, movie’s location, sport practices,
monarchy gossips)
6. Sectorial protection policies in vulnerable sectors (agriculture)

43. • The Games of the Small States of Europe (GSSE) is a biennial, multi-sport event, launched by the Republic of
San Marino, organized by and featuring the National Olympic Committees of eight European small states
since 1985
• From its initial forming at the 1984 Olympics through 2009 there were eight members; the group's ninth
member was added in 2009
• The Games are currently held at the beginning of June, and feature competition in nine Summer Olympic
sports
• Members all have a population of less than one million people (Cyprus is the only exception, however its
population was below one million in 1984). Participating countries are:
1. Andorra
2. Cyprus
3. Iceland
4. Liechtenstein
5. Luxembourg
6. Malta
7. Monaco
8. Montenegro
9. San Marino
• The Faroe Islands are seeking to also compete at the Games; however the Faroes are neither a sovereign
nation (they are an autonomous province of Denmark) nor are they an EOC member

44. Bibliography
• Diana Panke, “The Influence of Small States in the EU: Structural Disadvantages and
Counterstrategies”, UCD Dublin European Institute Working Paper 08-3, May 2008.
• Ignasi Ribó, “How small countries can save the European project: the rise of the
habitat-nation”, Open Democracy, 6 November 2012
• Paul Magnette and Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Large And Small Member States in the
European Union: Reinventing the balance, June 5, 2003
• Executive Summary, Conference on Small States Inside and Outside the European
Union, 16 and 17 May 2008, Luxembourg Institute for European and International
Studies
• Iain McIver, The role of small states in the European Union, SPICe Research
• Christine Ingebritsen, “Norm entrepreneurs”, Small States in International Relations,
(ed. Christine Ingebritsen), University of Washington Press, 2006, pp. 273-285