In 1992 the LODE-Line crossed the eastern boundary of the European Community on the border between a recently re-unified Germany and Poland at LINKEN. Poland joined the European Union in 2004, and in 2017 the LODE-Line crosses the eastern border of the EU on the frontiers Poland shares with Belarus and the Ukraine.
LODE journeys across Europe in 1992 included travelling from the North Sea coast of Germany to the German border with Poland. In 1992 this border was the eastern boundary of the EC, the European Community as the EU called itself then.
The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union. Representatives from 12 countries, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom, signed the Treaty on 7 February 1992. The parliaments in each country then ratified the Treaty, in some cases holding referendums. The Maastricht Treaty officially came into force on 1 November 1993 and the European Union was officially established. Since then, a further 16 countries have joined the EU and adopted the rules set out in the Maastricht Treaty or in the treaties that followed later.
Five things you need to know about the Maastricht Treaty
The European Central Bank has a webpage that set out the five things you need to know about the Maastricht Treaty.
1. It established the European Union
The Maastricht Treaty, officially known as the Treaty on European Union, marked the beginning of “a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe”. It laid the foundations for a single currency, the euro, and significantly expanded cooperation between European countries in a number of new areas:
- European citizenship was created, allowing citizens to reside in and move freely between MemberStates;
- a common foreign and security policy was established;
- closer cooperation between police and the judiciary in criminal matters was agreed.
2. It was signed by 12 countries
Representatives from 12 countries signed the Treaty on 7 February 1992 – Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.
The parliaments in each country then ratified the Treaty, in some cases holding referendums. The Maastricht Treaty officially came into force on 1 November 1993 and the European Union was officially established.
Since then, a further 16 countries have joined the EU and adopted the rules set out in the Maastricht Treaty or in the treaties that followed later.
3. It laid the foundations for the euro
The Maastricht Treaty paved the way for the creation of a single European currency – the euro. It was the culmination of several decades of debate on increasing economic cooperation in Europe. The Treaty also established the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European System of Central Banks and describes their objectives. The main objective for the ECB is to maintain price stability, i.e. to safeguard the value of the euro.
The idea of a single currency for Europe was first proposed in the early 1960s by the European Commission. However, an unstable economic landscape in the 1970s meant that the project was brought to a halt.
European leaders revived the idea of a single currency in 1986 and committed to a three-stage transition process in 1989. The Maastricht Treaty formally established these stages:
- Stage 1 (from 1 July 1990 to 31 December 1993): introduction of free movement of capital between Member States
- Stage 2 (from 1 January 1994 to 31 December 1998): increased cooperation between national central banks and the increased alignment of Member States’ economic policies
- Stage 3 (from 1 January 1999 to today): gradual introduction of the euro together with the implementation of a single monetary policy, for which the ECB is responsible
4. It introduced the criteria that countries must meet to join the euro
Along with setting out the timeline for the introduction of the single currency, the Treaty also established rules on how the euro would work in practice. This included how to determine if countries were ready to join the euro.
The purpose of these particular rules, sometimes referred to as the Maastricht criteria or the convergence criteria, is to ensure price stability is maintained in the euro area even when new countries join the currency. The rules work to ensure that countries joining are stable in the following areas:
- inflation
- levels of public debt
- interest rates
- exchange rate
5. It was a giant leap forward for European integration
Since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty, European countries have grown closer together while some policy areas such as economic and fiscal policies remain at national level. European leaders have agreed on additional steps to promote further integration between European states:
- the Stability and Growth Pact was agreed in 1997 to ensure that countries followed sound budgetary policies
- the European Stability Mechanism was established to provide financial assistance to euro area countries experiencing or threatened by severe financing problems
- the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Board were created after the financial crisis to make the European banking system safer, as well as to increase financial integration and stability
- Today, more than 510 million citizens from 28 Member States enjoy the benefits of European cooperation. And 25 years after the roadmap towards the euro was agreed, the euro has become the world’s second most traded currency and is part of the daily life of 340 million citizens in 19 countries.
This fifth element (not to be confused with Luc Besson's crazy science-fi film of 1997) is questionably a typical example of of post-fact justification and with a gloss that cracks under scrutiny.
This is the bureaucratic dream that has become a nightmare for 340 million citizens in 19 countries.
Looking back to 1992, it certainly was a giant leap for the bureacracy, the elite technocrats, and the leading politicians of the EC at the time, but the lack of an appropriate architecture for a necessary, in political terms, a democratic accountability, has meant that for many Europeans the leap has turned out to become a fall, and many are now questioning the purpose of the European Union project.
A union to abolish war in Europe?
Linken is place on the border with Poland.And Linken is on the Oder-Neisse line!
"Germany’s entry alongside France into a battle between the European Commission and Poland over the rule of law increases the likelihood of unprecedented EU action to punish Warsaw."
This may be a watershed moment in the dispute over an overhaul of the judiciary and other steps taken by PiS which Brussels says undermine democracy in the largest ex-communist EU state.
Reunification Day in Goodbye Lenin
Accordingly, on Unification Day, 3 October 1990, the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist, and five new Federal States on its former territory joined the Federal Republic of Germany. East and West Berlin were reunited and joined the Federal Republic as a full-fledged Federal City-State. Under this model, the Federal Republic of Germany, now enlarged to include the five states of the former German Democratic Republic plus the reunified Berlin, continued legally to exist under the same legal personality that was founded in May 1949.
Varoufakis . . .
Why did the Europeans create the euro?
The corrupt ruling classes of Greece, Italy, Spain and their ilk were empowered by pledging to transfer their power to Brussels and Frankfurt. The French elites did indeed fear the Germans. And the German people had reason to fear that fear, as well as their own nation state's capacity to self-destruct through extreme belligerence.
It is almost an instinct of those who are critical of the euro to blame its adverse effects on Germany and the Germans. I have always opposed this tendency for two reasons. First, there is no such thing as 'the Germans'. Or 'the Greeks'. Or 'the French' for that matter.
'you are all individuals', as Brian famously told his unwanted followers in Monty Python's classic comedy. The serious point here is that there is a great deal more divergence in character, virtue and opinion among Greeks and among Germans than there is between Germans and Greeks. The second reason I have always resisted the habitual censure of Germany is that, if the debate is allowed to stoop to this stereotypical level, Paris bears greater responsibility than Berlin for the euro's faults.Varoufakis then refers to an article in the French conservative daily Le Figaro published back in 1992 two days after Black Wednesday and two days before french voters were to deliver their verdict on the Maastricht Treaty.
'the opponents of Maastricht fear that the common currency and the new central bank will fortify the superiority of the Deutsche Mark and the Bundesbank. But the exact opposite will happen. If it comes to Maastricht, Germany will have to share its financial might with others. "Germany will pay," they said in the 1920's. Today Germany does pay. Maastricht is the Treaty of Versailles without a war.'
No German, indeed no European, could forgive such sentiments, and none would expect anything less from the Bundesbank than a plan for making france's conservative establishment, of which Le Figaro is a distinguished part, eat its words. The desperate struggle the French elites were caught in to persuade the sceptical French electorate to vote 'yes' in the Maastricht referendum (which almost produced a 'no') is no excuse. The 1919 Versailles Treaty condemned Germans to unspeakable misery, humiliated a proud nation and primed it to be taken over by Nazi thugs.
To every place there belongs a story . . .
This blog-post is a matrix that originates first in the context of an artistic activity that relates to this place, Linken, and then connections multiply through processes of association, suggesting links, articulations and juxtapositions that the contemporary information wrap affords us, in a particular and contemporary type of consciousness, where the "loop" or "ricorso" helps the zig zagging necessary to see what is going on.
That's just the way it is . . . but don't you believe them . . .
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