[MUSIC] We are now in a very strange moment. Are we blocked in the third step of regional integration? Of post war regional integration. After traditional regionalism new regionalism we are now blocked, when new regionalism don't work as it was expected and traditional regionalism is more and more fading. We can say that we meet a real crisis of regional integration. And this crisis is not only affected Europe. Of course, Europe is more affected than all the other parts of the world because Europe was really bearing this new regional project, and was, in the first time, the motor of this regional integration, an example for all the world. But all the regional items are now questioned. In one hand it's questioned through many kind of crisis that we will take into account together. On the other hand, regionalism is now overcome by transregionalism. And by this new vision by which it's much more important to cooperate when countries share the same visions, even though they are not neighbor, than among neighboring countries which are not sharing the same values and the same target. This crisis of the regional order and regional integration it's first of all a conceptual crisis. Now there is a kind of anarchy about regionalism. As we are observing in the world different kinds of regional integration, which are not similar, but which are oriented towards different perspectives. For instance, by now in the present world, we can observe traditional interstate cooperation through, for instance, continual integration. This integration is not very deep, is not very important, it's much more an intergovernmental cooperation. The case, for instance, with organization of American States, or with the African Union, or the Arab League. It's only a partial cooperation and a limited cooperation which is not really threatening the national sovereignties. The second one is a little bit different. That's to say interstate corporations with precise economic targets, that's to say no political integration but they're willing to promote an economic integration which is mainly based on trade and intra zone trade. It is a case for instance of SADC which is growing among the thousand countries of Africa. It's also the case of NAFTA in North America. It's the case of the SAARC in South Asia. All these organizations are promoting this economic cooperation without really being concerned by particle cooperation and especially, particle integration. The two of the one is an interstate cooperation, which is based on economy, but which is targeting the spillover of economy to politics. This is the case of European Union, which started with economic cooperation, and which is promoting more and more political cooperation with the idea, that this economic corporation as it is more and more intensified will spill over economics to politics. And it's also the case of many regional corporations in Latin and South America. And we have also a fourth category which is quite different from all the others which is called open-regionalism which is not organized to institutions which does not target over a coming national sovereignty but which is protecting national sovereignty. But which is promoting an active but a free corporation, bilateral corporation, inside the arena is, for instance, the case of APEC. It's very difficult now to define how these four models are able to coexist when they are competing. But it's also very difficult to say which one is the winner. The first one is an old-fashioned one and probably not able to develop now in the global world. But it's not quite clear that the three others are really efficient. And this is my second point, beyond the concept of crises are real political and social crisis which is dramatically affecting the regional integration process. Ladies and gentlemen, I think that regional integration is now in crisis, everywhere around the world, everywhere around the world. And I will discriminate between three dimensions of this crisis. The first one is an institutional crisis. Regional institutions don't work anymore. Everywhere around the world. The second crisis is an economic crisis. That's to say all these regional organizations are no more able to deal with the present economic crisis. And the third one is a kind of rebirth of nationalism. But I would call a new nationalism which is probably collapsing, which is attacking, the heart of the process of regional integration. First one, we observe everywhere around the world, a kind of failure of the regional institutions. This is particularly important in Europe. You remember that Europe invested on its institutions rather than Asian countries which were much more promoting their own integration through economic and social dynamics. But Europe is probably trapped by it's institutional culture. European Union tries to promote new institutions. New treaties are succeeding but are not successful. Many of these new institutions where even rejective by the people sovereignty when they voted through referendum like it was the case in France. And this is triggering in Europe a lack of confidence among people, that's to say, a gap, a bigger and bigger gap between European societies and institutions. Now Europe institutions are more and more working for themselves, for their own agents, for their own actors. And so this gap is dangerously blocking the process of regional integration. This gap between social and politics is probably the worst pathology in political development. The second crisis now is effecting economies. You remember that European Union was created for reaching economic targets and for reconstructing the old continent. Now, as Europe is meeting this very strong crisis which started around 2007, 2008, we observe that Europe is no more able to face this crisis for a very simple reason, which is very important in my mind. In that European integration was considered as a kind of stakeholding that's to say addition of interest. When the context is good, when the situation is positive, this stakeholding Is working, and is working positively. But when the crisis is strong, Stakeholding is not working and must be replaced by a real sharing. But sharing implies to question national sovereignty. And now Europe is confronted to this opposition between stakeholding and sharing. Stakeholding which is promoted by national sovereignties, competing national sovereignties, and sharing, which implies a kind of solidarity which would overcome national sovereignties. And the third level of this crises must be found In this new nationalism which is now growing in all the European countries. In a recent polls made by Eurobarometer, in May 2014, 59% of European people don't trust in Europe. And they are 81% in Greece, precisely where the economy crisis is severe. And there are 67 in Spain and even in Germany, 59%. And that's why this gap between public opinion and European institutions creates a kind of new coming back to nations. And which is fueling this free riding strategy among the European governments which are playing their own card more and more. And this is also resulting in a new souverainism in which regional integration is no more conceived as a solution. But it's more about build up as a kind of scapegoat for taking into account the all the failures and difficulties meet by people and public opinion. Ladies and gentlemen, we don't know how the future is made, but we are now in a crucial moment. Either people in the world are able to invent a new kind of regional integration and they will overcome this cisis or they're not able to do that. And people will escape, either to this transregionalism that I mentioned or to a new nationalism, which is probably the main threat of the world because there is no compatibility between national sovereignty and global order, it is exactly what we will take into account in the next lecture. [MUSIC]
