Is There a European Capital?

The Mandel-Poulantzas debate of the seventies was one of the rare attempts in political economy to provide an explanation for the Long-term European integration rationale. For Mandel, an amalgamation of national capitals at the European level was necessary, as capitals in Europe have no other choice than to gather forces in order to survive the competition of US capital. He considered that the emergence of a European proto-state was a side effect of this process of capital amalgamation. Poulantzas doubted this hypothesis, pointing out the growing imbrications between US and European capitals and the resilience of long term historical singularities reflected in the national state.

Four decades later, this contribution examines the organization of capital at the European level, looking at ownership (nationality and kind of investor) and board interlock networks of public-listed companies. The analysis is based on two samples. 400 firms are constituted by capitalization of the 12 main EU stock markets, the other 1100 firms are more representative in terms of sectors and economic weight but tend to obscure the specificities of less important market places. This analysis shows the growing internationalization of capital in Europe but the weak autonomy of European capital, bringing a possible explanatory factor to the difficulties in substantiating a European state.