Europe is a continent with arguably ambiguous geographic boundaries. Europe has a long history of population, language and culture exchange and as a result the boundaries between countries are largely socially constructed and porous. Europe itself represents a large, continuous market in which the unrestricted flow of goods, services, capital and population further deteriorates national boundaries in the interest of free trade and open markets. The European Union has its origins in nascent European integration of the 19th century and first World War and protectionist policy following the second World War, however over time developed into a bureaucratic entity operating a large world economic market. Protectionism gave way to the belief that …show more content…
All three were merged in 1967 under the banner of the EEC in the interest of increasing integration but early the goal of all three were the control of supranational product exchange through the foundational precedents of common price and mobility of product.19 This was accomplished through the removal of tariffs on certain products throughout the participating states. Critically, these co-operative communities set the stage for co-operation through economic interest, not political, as the two failed communities in this time period, the European Defense Community and European Political Community failed because they were focused on the erosion of political sovereignty and not the added benefit of economic growth.20 By 1968 it was clear the future of a united Europe was through economic co-operation with a minimum of political …show more content…
Each institution is tasked with specific regulatory or bureaucratic goals or design and each was legislated powers in order to streamline as completely as possible the decision making process in a union composed of 28 member states. Moreover, the composition of the various legislative bodies ensures that each member state, regardless of size, has equal say in EU matters and propositions. While some states many have more power in practice, such as the UK, in theory each member state has equal access and protection within the EU legislative and decision making
The European Union has a common “government” called the Parliament. In the background essay it stated, “The role of the parliament is to debate and pass laws, make sure all EU institutions work democratically, and debate, and adopt the EU budget”. This means that the parliament has control over the laws, and controls the European Union budget. In Document B it mentions, “Whatever institution governs the trade of a nation or group of nations whether monarchy, dictator or parliament- essentially rules that nation”. This means that the parliament has control over the European Union. Most of the time countries
The European monarchs and rulers of the 17th and 18th centuries wanted to increase their power both domestically and globally by adding to their territories and populations. Both in merging their power internally and expanding their power externally, they employed three features of state-building: control, extraction, and integration. In the late 1700s, both the Industrial revolution and French revolution of 1789 strengthened the idea that Europeans were different from the rest of the world. It also strengthened that Europeans were “succeeding” promptly while the rest of the world seemed to be declining, that Europeans were somehow extraordinary and better than the rest.” (Robert Marks page 10).
For this reason, the Commission is referred as the “guardian of the Treaties” or “watchdog” of the EU. Moreover, the decisions made by the Parliament and the Council must be made on the basis of the proposals given by the Commission.
“Nationalism is the belief that people’s greatest loyalty should not be to a king or an empire but to a nation of people who share a common culture and history” (McDougal 253). Before the 18th century, people of a common ethnicity accepted the king that ruled over them, even if he was from a different nation. However, after the French Revolution of 1830, smaller groups of people who shared the same history and culture began to form together and create a nation-state. The rise of nationalism in the 19th century changed Europe’s borders as nationalists strengthened and unified nations such as England and Italy, but also separated large empires like the Russian Empire.
A Democratic Deficit in the EU The question over the legitimacy of the EU has been a nearly continuous debate and many commentators appear to agree that the EU suffers from a severe ‘democratic deficit’. There are many reasons why this perception is so widespread. As a multinational body it lacks the grounding in common history and culture upon which most individual polities can draw.
The rise of European nationalism in the 19th Century brought with it an overabundance amount of change that would definitively modify the course of history. The rise of nationalism in one country would rouse greater nationalism in another, which would in turn, motivate even greater nationalism in the first, progressively intensifying the cycle that eventually concluded in a World War. Nationalism as an ideology produced international competition which inspired absolute allegiance to an individual’s nation state. The ideology was fueled by industrial commerce and imperialistic developments which led to nation-states pursuits of outcompeting rival nations.
The European Union is an example of successful political globalization as there is stability in the region. The European Union has united several countries, specifically “twenty seven European countries” (Davies 1) and there has been benefits to this system. There has been a “reduction in crime, a rise in population, life expectancy and income as well as an improving government.” (Rich 3). Through this political system there has been improvement in not only in the government but in the people’s wellbeing.
Peterson, J. and Shackleton, M. 2002. The institutions of the European Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The EU is a union of sovereign European states who share sovereignty based on treaty. The union also possesses competences in policy sectors with exclusive jurisdiction in the area of Economic and Monetary Union while others are shared with Member States (MS), the other powers belong to MS as derived from the conferral of powers art 5(2) TEU, 2(1) TFEU art.3 & 4 TFEU additionally other powers have been offered by the decisions of the European Court for direct effect on citizens
Following the post-World War II carnage and violence, a new Europe arose from the ashes. This new Europe was decimated from the intermittent fighting between the Allied and Axis powers during the second great war and the nations of Europe sought to devise a plan that to avoid further war-time conflicts within the region. The European Coal and Steel Committee was the first advent of assembling nations together in political and economic interest. The ECSC was formed in 1950 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris whose signatories included West Germany , Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, France and The Netherlands.
The Presidency rotates among the Member States every six months and is used as a mechanism through which Member States can advance specific priorities. The UK will next hold the Presidency in the second half of 2005. [2] The European Council's far reaching and dramatic decisions have helped propel their meetings into the public spotlight where they have become the focal point for media coverage of the EU, which increases their power [3] During the political, economic and institutional weakening of the European Community (EC) in the 1960s and 1970s the ECJ persisted and struggled on to create an extensive and powerful mass of case law that continued the process for deeper integration. The outcome of this was extremely positive.
The rise of nationalism and its mark on the history of Europe was quite profound. The unification of major powers and the civil unrest on the journey to unification created a large chapter of history in the nineteenth century. By the 1900s the mark of nationalism had been left on Italy, Germany, France and Great Britain. The major European powers had come through great trials to set the stage for the twentieth century and the conflicts that will erupt. Nationalism will be remembered as a great period of change and growth.
Senior, Nello Susan. "Chapters:4,15." The European Union: Economics, Policies and History. London: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
The enlargement of the European Union (EU) in 2004 and 2007 has been termed as the largest single expansion of the EU with a total of 12 new member states – bringing the number of members to 27 – and more than 77 million citizens joining the Commission (Murphy 2006, Neueder 2003, Ross 2011). A majority of the new member states in this enlargement are from the eastern part of the continent and were countries that had just emerged from communist economies (EC 2009, Ross 2011), although overall, the enlargement also saw new member states from very different economic, social and political compared to that of the old member states (EC 2009, Ross 2011). This enlargement was also a historical significance in European history, for it saw the reunification of Europe since the Cold War in a world of increasing globalization (EC 2009, Mulle et al. 2013, Ross 2011). For that, overall, this enlargement is considered by many to have been a great success for the EU and its citizens but it is not without its problems and challenges (EC 2009, Mulle et al. 2013, Ross 2011). This essay will thus examine the impact of the 2004/2007 enlargements from two perspectives: firstly, the impact of the enlargements on the EU as a whole, and thereafter, how the enlargements have affected the new member states that were acceded during the 2004/2007 periods. Included in the essay will be the extent of their integration into the EU and how being a part of the Commission has contributed to their development as nation states. Following that, this essay will then evaluate the overall success of the enlargement process and whether the EU or the new member states have both benefited from the accessions or whether the enlargement has only proven advantageous to one th...
Ed. John Merriman and Jay Winter. "1989." Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction. Vol. 4. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006. 1874-1880. World History in Context. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.