Economic Integration of a Common Market in the EU and Organized Crime

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This essay will attempt to demonstrate how economic integration and the creation of a common market (opening of internal border) in the European Union contributes to growing concern about organized crime and how the EU dealt with such problems. In order to do so the theory of neo-functionalism and the spillover effect will help to evaluate and explain how economic integration lead to further cooperation and the creation of supranational entities in the security arena. First, to better understand the effect of economic integration we need to look at how the EU created a single market and how it affected borders control. Second, the neo-functionalist perspective will be used to examine the increasing cooperation between EU members and why organized crime has become a big concern. Finally, this paper will look at organized crime in the EU and if they managed to deal effectively with the problem.
The European Union cooperation all started with economic integration. Since the beginning of the ECSC in 1952 until now one of the major forces but also one of the major weaknesses of the EU has been their will for a common market and a monetary union. The single market was achieved in 1992 with the entrance into function of the Maastricht treaty. This treaty greatly influenced how states would have to deal with external border control and the free movement of the people because what the Maastricht treaty did was not only opening a single market, but also allowing people, goods and services to move freely across European Union member states. Economic integration has explained by Nevin has usually 5 level which goes from he lowest o he highest level of cooperation. The first level of integration is the preferential tariff which only allows st...

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... help finding criminals that could flee to one member state to the other without being taking in charge of the law they are breaking (Mitsilegas & al., 2003, p.57). The single market allowed a free movement of people but at the same time create an issue about how easy it was now for organized crime to move from one place to another and if the laws and mutual recognition of one member states laws to the other are not taken into account there will be a lot of difficulties in dealing with this problem. Therefore need for greater cooperation and integration are important and are an automatic effect of the single market which explain why neo-functionalist functional spillover is the best theory that can help one to understand why the European Union by achieving a common market need at the same time to have a bigger set of regional law that will apply to all member state.

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