Sixty million individuals' blood was shed worldwide following World War II, the most lives ever in history to be lost during a war. Reconstruction was long and strained, but needed, and the decisions to create the European Union (EU) was an opportunity to unite the European nations following the horrific past world war. The creation of the European Union was developed over a fifty year span, initially being the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) Treaty in 1951 when it was signed by France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Then in 1955 two more treaties were signed, the European Economic Community (EEC), merging countries markets, and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC), structuring the usage of nuclear energy. It would then be in 1993 the Treaty of European Union was signed in the Netherlands, and a renovation of the previous Treaties generated. Today the EU consists of 28 Member States actively working towards a cooperation between trade and economy through the creation of the Euro, human rights and privileges, security, and preserving the environment. Yet the cultures of each unique country still emerges, the EU contains 23 official languages, a background of cultures, and a variety of religions.
The European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament make daily decisions which affect the citizens of 28 countries, from financial decisions to the foreign affairs. The European Commission is the United States executive branch, yet also has legislative powers, overall they ensure all laws/regulations apply to the EU treaties and negotiate with non-EU countries. The Council of the European Union makes the main decisions for the EU, and the Council consists of on...
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... Member States. The EMU has three main stages it passed through to achieve the single market for the EU. First stage was to establish the single market, second came the European Monetary Institute, and the final stage was the birth of the euro and European Central Bank. Every EU Member State either has the euro or is in the transition, except Denmark and the United Kingdom due to an "opt-out" clause. Due to the monetary union there has been a economic stability, unemployment rate decline, a closer economic integration, and the international usage of the euro. The EU established the Stability and Growth Pact which is to help sustain public finances, and give structure to joining EU Member States. The European Central Bank is essential for the functioning of the EU, and back in 2007 when financial turmoil developed in the U.S. the Bank provided effectively for the EU.
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
January 1, 1999 marked the beginning of the euro as an accepted currency in eleven European countries. Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain all adopted this single currency, becoming subdivisions of a common monetary policy. On this date, the exchange rates of each of the participating countries were set, and the euro was officially recognized as the legal currency. The push towards the development of a common currency began in 1957, when the Treaty of Rome stated a common European market as an objective, hoping that “an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe” would inevitably occur. The approval of the Single European Act in 1986 symbolized and cleared the way for accelerated European integration and the completion of a single European market. Consequently, European governments and industry began to place greater emphasis on the competitiveness of European industry and on the reduction of barriers within Europe that hindered industry’s global economic competitiveness. The European Union went a step farther in 1992 in the Treaty of European Union, creating the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
As at January 1, 2007, the European Union comprised of 29 member States (United kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain, Poland, Slovenia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Slovakia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Austria, Sweden, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Turkey.)
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.
Based on the Treaty of Rom of 1957 the European Community was founded by six nations. Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands agreed in 1968 to create a free trade area; that ended up eliminating all their tariffs. Just 2 years later, they formed a Custom Union by adjusting common external tariffs. In 1973 United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark joined the trade bloc and Greece became a member in 1981. Six years later Spain and Portugal were accepted and in 1992 the 12 members established a common market without any trade restrictions. Its name changed in 1993 when the Contract for the European Union was signed. In 1995 Sweden, Finland and Austria were admitted and helped to build the European Monetary Union with one single currency in 2002 which was necessary to fulfil all 4 criterias of the convergence criterias.
Although the European Union consists of a large variety of institutions, the most important institution is the European Commission. Established in 1958 and based in Luxemburg and Brussels, this hybrid institution (executive and bureaucratic) “epitomizes supranationalism and lies at the center of the EU political system” (Dinan, 2010, p. 171). It has a substantial bulk of responsibilities and carries out these responsibilities with a vast number of constituents, acting as the executive for the EU. These responsibilities include anything from drafting and initiating policy to managing the financial framework of the EU, and can have a large impact on the other institutions of the EU. In order to “promote the general interests of the Union,” the Commission strives to unify the interests of the member states and is continually working for implementation and harmonization of EU law (Dinan, 2010, p. 191).
The official European was first officially created in 1993. The purpose of the European Union was to make sure that that it connected parts
Eurozone crisis can be seen as the most important economic problem of the European Union in the history. Because of that crisis the currency union have faced the possibility of separation which is an extremely critical issue not only economically but also politically. Until the subprime crisis which became prominent by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008, the economic level of the EU members were similar. When the bankruptcy occurred those countries started to differentiate in a very significant way. Total government debt and also problems of banking sector lead many countries to negative GDP growth, high unemployment rates and more importantly social unrest.
• The European Commission says that the Single Market has helped create 2.5 million new jobs and generated €800 billion in additional wealth since 1993
There are several key components of the European history that have led to the creation of the individual nations within the EU and the larger supranational Institution we call the European Union. As Curtis and Linser (2004) “The European Union is the most important development in European history since World War Two” (Curtis & Linser, 2004, p.4). And I tend to agree that this story line is the most important since it was the starting’s to one of the largest supranational organizations that shaped modern Europe and continues to shape it today. To start the European Union could not have been created without the nations that are part of this supranational organization. Many of the nations that make up the EU have been either long-term super powers, France, United Kingdom or Germany, but also areas plagued with conflict. The conflict is however the more important of the two. The conflict between Germany and the rest of Europe in WW2 was the sparks that created...
Currently the E.U. has several functions, as they have grown dramatically in the number and members, and along with the world development, new functions were added to the E.U. Some of these functions include: safeguarding people private data through the European Data Protection. The E.U. also has the European Central Bank which is responsible for European monetary policies.
The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 27 member countries located in Europe. The EU was established on 1 January 1958 following the Treaty of Rome 1957 (Nobes and Parker, 2010). The objective of Treaty had established rules to encourage free movement of persons, products and services, and capital. This establishment drives the needs of harmonization of accounting and financial reporting.
The European Union is known as an economic and political partnership between 28 member states, in the continent of Europe. After the second world war European countries affected by the war came together to discuss of a resolution that would avoid another event such as the World Wars from occurring. In 1952 the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) would become the first international organisation that would see the further developments of the European Union. The six countries involved with the organisation were Germany, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957 by the six countries which saw the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC). In 1958 the EEC was created and the six members became the first states in the organisation. Coming up to almost sixty years since its establishment the EEC is what is known as the European Union (EU) and its members have grown from six to twenty-eight. The EEC was changed to the European Union in 1993 after the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. Ireland has largely benefited from the EU since joining in 1973.
Because it could be quite complicated to look at the EU model from a point of classical democratic nation-state, it seems to be reasonable to discuss this problem, not by abstract reasoning, but by focusing on a concrete case. European Union is the best case available, which in recent decades has developed into a new type of political system with enormous consequences on democracy and governance in its member states. Despite repeated attempts for major institutional reforms, this system is likely to persist in its basic structures for the future and is unlikely to develop into a federal state or to disintegrate into a classic international organization. The present state of democracy and governance in the EU is therefore worth to be analyzed, as it is not a mere transitory state.