The European Union is an entity that is seen nowhere else in the world. It is not a government, it is not an international organization, and it is not just an association of states. The European Union members, instead, have decided to turnover part of their sovereignty to the Union so that many decisions can be made at the institutions leadership level. This partnership includes 28 diverse democracies built together on the basis of complex treaties. Although the goals of this organization were to assist with expanding economic prosperity, peace and stability throughout its member states, the European Union has been faced with ever-pressing concerns in the recent past that are very serious and may in fact become fatal to the continued coalescing between members. These problems can be categorized into three categories; economic, social, and political.
Economically, the last 6 or so years have been nothing short of dismal for the European Union and its members. Due to the diversity among its members own national economic policies, the European Union’s economic configuration and its single currency were shown to be somewhat incoherent. The European Union’s gross domestic product only grew a measly one percent in 2013, compared to the United States’ 2.2 percent growth. In December 2014, unemployment among member nations of the European Union hovered around 11.4 percent, while the United States unemployment rate held at around 5.6 percent. Even though in the U.S. we are ever
The European Union (EU) is a unique economic and political partnership between 28 different countries. It consists of about half a billion citizens, and its combined economy represents about 20 percent of the world’s total economy (Briney, 2015). Today The European Union works as a single market, with free movement of people, goods and services from one country to another. There is a standard system of laws to be followed, and since 1999 many countries share a single currency called the Euro (Europa.eu, 2015). This essay will explore the background history of the European Union and the benefits and drawbacks of the European Union.
Part of the exceptional nature of the EU stems from the notion that nothing like it has ever been attempted successfully before. The European Union is an international institution with a single market and shared currency. It strives to maintain singular goals and make its way towards being an “ever closer union”. Today, the European Union has expanded to include twenty-eight member countries with an influence that reaches every continent. This institution has had an impressive history, but it has reached a point of concern. The golden years which held high hopes of a united supranational Union are long over. The EU faces destructive problems today, which could ultimately end their impressive era of cooperation. The Union has come
The European Union (EU) poses one of the most unique challenges to understanding sovereignty and international relations. This is because of the extent of integration between EU institutions and member States. This integration has been to the point where the EU is not only considered an international body whose laws States can choose to adopt, but that it can actually play a significant role in the law making of member States. The extent of this integration has made it questionable whether member States have effectively given up their sovereignty to the EU. To an extent, sovereignty has passed from member States to the
The European Union (EU) has a variety of methods to promote democracy beyond its borders. It is the contention of this paper that EU democracy-promotion policies are more significant in the context of a pre-accession conditionality. The success of EU democracy promotion is contingent upon the degree of bargaining power the EU possesses vis-à-vis ‘third countries’ (third countries being those which seek EU membership, and are prepared to make the necessary political and economic reforms). In the context of pre-accession conditionality the EU possesses significant bargaining power, making adhesion to the norms of the Copenhagen criteria (political and economic conditions necessary for EU accession) the only viable option for states seeking
European Union was formed with a lot of expectations. Despite closeness and similarities, the various nations of the European continent fought bitter wars for thousands of years within themselves. After the devastating World War II, finally everyone saw the light and decided to give a chance to peaceful coexistence. However, EU’s path hasn’t been smooth. Many critical economic as well as political problems have emerged throughout the last decade, raising questions about its credibility.
Formed from 28 Member States, the EU has developed an internal single market which enabled it to control what happens in the Member States. The context in which the EU has developed has caused it to be unique in comparison to all the others and through this essay I will demonstrate how the characteristics and functions of the EU are found to be those only associated with the EU.
The European Union (EU) legislation has gone through evolution through many treaties in order to establish a better democratic legitimacy of its legislative procedure. It has been discussed that the core elements of democratic legitimacy can be found in two dimensions, the input-dimension and the output-dimension. The input-dimensions focuses more on citizens’ rights and possibilities for participation and contestation, and their right to elect their own representatives. Besides that, the input-dimension also described that in order for democratic legitimacy to be achieved, the representatives within the EU must be accountable through transparent procedures of election and government in the representative in the system that must be in
The European Union (EU) is the union of economic, monetary and political with twenty-seven Member States. They work together, in order to get particular advantages for their countries. This has been argued by Bickerton, the shift from nation-states to Member States led to a subtle and not unproblematic. However, the countries are free to choose want to join or withdraw from the EU. EU consists of various institutions, but with only three institutions are involved in the EU legislative process. These are the Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission. Over the years the EU has been expanded, consequently various treaties have been signed to work together. The latest treaty is the Lisbon Treaty, which was an
The European Union (EU) was established back in (REFERENCE) with the aim of (REFERENCE peace and economic prosperity). Since then, much has happened, and the EU is now considered more than just an economic collaboration. This brings along both new challenges and new opportunities when considering the future EU. Recent developments has shown an increasingly worry about the economic situation in the EU (REFERENCE GREECE AND SPAIN), which challenges the legitimacy of the EU as solely an economic union – if the internal economy is falling apart, how can we then justify the upholding of the union? This has become a major concern to several EU countries. One example is the United Kingdom,
One of the main objectives of the European Union (EU) is the establishment of the internal market, which shall consist of “area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured. The internal market is based upon a customs union achieved through the abolition of the imposition of customs duties and charges having an equivalent effect and the prohibition of discriminatory taxes on intra-EU imports. The internal market is enhanced by the provisions on free movement of workers, freedom of establishment, free movement of services, and free movement of capital. Whereas Articles 28 to 30 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) provide for the establishment of an EU common external tariff and the elimination of customs duties, Articles 34 and 35 of the TFEU (with exceptions under Article 36) go further, and prohibit quantitative restrictions and measures having equivalent effect. Taken together, Articles 28 to 32 and 34 to 36 serve to ensure the free movement of goods within the EU and to facilitate the operation of the internal market.
What would become the European Union developed out of a need to negate the war-making potential of European powers, namely Germany as well as to foster economic recovery in countries whose economies were all but destroyed. It was thought that tying the main armaments-making resources, coal and steel, together in a supernational organisation responsible for its management would serve both roles. It has been developing since 1951 and keeps evolving. What one sees as a transformation from something similar to a customs union not too unlike Benelux, to a political union and finally a monetary union, albeit an incomplete one. The fundamental bodies that comprise what is now the European Union are still for the most part based on the spirit of the Treaties of Rome. The development of the EU as whole will be explored as well as the bodies that comprise it. How those bodies have improved as well as any weaknesses that still characterise them will be explained.
The formation of the European Union was a turning point in the stability of relationships between European countries, allowing the exploration of true diplomacy among the nations, and it brought along the possibility of peace through the exchange of people and support. The European Union was jump started and driven by its desire to be able to stay in economic competition with both the Soviet Union and the United States of America.
What most people don’t realise is just how deeply being a member of the European Union affects us in our everyday lives. It doesn’t just affect our law and big political issues but also our culture, the NHS and job prospects. In this essay I will only be focusing on a tiny amount of the issues raised out of the enormous range including how being a member of the European Union affects our laws, jobs and immigration. I will try to weigh up all of the arguments for each side and, hopefully, come to a conclusion.
Brexiters are desperate and angry with everything and everyone that suggests that the British people should vote to remain in the European Union in the 23 June 2016 referendum. The recent victim of their desperation and ire has been no less a personage than the US President Barrack Obama himself.
The European Union (EU) is an intergovernmental union of European states composed of 28 countries. The EU’s emphasis is to encourage economic and social harmony between nations.