An international organization comprised of independent nations that share their sovereignty to be stronger and have a greater global influence, the European Union (EU) was created by the Maastricht Treaty (1992), and put into operation by 12 countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom) on November 1, 1993. The purpose was to form a continent united by common institutions, progressively harmonize national economies, establish a greater common market, and gradually coordinate social policy.
Since its emergence, Austria, Finland, and Sweden (1995); Cyprus, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, and the Czech Republic (2004); and Bulgaria and Romania (2007) have been incorporated into the EU. The 27 members have a total population of 495 million people and a land extension of 4.2 million sq. km.
European Institutions
Institutions are essential in the assumption of decision making in the European Union: These are the European Council, the Council of the European Union (CEU), the European Commission, the European Parliament (EP), the European Court of Justice (ECJ), and the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
The European Council was created to make official the meetings of heads of state that had previously been convoked irregularly. It convened for the first time in 1975 in Dublin. Meeting at least twice a year, it is formed by the heads of government of member countries, and attended by foreign affairs ministers. The state that currently holds the presidency of the CEU presides over the function.
The Maastricht Treaty was the initiator of the Union’s first policies, which granted arbitration power in questions of conflict between ministers who cannot reach an agreement in the CEU. It also addresses pressing international problems through the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), which is designed to allow the EU to speak with one voice on diplomatic issues.
The Council of the European Union (CEU), the Ministers Council, pertains to the defense of the interests of member states. Council presidency is held by one of the member states for six-month terms, which grants an essential role in the organization of work in the institution and is a driving force in the legislative and political decision process. The assemblies are held in the CEU and attended by the member states’ ministers responsible for issues to be addressed (for example, foreign affairs, finance, social issues, transportation, agriculture). It executes a legislative power, generally in codecision with the European Parliament to assure economic policy coordination of member states; define and put common foreign and security policy into practice; observe international accords in the name of the Union; coordinate state movement and adopt measures in the scope of police cooperation and penal matters; and constitute the authority that passes the Community budget.
The most customary procedure to approve decisions is by a qualified majority of the 27 member states, whereby each country, depending on its population, has a portion of the 345 total votes (2007). Any adopted decisions must be passed by a majority of the member states, and any state may solicit confirmation that the votes in favor represent at least 62 percent of the total population of the EU.
The European Commission represents and defends the interests of the EU, proposes legislation, policies, and proceedings programming, and is responsible for applying the decisions of the EP and the CEU. Since 2007 it has comprised of 27 members and 24,000 functionaries. The president is elected for five years by the governments of member states and he or she thereby elects his or her commissioner, who must be accepted as a whole by the Parliament. The Commission, with headquarters in Brussels and Luxembourg, is supported by an administration made up of 36 General Directorates. The president is in charge of delegating work to each commissioner. The Commission meets once a week to pass proposals.
The European Parliament
Since 1979, members of the European Parliament (EP) have been directly elected by the citizens of the EU. There are currently 785 members due to the entry of Bulgaria and Romania (2007), but this will be reduced to 732 in the 2009–14 legislature. The two most significant political groups are the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and the Party of European Socialists. The Parliament’s headquarters are in Strasbourg.
The EP has legislative, budgetary, and democratic checking powers. With respect to the legislative, it employs three procedures: “codecision” with the Council, which allows it to influence the orientation of European politics like the free circulation of workers, the interior market, research and development, culture, and health; “consultation” that submits international accords negotiated by the Commission to parliamentary approval, as well as future expansions of the EU; modification of functions and statutes of the European Central Bank (ECB), which implements objectives and organization of structural and cohesion funds; and “cooperation” for which the Parliament participates in community directives, essentially deciding what to propose in the Commission.
Since 1970 the EP has shared budgetary power with the Council. The European Commission prepares a preliminary budget that is elaborated by the Council and sent to the Parliament. In December, the Parliament either approves or rejects the Union budget. It also guards against public funds fraud. Finally, the EP exercises checks on the performance of the Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Council. Furthermore, it can create commissions to investigate possible infractions of community rights or cases of administration deficiencies of the institutions of the Union. Monthly plenary sessions take place in Strasbourg. The Parliament also functions in Belgium and Luxembourg, where the secretariat of the European Parliament has its installations.
The European Court Of Justice
The European Court of Justice (ECJ), based in Luxembourg, was established by the Treaty of Paris in 1952. In early 2007 it was comprised of 27 judges, one for each member state, and eight attorneys general. This judicial body is in charge of guaranteeing community rights, interpreting treaties, and avoiding legal discrepancies from one state to the next. Created in 1989, the Court of First Instance oversees matters intervened by physical persons and cases of unfair competition practices between businesses. The decisions of the Court of First Instance (CFI) are appealable before the European Court of Justice.
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) was created in 1975. After the Treaty of Maastricht was put into effect, it was recognized as an institution. Its function consists of controlling the correct execution of the community budget, as well as being accountable to European citizens for the management of public funds of community authorities and member states.
This court is made up of members from each country of the EU who are designated by a qualified majority in the Council after consulting the EP. A member’s term is six years and can be repeated.
Origins
After World War I (1914–18), Count R. Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894–1972) pushed the idea of a federation of the people of Europe (1924). Even before World War I, others had found commonalities among European countries and proposed systems designed to maintain peace and establish institutions that assured cooperation between them. But the most spectacular initiative was that of French minister Aristides Briand (1862–1932), who presented in 1929 a project for the League of Nations to create “a common market to maximally raise human well-being throughout the entire territory of the European Community.” However, the economic crisis, Briand’s death, and the victory of nationalsocialism in Germany ended the project.
At the conclusion of World War II (1939–45), the end of European hegemony was visible. The Yalta Conference (1945) had divided the continent into two blocs under the direction of the United States and the Soviet Union, which led to a new conflict: the Cold War. It was necessary to recover lost ground and impede future confrontations. That is why Europeans looked again to the ideas proposed by Winston Churchill (1874–1965) at the University of Zurich to advance the construction of “a type of United States of Europe” (1946).
Meanwhile, steps were being taking to reconstruct Europe. The United States launched the Marshall Plan (1947) as economic aid. To administer that aid, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was created to liberalize trade, develop economic cooperation, and introduce ideas about monetary agreements (1948). The Marshall Plan resulted in being a great economic success as it enabled restoration of productive infrastructures in war-torn western Europe.
The Rome Treaty
France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Paris in 1951, through which the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was born in 1952.
The initiative, shared by French politicians Jean Monnet (1888–1979) and Robert Schuman (1886–1963), tried to coordinate the production of coal and steel, fundamental instruments of war, by suppressing the restrictions on its entry and exit. New room for confidence was born for “a future European federation that assures peace keeping” that would put an end to Franco-German disputes over the resources of the Saar and Ruhr coalfields.
In parallel, in 1956, a report sent to the Council of Ministers of the ECSC proposed to complement itself with two new communities: one, for a common market and the other, for atomic energy. Signed by the six members of the ECSC in the Rome Treaty on March 25, 1957, the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) came to be. When the Rome Treaty was put into effect on January 1, 1958, it proposed as objectives the principles to
promote, by means of the establishment of a common market and the progressive rapprochement of politics among member states, a harmonious development of economic activities in the whole of the Community, a continuous expansion and equilibrium, a growing stability, an accelerated rise in the standard of living and closer relations between the States that form the Community.
As each institution functioned with distinct components, the next step was to unify them through the Merger Treaty. On July 1, 1967, the EEC joined the ECSC and EURATOM with the Council of Ministers (CEU) and the European Commission. One of its fundamental contributions was the launching of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 1960, which was greatly needed since a fifth of the active population of the Community worked in agriculture. Prices were maintained by means of purchasing production surpluses, placing protective tariffs on importations from other countries and establishing a system of subsidies to improve agrarian structures and input costs. The European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF, 1962) executes these policies and absorbs a greater part of the Community budget (60 percent until 1989). As financial solidarity had been set out in the CAP, its cost has become a center of permanent dispute between member states.
The Rome Treaty achieved its objective. In 1968, it established a customs union that eliminated any type of restrictive duty and instituted the Common External Tariff (CET) for nonmember countries. This customs union facilitated economies of scale and improvements in competitiveness of businesses in the global market. Trade grew and converted the EEC into one of the first economic powers in the world.
The European Twelve
Meanwhile, Great Britain had founded the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in 1959 as an alternative organization, which eventually failed. That is why, soon after, Great Britain requested entry into the EEC. However, the request was denied by General Charles De Gaulle (1963 and 1967), alleging it would put the French leadership in danger. The arrival to the presidency of the Republic of France by Georges Pompidou (1911–74) allowed the entry of Great Britain, Ireland, and Denmark in 1973. Thus began the journey of the “European Nine.”
In 1981 Greece entered, resulting in the “European Ten.” Shortly after in 1986, Spain and Portugal joined to make the “European Twelve.” This enlargement generated difficulties, especially in terms of the CAP, since the new members brought such an agricultural weight. It was also necessary to adopt policies geared toward alleviating significant structural deficiencies and to reduce economic differences between the new members and countries of the north.
In February 1986, the “European Twelve” signed the Single European Act (SEA). After achieving the goal of a Common Market at the end of the 1960s, aspirations of a political union emerged. These were outlined over the following decade and during the presidency of Jacques Delors were materialized with the “White Paper” (1985). In 1987 all the member states ratified the SEA that guaranteed the free circulation of goods, services, capital, and people, and permitted the constitution of an authentic economic and monetary union. On December 31, 1992, free circulation was put into effect, and later the single market on January 1, 1993.
The SEA meant important advances in social policies, especially those referring to health and safety in the workplace, dialogue with social partners, and social and economic cohesion. In addition, it created Structural Funds to stimulate development in new member states and gave a base for common foreign policy.
At the end of the 1980s, the ECC had to address the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), which allowed it to participate in the unification of Germany. On the other hand, beginning in 1991, problems began in the former Yugoslavia. NATO in 1995 tried to put an end to the war with selective bombing, and the signing of the Dayton Accords paralyzed the conflict in November of the same year. However, fighting resumed in 1998, and only from renewed bombing by NATO was the surrender of S. Milosevic (1941–2006) obtained in the summer of 1999.
The Maastricht Treaty And Beyond
The Maastricht Treaty (Netherlands), approved February 7, 1992, came into effect November 1, 1993. From then on, the European Economic Community was to be called the European Union, bestowing a more political dimension. The treaty, which extended all the previous agreements, constituted a new phase of relations between the nations of Europe. It established a structure based on “three pillars:” the European Communities, the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA). Newly added innovations recognized European Citizenship (right of abode, to vote, and candidacy in any country of the Community), ended the single market, and established the economy of the European Union.
Attempting monetary unification was not a new concept (the Belgium-Luxembourg Economic Union in 1921 is one example). In the context of the crisis of the 1970s, the European Monetary System (EMS) was established to create a monetary area in search of financial stability in the EEC. Due to its relative success, it was not until 1989 that Delors (1925–) presented a plan to carry out the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Ratified in the Maastricht Treaty (1992), soon after it established criteria that states had to comply with to participate, involving, for example, inflation, interest rates, budgetary deficits, public debt, and exchange rates. The euro as currency appeared in 1999, and since 2002 has been the single currency in the eurozone (except for the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, and 10 new members). The European Central Bank (ECB), created in 1998, guarantees price stability and management of the euro.
The Maastricht Treaty also hoped to achieve economic and social cohesion among diverse regions. The establishment of the Cohesion Fund allowed financial resources to be transferred to less prosperous countries to improve infrastructures. On January 1, 1995, Austria, Sweden, and Finland were incorporated into the EU, resulting in the “European Fifteen.”
The Treaty of Amsterdam took effect on May 1, 1999, to try to adapt European institutions to the Community that opened the accession of central and eastern Europe. Its main accomplishment was the ratification of the Stability and Growth Pact and the agreement to promote employment policies (18 million unemployed in 1997) financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB). Furthermore, it was agreed when the EU would increase the number of member states and that there would be only one commissioner from each country in the Commission. The final draft foresaw the establishment of a common foreign and security policy, and the naming of Javier Solana, former secretary general of NATO, as Mr. CFSP, which also made him secretary general of the Council of the European Union.
The Treaty of Nice, signed in 2001 and taking effect in 2003, tried to resolve questions about future enlargements that had remained pendant in Amsterdam. The composition of the Commission, weighting of votes in the Council, and the expansion of subjects to be passed by a qualified majority were addressed. Also, the effectiveness of the jurisdictional system was increased and the recourse for “enhanced cooperation” procedure was simplified.
Negotiations for the entry of new countries from central and eastern Europe, which were presented at the beginning of the 1990s, began in 1997. In 2004, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the islands of Malta and Cyprus were admitted to the Union, forming part of the “European Union-25.” Romania and Bulgaria were added in 2007 and subsequently comprise part of the “European Union-27.”
The European Convention on the future of the EU that was presided over by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, adjourned with the conclusion in 2003 that the creation of a constitution for the EU was necessary. The idea was that after the entry of 12 new states, internal cohesion had to be strengthened and the correct functioning of the supranational institutions guaranteed. That is why the treaty that established a Constitution for Europe was signed in October 2004. However, France and Holland did not obtain its approval by referendum in 2005 as six more countries canceled its confirmation. Hence, in June of 2007, the leaders of the EU agreed to work out a new Treaty for the Institutional Reform of the European Union before the end of 2007.
The Treaty of Lisbon was signed by member states on December 13, 2007. The new treaty declared that a president would serve a two-and-half-year term, facilitated the functioning of the institution, recognized a legally binding Charter of Fundamental Rights, and intended to display a greater personality on the international level as the CFSP became the true community ministry of foreign affairs. Furthermore, it established a new weighting of votes that will permit, beginning in 2014, the approval of matters that must be passed by double majority (55 percent of member states and 65 percent of the population).
Bibliography:
- Alberto Alesina and Francesco Giavazzi, The Future of Europe: Reform or Decline (MIT Press, 2006);
- Ian Bache and George Stephen, Politics in the European Union (Oxford University Press, 2006);
- Eduardo Cuenca, Economía de la Unión Europea (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007);
- Desmond Dinan, Europe Recast: A History of European Union (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004);
- M. El-Agraa, The European Union: Economics and Policies (Cambridge University Press, 2007);
- “Enlarging the European Union: Chicken or Kiev?” Economist (v.387/8582, 2008);
- Sten Erglund, Joakim Ekman, Henri Vogt, and Frank Aarebrot, The Making of the European Union: Foundations, Institutions and Future Trend (E. Elgar, 2006);
- Colin Hay and Anand Menon, European Politics (Oxford University Press, 2007);
- Simon Hix, The Political System of the European Union (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005);
- Patrick Holden, In Search of Structural Power: EU Aid Policy as a Global Political Instrument (Ashgate, 2008);
- John McCormick, Understanding the European Union, Third Edition: A Concise Introduction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005);
- Larry Neal and Daniel Barbezat, The Economics of the European Union and the Economies of Europe (Oxford University Press, 1998);
- Brent F. Nelson and Alexander Stubb, The European Union: Readings on the Theory and Practice of European Integration (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003);
- Neill Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European Union (Duke University Press, 2006);
- “The European Union Europe’s Mid-Life Crisis,” Economist (v.8520, 2007).
This example European Union Essay is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.
See also:
ORDER HIGH QUALITY CUSTOM PAPER
Always on-time
Plagiarism-Free
100% Confidentiality
Special offer!
