Adam Amendolito English 2010 Report Draft The European Union What is the European Union? Which countries are part of it? Why did they create it? I think these are important questions many Americans do not know the answers to. This report will focus in on the history and motivations of the member countries of the European Union and it’s place in the world today. As Britain’s prime minister David Cameron stated on the formation of the EU, “The biggest danger to the European Union comes not from those who advocate change, but from those who denounce new thinking as heresy. In its long history Europe has experience of heretics who turned out to have a point.”
Transcript
Adam AmendolitoEnglish 2010Report Draft
The European Union
What is the European Union? Which countries are part of it? Why did they
create it? I think these are important questions many Americans do not know the
answers to. This report will focus in on the history and motivations of the member
countries of the European Union and it’s place in the world today. As Britain’s prime
minister David Cameron stated on the formation of the EU, “The biggest danger to
the European Union comes not from those who advocate change, but from those
who denounce new thinking as heresy. In its long history Europe has experience of
heretics who turned out to have a point.”
A brief History
The European Union or EU, was founded in 1948 after the end of World War
Two to foster stability and economic cooperation between member states. This
Union is comprised of 28 European countries. There are three main common
institutions the EU has created: the Council (which represents national
governments), the European Parliament (which represents the people), and the
European Commission (an independent body that represents the collective
European interest). The United States, who is not an EU member, has maintained a
Mission to the EU since 1961. The European Parliament is elected every five years
by EU citizens. The EU's stated capital is in Brussels. The motto of the European
Union is “United in Diversity,” reflecting the many cultures and languages that
compose this union. The European Union states, “Any European country can join,
provided it has a stable democracy that guarantees the rule of law, human rights
and the protection of minorities. It must also have a functioning market economy
and a civil service capable of applying EU laws”.
The European Union was set up with the aim of creating peace and avoiding
the frequent, costly and bloody wars between neighboring countries. European
integration was seen by many as an escape from the extreme forms of nationalism
that had devastated the continent. During the 1948 Hague Congress was a turning
point in European federal history, as it led to the creation of the European
Movement International and also of the College of Europe, a place where Europe's
students and future leaders would study together. Around 1950 the European Coal
and Steel Community began to unite European countries economically and
politically in hopes of creating that peace. This community, which was declared to
be "a first step in the federation of Europe", starting with the aim of eliminating the
possibility of further wars between its member states by means of pooling the
national heavy industries. There were six founding member countries: Belgium,
France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. In nineteen fifty-seven,
the ECSC signed two additional treaties that would establish the European Atomic
Energy Community (EURATOM) and the European Economic Community (EEC). The
EEC created the first European “Common Market" by eliminating most trade
barriers, getting rid of policies that inhibit market competition, and developing
common agricultural and external trade policies.
The success of this European integration project during a period of steady
economic growth in the nineteen-sixties provided the chance for the first expansion,
which included the addition of the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark. Between
1965 and 1987, these European Communities experienced many large structural
changes and transitions. During these formative years the three main institutions
mentioned above were put into place. Membership to the EEC also admitted Greece,
Portugal, and Spain. Member country citizens voted for EEC representatives for the
first time in 1979.
There were concerns all along about bringing in new members and their
ability to meet the financial requirements set. World recession and internal disputes
over individual Member States’ financial burdens applied pressure to renew efforts
for economic integration. Efforts were reinforced by the 1985 “Single European Act”
(SEA) and marked by the nineteen ninety-two “Single Market Project”. The Single
European Act enlarged coordination for foreign policy issues as well as funding for
economic and social programs by sorting out the problems with the stream of trade
across EU borders. The ‘Single Market’, brought about extending the practice of
majority voting rather than unanimous voting in the EU Council, gave Community
institutions the means of adopting the more than three hundred Directives required
to abolish the remaining barriers to intra-Community trade. The SEA also mandated
heightened environmental protection measures in economic policy development, as
well as funding for common technological research efforts, along with providing a
time table for completion of the transition towards a totally common market.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall and German unification was a major change in
Europe. The Member States negotiated the nineteen ninety-two Treaty dubbed the
"Maastricht Treaty." This treaty laid much of the groundwork for today’s EU. This
treaty helped increase coordination between European countries on economic
liberalism, domestic affairs, and security and defense. In addition, the Single Market
was completed with the newly established 'four freedoms', which are: movement of
goods, services, people, and money. The Maastricht Treaty also outlined the steps
needed to begin the shift from individual national currencies to a single common
currency. This would eventually result in the creation of the Euro. New reforms to
make EU commissioners more accountable, including changes to term limits and
fine systems to punish violators of commission policies, were also outlined in this
treaty.
The Birth of the Euro
EU membership continued to increase throughout the mid nineties with the
inclusion of Sweden, Austria, and Finland in nineteen ninety-five. In May of 1998, EU
heads of government officially chose eleven Member States to adopt a single
currency. Greece initially did not qualify, and Sweden, the United Kingdom and
Denmark decided to"opt out." On the first of January nineteen ninety-nine the euro
became the official currency of the EU. This would be followed by the European
Central Bank (ECB) putting euro notes and coins into circulation on the first of
January two thousand two. Today, twenty countries use the euro: Austria, Belgium,
Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,
Malta, Monaco, the Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and
the Vatican City. These member states make up the monetary union known as the
eurozone, which uses the Euro as a single currency. In two thousand twelve the EU
had a combined GDP of over sixteen trillion international dollars, which is a twenty
percent share of the global gross domestic product in terms of purchasing power.
According to Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report from two thousand twelve the EU
owns the largest net wealth in the world. It is estimated to equal thirty percent of
the two hundred twenty three trillion global wealth.
The euro was designed to help build a single market in Europe by, for
example: easing travel of citizens and goods, eliminating exchange rate problems,
providing price transparency, creating a single financial market, price stability and
low interest rates, and providing a currency used internationally and protected
against fluctuations by the large amount of internal trade within the eurozone. It is
also used as a political symbol of integration and growing the Union. Since its launch
the euro has become the second reserve currency in the world with a quarter of all
foreign exchange reserves being in euro. This has happened very quickly. The euro,
and the financial policies of those who have adopted it in agreement with the EU, are
under the control of the European Central Bank.
The Modern European Union
In two thousand four, the EU allowed the inclusion of ten additional
members including Cyprus, Malta, Poland, and several other Eastern European
countries (most of which were former Eastern Bloc or communist countries).
Bulgaria and Romania joined in two thousand seven. Current candidates for
membership include Croatia, Iceland, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Turkey. Today
EU membership stands at twenty seven countries.
Each EU country is unique. This means that each countries gross domestic
product (GDP) and population growth can be very different from one country to the
next. Each country also varying approaches to key policy areas such as education,
size and population. The EU covers over four million kilometers of land and has five
hundred and three million inhabitants, which is the world’s third largest population
after China and India. In terms of surface area, France is the biggest EU country and
Malta the smallest.
Europe’s population is increasing through a combination of natural growth,
which means more people are born each year than die, and net migration which is
due to more people settling in the EU than leaving it. At the same time, the
population of Europe is growing older collectively as life expectancy increases and
fewer children are born.
According to the EU’ official website “The Quality of life living standards can
be compared by measuring the price of a range of goods and services in each
country relative to income, using a common notional currency called the purchasing
power standard (PPS). Comparing GDP per inhabitant in PPS provides an overview
of living standards across the EU.” The GDP of these individual countries vary
heavily from the top to bottom. The richest countries include Luxembourg,
Denmark, and Sweden. The poorest are Bulgaria, Romania, and Latvia. These poorer
nations are some of the newest members who have been introduced to the Union.
These countries are very much tied to one another. The recent financial
turmoil in Greece following their bankruptcy brought up questions on just how
much these countries are dependent on one another. Greek banks, which already on
the brink went bankrupt. These losses threaten the solvency of other European
banks, particularly in Germany and France. This in turn affects the EU's central bank
which holds a lot of Greek and other sovereign debt. How much of the financial
burden should some of the other member countries have to take on? This is still a
hotly discussed topic within the EU.
Other quick facts about the EU
The European Union does not have one unified military. The predecessors of
the European Union were not devised as a strong military alliance because NATO
was largely seen as appropriate and suited for defense purposes. There are twenty-
two EU members of NATO, while the remaining member states follow policies of
neutrality.
Health care within the EU is provided through a large range of different
systems run at the national level. The systems are mostly publicly funded through
taxation which provides universal health care. Private funding for health care may
represent personal contributions towards meeting the non-taxpayer refunded
portion of health care or may reflect totally private, which isn’t subsidized, health
care either paid out of pocket or met by some form of personal or employer funded
insurance.
The EU has twenty-four official and working languages: Bulgarian, Croatian,
