An explanation of the European Union

European Union (EU) today is twenty-seven countries strong, with close to half a billion people living in those twenty-seven countries. According to the Web site Europa (http://europa.eu) the EU emphasizes the need to bring prosperity and stability to all the citizens living in those twenty-seven countries. This paper will explore the history of the EU, the countries that have come into the union (and those that have not), the original purposes of the EU and how the EU relates to the rest of the world.

The European Union -- Origins, Members, Purposes, Relationships

It is interesting and historically relevant to understand the origins and cultural roots of the EU. The Europa site points out that the idea for uniting countries in Europe was born out of the rubble of World War II. The Europa site doesn't go into great detail -- and one can understand why (no point in dredging up the horrors that Germany was responsible for) -- regarding the widespread wreckage of towns, villages, and cities following the end of WWII. Hitler and his Nazi party perpetrated a ghastly and unprecedented horror on the people of Europe (especially the Jewish population), slaughtering millions and leaving scars that will likely never heal. Some of those scars -- whole communities flattened in the bombing raids -- remained for years after the war.

Meantime, during the massive clean-up following the war -- called Europe's reconstruction -- the Council of Europe was created in 1949. It was created among the ten Western European states whose leaders were "determined to prevent such killing and destruction from ever happening again," Europa explains. Today the Council of Europe has 47 member countries, is based in Strasbourg France and seeks to promote "common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human rights" (http://europa.eu).

On May 9, 1950, the next step towards creating the EU was taken when French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman put forward a plan for "deeper cooperation" than the Council of Europe had proposed. Henceforth, May 9 has been called "Europe Day" as a respectful historic gesture for Schuman's launching the idea of total cooperation within the European states. On the 18th of April six European countries signed a treaty that brought the production of coal and steel under "common management"; the idea was that none of these six countries (Italy, Holland, Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg) could on its own "…make the weapons of war to turn against the other" (http://europa.eu).

On March 25, 1957, the six countries that had signed the coal and steel treaty created the Treaty of Rome, which effectively creating the European Economic Community (EEC), a kind of "common market" so that goods, services and people could "move freely across borders" (http://europa.eu). In July 1962 the six EU countries begin a "common agricultural policy" as farmers are paid the same price and production is under joint administration. In July 1968 those six countries removed customs duties on goods that are imported across borders, another solid step towards full cooperation between these states. In 1973 three more states joined the initial three -- Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom become formal members of the EU.

In 1974 the leaders in the EU design the "European Regional Development Fund" in order that poorer regions could receive funds from wealthier regions of the EU -- to "improve roads and communications" and attract investments. In June 1979 EU citizens in the nine states "directly elect members of the European Parliament for the first time" (http://europa.eu). On the first of January, 1981, Greece joined the EU bringing membership to ten. Greece was allowed to join once it established democratic government (following the fall of the military regime in 1974). On January 1, 1986, Spain and Portugal become members of the EU, bringing the membership to 12 countries. The "Euro" -- the money to be used in the EU -- arrives, meaning someone from Finland could use a Euro to buy a train ticket in Germany, or Spain, or elsewhere in the EU. Eight more countries join the EU in May, 2004 (Czech Republic; Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania; Hungary; Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia); soon after, Malta and Cyprus are welcomed into the EU. In 2007, Bulgaria and Romania were welcomed as members of the EU.

In October, 2004, the now twenty-five EU countries sign a "Treaty Establishing a European Constitution" which is "designed to streamline democratic decision-making and management" of the EU (http://europa.eu). The constitution states that the EU is "open to any European country that fulfills the democratic, political and economic criteria for membership"; when a new member asks to join, that member must be approved unanimously by the other 27 states.

Currently there are several countries that are being considered as potential members of the EU; they are Turkey (that is now a member of NATO), Croatia, Albania, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and the Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (http://europa.eu). The "Copenhagen Criteria" (rules that must be followed prior to admittance into the EU) lays out three specific criteria a country must prove it has accomplished: a) it must have "stable institutions" that guarantee democracy, "the rule of law," human rights and "protection for minorities"; b) it must have a "functioning market economy" and it must have the "capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the union"; and c) a country must have the ability to assume the "obligations of membership," and that includes "support for the aims of the Union" and having the administrative competencies to be capable of "applying and managing EU laws in practice" (http://europa.eu).

Several countries are potential candidates for admission into the Union, but are not applying for membership because public opinion is opposed to membership; they are: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

The specifics of how the EU government works: a) the Council of the European Union represents all the member states and is the principal decision-making body; b) the European Parliament represents the people of all 27 states, and shares legislative and budgetary power with the Council of the European Union; and c) the European Commission is the executive body (in the same way the White House / president is the executive component of the U.S.), and can propose legislation; among its responsibilities are to ensure that the EU policies are "properly implemented" (http://europa.eu).