Analysis of the European Union’s Role as a Model Intergovernmental Organization

On 1 January 1995 three new countries joined the European Union. Austria, Finland and Sweden endow the Union with their distinctive contributions and create new dimensions for it in the heart of central Europe and in northern Europe.

The European Union (EU) is a political economic union of 28 members. The founders are France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Italy, Netherlands, and Germany. The Maastricht treaty established the European Union in 1993. The EU aims to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital and regional development. These 28 member states have successfully integrated because of their similar cultural lifestyles.

The EU was created after the Second World War to unite the neighboring countries of Europe. It was established by six European countries in 1951: France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Netherlands and West Germany (Briney, 2015). Today it consists of 28 countries united to create an economic and political community (Gov.uk, 2014).

Since 1950 European Union (EU) was created it has promoted peace, prosperity and values among the member nations and its neighbouring countries. EU’s influential tools, has helped transform many European states into functioning democracies and prosperous countries. EU’s membership has grown from 6 to 28 countries (Enlargement, 2014), satisfying a historic vow to integrate the continent bringing in most states of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) by peaceful ideals.EU has anticipated the enlargement as an extraordinary opportunity to endorse political strength and economic success in Europe. EU’s extension policy is open to any European state that fulfils the EU’s political and financial criteria for membership; still the political process of inclusion of new state requires a unanimous agreement from all the existing 28 member states. Europe is considered to be more flourishing and safer place due to the promotion of democracy, anti-corruption policy and the single market policy.

The European Union was initially set up as a means to terminate the conflict that occurred within Europe throughout the 20th century, culminating with the end of The Second World War (WWII) and The Cold War that followed. The EU ultimately aimed to bring the member countries together in order to form an ‘ever closer union’ between the countries of Europe, thus preventing a future battle. The Union started as the European Economic Community (EEC), which was established in 1957, and over the years endured numerous adjustments to form the politico-economic union that we know of today.

The European Union is one of the most famous Economic blocs in our recent times. It is the culmination of efforts after the devastating Second World War. It currently includes 28 states with varied cultural and historical backgrounds and even different languages. It now has more than 30 separate international trade agreements with many countries such as Colombia and South Korea (Encyclopedia of Management).

The establishment of the EU was in the works starting from 1945, the end of the Second World War. The United Kingdom started the process of joining the EU in 1969, finally joining the community on January 1st 1973 along with Denmark and Ireland. The official establishment of the European Union as we know it today was on November 1st, 1993 in Maastricht, Netherlands. When England joined the EU, the European Parliament increased its influence in affairs so that all citizens could elect the members of parliament directly. Currently there are 28 members of the European Union, but with the recent developments of brexit, it seems as though the UK might make it so there are only 27 members of the EU. Not only was the European Union established to get rid of war, but with it’s establishment also came a new currency that many members of the EU began to use. From its establishment also came the Banking Union, which ensures safer and more reliable banking to prevent economic crisis like the one that occurred in 2010. As hoped for, the EU also hugely improved international trade and made the EU the top trading partner for 80 countries and the world’s largest manufacturers for goods and services. Free international trade is also the basis for the establishment

(2) European nations began to form economic organizations (e.g. OEEC, EFTA, EEC) to promote economic co-operation & growth.

The European Economic Community was an organization started in 1957 by France, West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Luxembourg, in post War World II torn European. This organization was a union between the Steal and Coal Community and The European Atomic Energy Community. The goal of the organization, heavily influenced by John Monnet one of its founders and National Liberation Committee member at the time, was to build a stronger cohesive Europe through collaboration and economic ties to bring mutual prosperity. This organization and its ideals developed into the well know European Union of today, that currently sits with 28 members. However, one controversial possible membership has increased in importance over the years.

IGOs are voluntary associations of sovereign states established to pursue many objectives for which states want to cooperate through sort of formal structure and to which states are unable to realize by themselves (Miller, 1994). There are hundreds of IGOs in today's world which are significant in their respective fields. They are created by treaties and negotiations which mainly reflect preferences of stronger states. Especially stronger states create IGOs because they need them to protect their interests. By and large, decisions made by IGOs are the product of negotiations among the governmental representatives assigned to them. In general, it is not idealism, but the need of states which tend them to cooperate with other states in the context of IGOs. Therefore, they are part of the Westphalia state system in which IGOs are instruments of nation-states (Miller, 1994: 67). Regarding to the function and the purpose of IGOs, the influence of state as an actor in international relation still remains strong but in a different way, IGOs replace the original ideas of individual states but to identify states which have the same normative behavior and same ambitions to form a cooperate with each other so as to achieve the same goal. Even said so, powerful states are less constrained by the principle of IGOs than those who are relatively weak (Ataman, 2000: 152-167). This suggests that state is the key element in

The roots of the European Union can be traced back to the early 1950’s when a small number of countries made a decision to join together as a way to resolve any potential conflict nurture economic growth and common values across the continent. There was a desire to promote common values and membership was opened to all European countries. Since the inception the number of members has grown from a founding six countries to what we now know as the modern day EU with a current total of 28 countries with a further 8 countries under application review. In 1992, what was then a group of twelve countries, joined together to form the Customs Community Code which was eventually introduced in January 1993. The code effectively merged the individual customs regulations in to a single customs union.

People have created unions many times but not all of them were successful, specifically when we consider alliances among number of countries with different economics, political systems and culture. For instance, last century brought both the biggest collapse and the most promising union in the modern history. Although U.S.S.R has disappeared from geographical maps, some of its members joined another alliance. The European Union (EU) is an economic and political partnership that united 28 countries on the European part of Eurasia and represents a unique form of cooperation among members today.

Global governance is the most significant undertaking towards political collaboration that addresses, mediates and provides leadership to issues that affect member states and has huge impacts on world trade. In the last few decades, various communities in the world have become increasingly interconnected due to economic integration and increasing change in technology (Ikenberry, 2015). Global governance constitutes organizing, administering and supervision of global affairs and processes without a prescribed world government. Correspondingly, it offers real and accommodative problem-solving engagements in social, environment, economic and political issues (Iorio, 2014). There are various entities within the global governance

The European Union is a political community constituted as an international organization whose aim is to promote integration and a common government of the European people and countries. According to the Article 3 of the European Union Treaty, Union’s aim is to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples. It is based on the values of freedom, democracy, equality, law enforcement and respect for human rights and dignity.

This concerns a country’s ability to gain external financing. If a country has a high level of financial integration with the countries surrounding it then it would be able to finance its deficits without the need to alter the exchange rate and its monetary policy. Therefore an economic community with a high level of financial integration would be well suited to a monetary union.