Eu Enlargement

The European Union is a group of European countries who combined together as allies after WWII for trade and peace reasons. It was established so countries in Europe would not create conflicts with each other to prevent the disaster of the two World Wars. They also signed trade deals to secure the countries in the EU would be financially stable and not go into depression and poverty like most countries did in WWII. Each country in the EU has to provide the EU with money to operate. In return, not only will they see trade with European countries, but the EU budgets will help redevelopment and regeneration of poor areas, seen in

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 is now taking over Europe! The European Union is the way to keep most countries on each other's side. The European Union started after Europe was destroyed after two world wars. Six countries decided to work together and create a union. Now, the European Union consists of 28 countries, (64% of Europe) and has many candidates who are financially stable. The European Union has divided Europe in culture and politics.

The European Union (EU) is economic and political union which is located in Europe in Brussels. It consists of 785 members representing the 492 million citizens of the 27 Member States of The European Union. Countries which join EU are Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Cyprus, Estonia, Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, Slovakia, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden. EU is elected every 5 years throughout all the Members States.

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 consists of 28 member states and has a population of 503 million inhabitants, and a total surface area of over 4 million square miles. The EU has its own currency, the Euro, and the largest single market in the world. It is a global community and power and has a huge influence on our world today in many aspects, and has been slowly built up to what it is today through humanistic ideology , common interests, new structures, treaties, economic policy and the attempt of equality throughout.

The European Union (EU) is the organization which integrates the countries listed below, both politically and economically. It is a customs union, which is an agreement amongst a group of countries to eliminate trade barriers between them on the movement of goods, services, labor and capital, and also to establish a common external tariff on goods and services coming into the union. The EU evolved from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which was formed in 1951 as a response to the First and Second World Wars to try to ensure future peace in Europe. This became the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1965, which in turn became the European

The European Union is considered as a political and economic institution that includes 28 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In fact, the creation of the EU has been through the following steps:

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.

The European Union should continue to expand. The expansion, however, should stop once Turkey becomes a member of the EU. Including countries such as Ukraine, Russia, or Israel, among other southeastern European states would have numerous negative effects on the EU. If the EU includes Turkey, then it will have established itself as not being an exclusive Christian club. If the EU then goes on to include Russia and Ukraine, or any of the others, then this would overstretch the EU, thus making it a simple customs union, or possibly even cause its disintegration (Champion, Marc. 2004).

The start of Europe going towards a union had begun after World War II. The French gave an invitation to European countries served as the basis of a European Union. 9 countries have accepted the invitation: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands. Then it expanded and increased by accepting European countries that want to join; Denmark, Ireland and the U.K. in 1973, Greece in 1981, Spain and Portugal in 1986, and Austria, Fenland and Sweden in 1995. Now it has 28 countries.

Joining the European Union brought several important and demanding political, fiscal, economic, and social changes to Portugal. This new situation implied free movement of capital, goods, services, and people within an internal single market as well as the implementation of common policies. Furthermore, the lack of national economic competitiveness, the increased competition from other member states, the trade deficit (imports higher than exports), and the increased immigration flow, were major challenges that Portugal had to face. Equally important to mention is that Portugal lost the autonomy

The Eastern Enlargement was, and remains, a point of dispute when arguing the costs and benefits. It provided numerous opportunities for the EU, but with them came challenges, some of which could be argued were too much and too soon for the EU. This chapter will engage the major challenges and benefits in the way they were presented by dominant theories of EU enlargement and integration. To provide a clearer picture they will be divided into two broad headings; economic and political.