Recovering From Crisis : The Current State Of The European Union

Europe now, for the first time in modern history, is a partnership sharing common values and a commitment to harmony and cooperation. The dream of European integration, shared by the United States, is now being realized, leaving behind us the wasteful era of wars, hostility, and inequalities. We are on the road to a Europe enjoying a unity and

Part of the exceptional nature of the EU stems from the notion that nothing like it has ever been attempted successfully before. The European Union is an international institution with a single market and shared currency. It strives to maintain singular goals and make its way towards being an “ever closer union”. Today, the European Union has expanded to include twenty-eight member countries with an influence that reaches every continent. This institution has had an impressive history, but it has reached a point of concern. The golden years which held high hopes of a united supranational Union are long over. The EU faces destructive problems today, which could ultimately end their impressive era of cooperation. The Union has come

The Global Financial Crisis revealed many flaws in the institutional framework of the Eurozone, as well as the flaws in the policies implemented in the aftermath of the revelation of the crisis. One of the major flaws revealed in the institutional arrangement of the Eurozone project, is the clause in the Maastricht Treaty which limits the ceiling on the ratio of the annual government deficit to gross domestic product. As a result of the Global Financial Crisis, The Maastricht Treaty put into place structural impediments that prevented member states from implementing counter-cyclical policies. It is likely that the crisis left a deep and long-lasting effect on economic performance and overall social hardship. Job losses were contained for some

This story is enlightening due to a clear overview of how a single currency with the ultimate goal of union and growth results idealistic as differences, not only regarding cultural and social backgrounds but also political ones, makes it very difficult for the Eurozone as a whole to have the same objectives and interests.

Europe was a politically and fragile continent after the Second World War that claimed millions of lives. It is in that background, that the first steps to European integration were taken with the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The celebrated Schuman Plan, laid the foundation for the first real supra-national economy in the world, that is, the ECSC. The European integration continued through the decades with the establishment of the European Economic Community (ECC) and the European Union (EU). In the recent period, the EU has come under intense questioning with the economic crisis in Europe starting 2007. The recent Brexit vote has put further questions on the future of the EU. This essay considers the process of European integration through the decades and also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the union.

European Union was formed with many expectations. Despite closeness and similarities, the various nations of the European continent fought bitter wars for thousands of years within themselves. After the devastating World War II, finally everyone saw the light and decided to give a chance to peaceful coexistence. However, EU’s path hasn’t been smooth. Many critical economic as well as political problems have emerged throughout the last decade, raising questions about its credibility.

Nevertheless, the region continues to demonstrate that it can and will resolve each successive stage of the crisis by cooperating as well as sharing decision-making powers. In addition, the members of the union have been on the forefront in the generation of continent-wide institutions as well as building of substantial financial firewall to prevent debt problems from spreading. The region is creating a banking union and efficiency partial fiscal union. From this perspective, the common currency and the entire project of European integration will survive as well

The author assesses the EFSF and the EFSM, which are the temporary instruments for the European sovereign debt crisis, in this paper. The author gives a brief introduction regarding its establishment, a background on the governance of the Euro and the consequences of both instruments. The paper also discusses new possible ways of decision-making, alternatives to both institutions, the EMF and the ECB and its

The European Union’s core foundation began in the 1950’s, when the Treaty of Rome was signed. Decades earlier, right after the Second World War, a movement was created to unite the countries of Germany and France. The EU has, for some time, been a major player in world politics and with twenty-eight member states the EU has had its fair share of complications throughout the years. Foreign policy began to take place early on as the EU was seen as a political system that was making decisions on behalf 28 countries. In the 1970s Henry Kissinger, the United States Secretary of State for President Richard Nixon and President Gerald Ford, brought up the question of “If I want to call Europe, who do I call?” This began a long and stressful debate of who is the official that needs to be called when other foreign actors and institutions want to address a problem or simply ask a question to the European Union. After many years European leaders claimed to have answered Henry Kissinger’s question by creating the European Council President and a European Foreign Minister position. But is it as simple as that? Has this question really been resolved by just creating these positions? We can see that reorganizing the Union’s political structure has strengthened the EU, it has allowed them to show foreign leaders a more united front and show that they, too, have global interests.

For the last decade the European Union has struggle to hold itself together against multiple crisis and national rivalries of its member nations. The European Union (EU) has time and time again overcome these union breaking threats. However, since the American recession of 2008, the EU faces its greatest challenge of its short existence: the Eurozone crisis. The Euro, the monetary unit of the EU, is falling due to the fiscal policies of the so called PIIGS nations: Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain. Even with the support of the heavyweights of the European Union (France and Germany) the nations of PIIGS is suffering heavily from economic depression; this economic depression is causing fractures between the nations that make up the European Union. Situationally, the issue has almost past the limit of no return and causing nations like Italy and Greece thinking about withdrawing from the European Union. If any of the PIIGS nations actually withdraw from the European Union, it would be the first step to the dissolvent of the European Union. The repercussion of a dead EU would be disastrous for the entire continent; one has to remember that the European Union was created to prevent a Third World War from ever erupting. Most Americans would not care what happens to the nations of Europe in this day and age however, the nations of Europe are among America’s greatest allies politically, economically, and militarily. If the EU fails and the continent erupts into war once

Greece knew they were in trouble and they had to receive money from an outside source to keep going as a country and also be able to pay back their creditors. However, Greece was unsure of how to. Greece was interested in paying their creditors back but were not interested in all of the austerity cuts the EU wanted Greece to implement because these cuts would upset some of Greece’s citizens. The EU’s top priority from these negotiations was to make sure Greece would reduce the amount of debt they would be taking on each year. The way the EU was going to make this happen was by making sure Greece implemented austerity cuts. The IMF was not really interested in making Greece implement austerity cuts. (IMF and EU

The main contribution the book is making is that the European Union can be easily understood by analysing each aspect of it. ‘The main argument of this book is that to help understand how the EU works, we should use the tools, methods and cross-systematic theories from the general study of government, politics and policy-making’ (Hix, 2005 p2). The book is split into different parts and each part assesses certain bits of the European Union, which is what this review will do. For example in one part, the focus is on the legislative branch of the European Union, the executive branch and the judicial branch. In another part the focus is on the political side of the European Union and looks at for example how the interests of citizens are represented to and throughout the European Union in addition to how democratic the

The European Union is faced with its impending decline, which has accelerated in recent weeks with anxieties regarding the British referendum, which is becoming a primary concern on the continent. A possible “Brexit” could possibly lead to the fifth largest economy in the world and the second largest economy in the Eurozone from leaving the European Union (E.U). The “Brexit” is the most contested issue both within the United Kingdom (U.K) and the European continent. In the wake of a rampant security and refugee crises in Europe, Europe’s need to keep an economically strong member of the E.U in the organization, is needed to combat the difficulties the continent is facing, particularly the Mediterranean members of the E.U. These

Due to the economic recession which started in 2008, several members of the European Union became historically known as PIIGS. These states include Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain. The reason why these countries were grouped together is the substantial instability of their economies, which was an evident problem in 2009. The reason why the five countries gained popularity is a serious concern within the EU, with regard to their national debts, especially for Greece. The latter country was involved in a controversial affair after allegedly falsifying its public financial data. In the year 2010, it was evident that the five states were in need of corrective action in order to regain their former financial stability.

The current (and fairly liberal) open entry policy allows ease of expansion for the EU, yet it cheapens Europe as a whole. The EU was a pact whose creation was fraught with political opposition and the resistance of a continent’s history. These first constituents worked to forge ties together that go far beyond culture and history distant or recent, it stems from a desire to enhance the well-being of their people, to join the continent together and