The Enlargement Of The Eu : A Case For Enlargement

The European Union (EU) is a unique economic and political partnership between 28 different countries. It consists of about half a billion citizens, and its combined economy represents about 20 percent of the world’s total economy (Briney, 2015). Today The European Union works as a single market, with free movement of people, goods and services from one country to another. There is a standard system of laws to be followed, and since 1999 many countries share a single currency called the Euro (Europa.eu, 2015). This essay will explore the background history of the European Union and the benefits and drawbacks of the European Union.

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.

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

Furthermore these democratic foundations were further “reinforced” with the conditionality’s of membership adopted at the Copenhagen Summit in June 1993, whereby democratic governance and human rights were included in its criteria for membership. Furthermore, the Maastricht Treaty in 1993 formally established a Common Foreign and Security Policy which included objectives of which included the development and consolidation of democracy. The EU as Lucarelli argues hence became a strong instrument for the promotion and development of democracy in Europe and but especially in post-communist ones. This Furthermore, the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997 reaffirmed its strong democratic position through Article 6:

According to the Austrian Foreign Ministry the enlargement of the European Union has laid the groundwork for European Integration (Austrian Foreign Ministry).

Eurozone and the EU institutions failed to detect that. This undermines the ability of EU institutions to deal effectively with challenges of integration of new members as well as opens the possibility that the EU is not immune to similar occurrences in the future. Finally, since the onset of the European economic crisis, the EU has accessed only one new member in 2013 - Croatia. Thus, the stalling of EU explanation since the octet of the crisis can undoubtedly be attributed at least partially to economic factors. Ultimately, though, the long-term effects of this crisis on EU integration cannot be conclusively established at this point, as the crisis is still ongoing. Therefore, next I look over the conventional wisdom about the factors

As previously discussed, EU accession can be more broadly understood as a uniform membership approval process guided by the Copenhagen criteria for all prospects, applicants, and members. At a deeper level, the EU is dedicated to resolving uncertainties in the relationship between European states that fueled ages of conflict and mistrust in the past through the creation of a supranational European institutions guided by common European norms. Since the dynamics of these institutions are driven by common values and goals as outlined in the Copenhagen criteria above, norms drive contemporary trends in governance and EU integration.

At the Laeken European Council of December 2001, government and state leaders of the European Union (EU) Member States decided to draft a `Constitutional Treaty' for the EU. The draft would then be discussed, amended, approved or rejected by an Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) held in 2003. The aim of Fabbrini's article is thus to contribute to the understanding of the constitutional evolution of the EU through a comparison with the constitutional experience of the United States.

After The Second World War, Europe was on the brink as it was in a state of total ruin, both economically and politically. Europe was involved in two World Wars in only fifty years, there was a massive need to achieve lasting peace as well as economic stability, this however would be difficult to achieve. The first major step was taken in 1951, when the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was established. It was the chain of events leading from the ECSC that would be the first steps in molding today’s European Union. Throughout this period the “European” project was erratic and underwent quick development at certain times, and at others came to a grinding halt. The culminations of the larger moves seen in the sculpting of Europe were the main factors in the formation of the Europe that is seen today. Arguably the most important milestone is the, Treaty of Maastricht (1992).

The Second World War is considered to be the bloodiest conflict in the history of mankind with over 60 million deaths in a span of six years. After the end of the war in 1945, many people, Europeans, were determined to prevent any more bloodshed and destruction of that scale from happening again. The first step towards communion between the European countries was to implement economic cooperation. Economic cooperation is the cooperation between countries in terms of imports or exports of goods and borrowing or lending of capital and payments. This soon led to the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1958. This increased economic cooperation between Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium. Over time, this economic union became an organization that was involved in the environment and aid. The EEC soon changed its name to the European Union (EU). So far, the EU has been successful in maintaining peace in Europe. It has brought many benefits to its member state. Since its creation, peace has been maintained and outbreak of a war has been prevented. The Lisbon Treaty came into effect in 2009 and was signed by 13 of the EU’s member states. The states benefited from a common foreign and security policy. The civil and political rights of its citizens are being protected under the European Court of Human Rights. However in the economic field, the EU has some problems. The Eurozone Crisis showed the inability of the member states to manage

EU enlargement is the most ambitious project that is often presented as the historic mission of reunification of the European continent (Kok, 2003). Since the foundation of European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, its membership has grown from 6 to 28 countries that together cover much of the continent, with the aim to bring prosperity, peace and freedom among the union members . On 1 January 2014, the population of the EU28 was estimated at 507.4 million, which accounts for over 7% of the world’s population (World Population Status, 2014). The European Union has long view the enlargement process as an extraordinary chance of promoting political stability and economic prosperity within the region (Archick, 2014). Past enlargement has brought several benefits to the region, such as transforming EU into a more influential global actor with more economic and political power, spread prosperity throughout the region though expanding the single market, enhance the regional securities and etc.(Politics UK, 2011). However, the past enlargement has also brought challenges to the EU both internally and externally; such as weaken its legitimacy, Central and Eastern Europeans migrating to older member states and direct linkage with new neighbors. Thus this assignment would evaluate the impact of past enlargement on the European Union by mainly focusing on the challenges rather than opportunities; as analyzing challenges from the past enlargement could possibly

1986 was the year of one of the main developments in the history of European integration. The Single European Act (SEA) brought about some significant changes in the internal structure of the European integration process, such as an institutionalized form of political cooperation and the deadline for the creation of the internal market (1 January 1992). Other changes brought about by the SEA include the possibility to use majority voting in some fields of policy making, and the formation of the First Instance Court. The next step in European Integration was the Treaty on the European Union. The Treaty of Maastricht has entered into force in 1993 and established the European Union with a structure of three pillars; The existing treaties (EEC, ECSC, EURATOM) constitute the first pillar for the EU. The legal and institutional framework is included into the pillar that most resembles the supra-national characteristics of EU, a point I shall return to. The second pillar established by The Treaty of Maastricht is the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is to ensure that the European Union appears as one global political actor in the future. The third pillar is the Police and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters (PCJ) will help to develop an effective legal control over the territory of the European Union. The unity between these pillars and the member states themselves is created through a single institutional framework that includes

The first significant step towards this was the eventual establishment of the European Union in 1993 was the establishment of the ECSC, which was an organization established by France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (the Six) . The establishment of the ECSC was promoted by the developing idea of Europeanism amongst these six nations, who became disillusioned with Britain’s lack of involvement in the European community, as Britain was a member of the European Economic Cooperation and the Council of Europe, but had no intention of participating in a common market economic

The first evidence of the attempts to emulate the EU can be traced back to the post-Soviet Economic Union back in 1993. This project was driven by post-Soviet Russia, as an attempt to reengage with the CIS member-states as a reaction to criticism and growing domestic discontent with its role in the “near abroad”.

European Union was formed with a lot of 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 exactly been a bed of roses. Especially of late, too many critical problems have emerged, making some to question its very existence.