1. The European Neighbourhood Policy – Normative power as a vehicle for consensus
In 2004, the European Union sought to establish cordial partnerships with its immediate neighbouring countries. The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is a set of policies aimed at approaching those immediate neighbours of the EU. As Article 8 of the Treaty of the European Union explicitly states: “The Union shall develop a special relationship with the neighbouring countries, aiming to establish an area of prosperity and good neighbourliness, founded on the values of the Union and characterized by close and peaceful relations based on cooperation.”
The decision to activate such a mechanism lay with the unwillingness – or one could rather say, impossibility- to initiate membership procedures to third countries. The EU felt this was enough of an incentive to bring together its neighbours without giving them access to full membership and, at the same time, to guarantee - as former president of the Commission Romano Prodi said - security and prosperity to this ring of friends. Therefore, the creation of the ENP was meant to support the countries in their political, economic and social development, hence, there would be no sharp socio-economic differences between the EU and its immediate neighbours. Twelve of the sixteen neighbouring countries accepted the invitation of the EU, which translated into accepting the ENP Action Plan .
The Action Plan envisaged a more tailored approach to tackle
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.
One of the most important merits of joining the EU is that when the smaller nations get together for one economic growth where it gives the growth for both local and global entities. Larger economical trade makes better import and export both local and worldwide.
Britain in the years after 1950 was especially concerned at what joining the EEC would bring. The British finance minister Harold Macmillan worried that by joining they would damage their internal commerce system even if they were gaining new outside trading opportunities (Document 7). As finance minister, he was likely thinking purely money and not acknowledging the other factors associated with unification. The EEC did not seem to be the perfect fit but staying out of it would put out the impression of isolation. Britain wanted “a way of associating with this initiative in Europe in such a way as to benefit us all”.
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.
European absolutism was the concept that one sovereign individual had some power in the government. Absolutism required the King to have the support of the nobility, which were the closest threat to them. King Louis did this by using extravagant pageants to awe his possible threats, and he used court ritual, gifts and court privileges to gain support from his nobility. Frederick also gained support from his nobility by granting them favors ( in his case exemption from taxes) in exchange for their support financially. A key component in Absolutism is military. Leopold the I implemented a standing army with a hierarchy of sefs as soldiers and nobles as officers. Frederick brought his army from eight thousand to thirty thousand, aso using the noble-over-peasant hierarchy. King Louis used his French army to gain french territory against the spanish and austrians. A key in absolutism was bureaucracy, a line of officials working under a routine one of authority, which was supervised by the absolute
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.
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:
First I examine how EU institutions promote linkage and leverage with the West with the newest members in Eastern Europe. In particular, I examine the role of EU policies and initiatives in promoting Western 1) linkage by guaranteeing security and 2) leverage through conflict resolution in Eastern Europe, since those are the two main issue areas that enabled Western presence and cooperation in the region. The predominant impression is that the majority of Europeans still favor defense from outside from structures like NATO; therefore, NATO is a significant source of linkage and leverage with the West in Eastern Europe.
Every nation on this planet seeks to grow and develop. In recent years, the European Union formed to help the European nations grow and develop. Europe is no stranger to conflict of opinion. Many nations have been under duress economically, politically, or even socially. Poland is setting itself to become a key European nation.
In recent history, following World War II, the Paris Peace Treaty and The Potsdam Agreement, reorganized Europe’s countries dramatically and by the late 1940’s the idea of a European Union was presented. It began as a way to preserve peace among the nations of Europe. In 1951, the first
The process of EU development is characterized by uncertainty that often plagues joint decisions and creates collective action problems that is overcome by the implementation of uniform norms, or common European values such as “human rights”, “rule of law”, “democratization”, and “common foreign policy”. If there is uncertainty about the relevance of these values in a supranational organization such as the EU, then the notion that a normative framework binds the organization is cannot be supported. The relevance of uncertainty in international relations is discussed by the major political
An Analysis of the Powers of the European Parliament History of the European Parliament: On the 18th April 1951 the Ministers representing France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg signed in Paris a treaty which established the European Coal and Steel Community, the ECSC was born. The most important feature of the ECSC was its supranational character, it was a supranational organization. It was aptly described as a 'quasi federation in an important economic sector.[1] The Community was endowed with five organs; 1. An executive, called the High Authority 2.
This study will investigate the theoretical role of normative ideas about EU integration in a time where the euroscepticism is continuously increasing across EU member states. Furthermore, I want to examine how these ideas require alternative approaches to quantitative empirical research on the topic, especially when applied to large-scale cross-national surveys. This includes how the research design must be able to capture the required processes leading towards the realisation of a normative theory in EU context, as well as how considerations about the epistemological basis for probability theory and statistics are of a major concern. Consequently, my goal is to apply Bayesian hierarchical modelling on the European Social Survey from 2002-2014 in order to investigate a set of specific hypotheses derived from the normative theory presented by Habermas.
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.
The European Union (EU) was established in order to prevent the horrors of modern warfare, experienced by most of Europe during the World Wars of the 20th century, from ever ensuing again, by aiming to create an environment of trust with the countries of Europe cooperating in areas such as commerce, research and trade (Adams, 2001). The EU has evolved into an economic, trade, political and monetary alliance between twenty-eight European Member States. While not all Member States are in monetary union (i.e. share the currency of the euro), those that are form the ‘Euro-zone’ (Dinan, 2006). The EU can pass a number of types of legislation, with a regulation, act, or law, being the most powerful. Its ‘tricameral’ (European Union, 2007)