The European Union ( Eu )

As of 2012, only seventeen of members of the European Union have decided to use Euros as their currency. In order for the members that adopted the Euro as their currency to successfully help their economic problems, the Eurozone members had to follow strict instructions put into place the European Union. The strict policies included strict control over inflation, government debt, and long-term interest rates (Mckee 525). The union put these strict policies into place to give the union the tools that it needed to take in order to help fix the economic crisis in each country participating in the Eurozone. Without the full cooperation of each country, it could cause the plans to fix the economic crisis within each country to fail because of the different interests by each individual country.

The European Union 's success owes much to the unusual way in which it works. Unusual because the EU is not a federation like the United States; nor is it simply an organisation for cooperation between governments, like the United Nations. It is, in

The European Union (EU) poses one of the most unique challenges to understanding sovereignty and international relations. This is because of the extent of integration between EU institutions and member States. This integration has been to the point where the EU is not only considered an international body whose laws States can choose to adopt, but that it can actually play a significant role in the law making of member States. The extent of this integration has made it questionable whether member States have effectively given up their sovereignty to the EU. To an extent, sovereignty has passed from member States to the

The European Union (EU) has a variety of methods to promote democracy beyond its borders. It is the contention of this paper that EU democracy-promotion policies are more significant in the context of a pre-accession conditionality. The success of EU democracy promotion is contingent upon the degree of bargaining power the EU possesses vis-à-vis ‘third countries’ (third countries being those which seek EU membership, and are prepared to make the necessary political and economic reforms). In the context of pre-accession conditionality the EU possesses significant bargaining power, making adhesion to the norms of the Copenhagen criteria (political and economic conditions necessary for EU accession) the only viable option for states seeking

Formed from 28 Member States, the EU has developed an internal single market which enabled it to control what happens in the Member States. The context in which the EU has developed has caused it to be unique in comparison to all the others and through this essay I will demonstrate how the characteristics and functions of the EU are found to be those only associated with the EU.

The European Union (EU) does not have an unlimited power to act. The limits of Union competences are governed by the principle of conferral. Under the principle of conferral, the Union shall act within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States (MS) in the Treaties. The central debate about competence is with regard to the principle that the EC operates within the confines of attributed powers tends to be obscured by an open-handed reading of the matter in practice. The Articles of EC are broadly worded, with little restrictions. For example, Article 95 EC provides the Council the power to pass directives and regulations so as to facilitate harmonization of the internal market. It is a residual provision that operates, “save where otherwise provided in this Treaty”. This could be translated as a general power of regulating the market. Also Article 308 EC empowers the Community to legislate where it is “necessary to attain, in the course of the operation of the common market, one of the objectives of the Community and this Treaty has not provided necessary powers”. These broadly framed Articles can be dangerous because it becomes impossible to have a clear conceptual outer limit to the residual provisions. In addition, subsidiarity and proportionality have not performed well as devices for restraining the political desire to exercise a competence once granted. The malady is captured by the catchphrase competence creep.

The political relationship between nation-states is built upon negotiations between national governments. In this sense, the theory draws upon an ‘ration actor model’, where the nation-state is the primary analytical unit of interest, and intergovernmental negotiations are the context (Cini, 2007, p. 97). More precisely, Moravcsik writes that “Actors calculate the alternative courses of action and choose the one that maximizes (or satisfies) their utility under the circumstances.” (Moravcik and Schimmelfennig, 2009, p. 68). He argues that nation-states in the EU seek to maximise economic profit based on existing preferences. This form of rationality indirectly implies that a collaboration between EU countries is undesirable when there is no economic profit to be made by the nation-state. This also means that the theory is unable to accommodate alternative forms of political integration. If one believes in the idea that EU integration is (or should be) built upon economic profitable results alone, then it should be no surprise that the EU is currently witnessing the appearance of an increasing number of euroscepticist parties within several EU countries.

One of the main objectives of the European Union (EU) is the establishment of the internal market, which shall consist of “area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured. The internal market is based upon a customs union achieved through the abolition of the imposition of customs duties and charges having an equivalent effect and the prohibition of discriminatory taxes on intra-EU imports. The internal market is enhanced by the provisions on free movement of workers, freedom of establishment, free movement of services, and free movement of capital. Whereas Articles 28 to 30 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) provide for the establishment of an EU common external tariff and the elimination of customs duties, Articles 34 and 35 of the TFEU (with exceptions under Article 36) go further, and prohibit quantitative restrictions and measures having equivalent effect. Taken together, Articles 28 to 32 and 34 to 36 serve to ensure the free movement of goods within the EU and to facilitate the operation of the internal market.

By suggesting that the safety of European Community would be bolstered only in the cooperation of the European states in the rebuilding of Germany, these gentlemen put forth the theoretical beginnings to what the European Union is today. The idea was that the individual nations within the European Community would relinquish a portion of their state’s sovereignty in a massive effort to avoid the chance of another tragic war on the continent. More than any other continent on earth, the European continent had experienced, what seemed like, constant war between relatively close states. Because of this, it is definitely understandable the need for some significant peace time on the continent, and the utilization of this fragile moment in European history as a time to create a new, more interconnected community. Monnet, while wanting eventually, this collection of European states under a central authority, realized the time restraints:

In the European Union there are currently 28 member states, the EU started in 1958, which was after the aftermath of the Second World War. The UK joined in 1973. Each EU country is different which means that something like population growth can be very different; also each country would have its own approach to some of the most important policies, like education. The EU did not always have as many member states as it does now. When European countries just started to cooperate in 1951, there were 6 countries that participated in cooperating with each other. On the 1st of July 2013, the EU reached its current size when Croatia joined.

The European Union was created by the idea and hope for unity and integrity. However, as it enlarges to 28 countries, many problems arise. The Union 's inability to find its place in the divided and dynamical modern world leads to it having more of a supportive role to greater powers as Russia and the US. The countries within it are severely divided and unable to reach a common strategy concerning major issues and if they not resolve this lack of coherence, the EU risks to be pushed in the sidelines and to lose its international reputation as a consolidated unity.

The European Union has conveyed over 60 years of peace, soundness, and success in Europe, raised our natives ' expectations for everyday comforts, propelled a solitary European coin (the euro), and is logically fabricating a solitary far-reaching free market for merchandise, administrations, individuals, and capital.

The money related union was secured in 1999 and came into full constrain in 2002. It is presently made out of 19 part expresses that utilization the euro as their circulating medium. Through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has built up a part in outside relations and resistance. The union keeps up lasting strategic missions all through the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the WTO, the G8, and the G-20.

It should also bring greater sized benefits, healthiness, and internal efficiency to the EU economy as a whole and to the markets of the individual member states. This integration of all nations in Europe was to be done by implementing the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). EMU consist of bringing all 28 members of the EU to compliance with following the same monetary system. According to the European Commission, “EMU involves the coordination of economic and fiscal policies, a common monetary policy, and a common currency; the euro.” (European Commission, 2014).

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)