The European Union ( Eu )

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.

In its historical context discuss why and how the EU was set up and the advantages and disadvantages of membership.

During the Second World War, Europe suffered huge loss due to the destruction of properties and infrastructure that as a result led to the collapse of their economy. Besides that, a lot of the European countries were very much against Germany, which was the country that started the war under Hitler’s rule. Thus, after the war ending, the mutual relationship that had existed between Germany and its neighbors, especially France was imperative (Wilkinson, 2016). Ultimately, this led to the creation of the new movement aimed at creating unity, later the movement resulted in the formation of the European Union. Thus, since its formation, the union has helped a lot in

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

The European Union established after the Second World War was meant to give Europeans a common sense of urgency or direction. As time went on and different treaties were enacted the EU went from a trade agreement between six nations that were meant to help stabilize to a union where countries are becoming almost inseparable from the union itself due to the lack of autonomy and dependence.

In this essay, I will be discussing why the European Union (EU) was set up and the means of how it was set up, as well as analysing the development of the EU and the advantages and disadvantages of the union.

In order to understand the current business environment of the EU, it is critical to examine its origins and schools of thought that shaped its history. The EU is not just a twentieth century concept; it is a unified Europe whose purpose is to maintain peace and create a common European culture that can be traced throughout history, and is rooted in classical philosophical thinking. In the early 1300s, Pierre Dubois, a French lawyer and pamphleteer during the reign of Phillip IV, advocated a unified and stronger Europe to fight papal corruption and win a Crusade. Victor Hugo, a French poet, imagined a more federal type of Europe, as a unity of nations and people, during the 1800s. However, the progression of wars between mainly Germany and France between 1870 and 1945 resulted in massive loss of life and economic deterioration, making the need for peace integral to the survival of Europe (Pascal).

When World War II ended the final remnants of the old European order lay in ruins. With such devastation wrought upon the continent twice in less than fifty years, it was remarkable that Europe managed to recover. What is even more remarkable is the Phoenix that rose from these ashes, and the new feelings of unity that accompanied the ending of the war. Those nations of western Europe began to do what decades ago had been unthinkable: develop the blueprints for a common system of the United Europe.

In its historical context discuss why and how the EU was set up and the advantages and disadvantages of membership.

The latter approach was introduced by Ernst Bernard Haas- a German-American scientist. Both approaches capture at least some of the essence of the EU today, however it is also fair to say that they are out of date, and have less adequate explanations of the process of integration, than they had 50 years ago. In order to answer the question, it is important to mention the timeframe. The whole period of European integration has to be taken into account in order to show that the two dominant approaches had been topical at different phases, and in a sense, had shaped the future behavior. The essay will look at the two dominant schools of thought, try to explain the workings of them, consider criticisms and show that, by no doubt, intergovernmentalism and neo-functionalism capture the essence of the EU today to some extent, but real history of EU and some theoretical defects shows that none of those theories capture the actual essence of the European Union. The conclusion shows that at the moment,

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 success of the current European Union can be accredit to the diverse group of visionaries that founded the group. These visionaries include Konrad Adenauer, Joseph Bech, Jonah Beyen, Winston Churchill, Alcide De Gasperi, Walter Hallstein, Sicco Mansholt, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, Paul-Henri Spaak, and Altiero Spinelli (“The History”). Despite their various backgrounds, these founding fathers had one goal: to make Europe prosperous. The union began as a European Coal and Steel Company (ECSC), which was established by the Treaty of Paris following World War II. This organization consisted of the six founding countries, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. The organization would then rename itself to the European Economic Community (EEC) as a result of the Treaty of Paris as well as

Obviously, apart from Euro, a shared history among member states is also related to the European identity. The formation of European Union is based on this collective memory to some extent. Memory has become ‘a powerful tool in quests for understanding, justice and knowledge’ (Hacking, 1998). Additionally, as Jan-Werner Müller (2002, p. 1) observes, memory ‘lies at the intersection of so many of our current concerns and organizes many of our current projects’. Having gone through a century of war and economic crisis, the European Union has been established representing the desire of harmonious society. The creation in 1958 of the EC (European Community) was an important attempt at recuperating the region after the Second World War, “… the single market underpinned by various freedoms was believed to be a means of ensuring peace, as well as, of enhancing the economic prosperity and stability of countries in Europe” (Müller-Peters et al., 1998, p. 664).Based on common experience of wars and goal of building up a harmonious society, they feel more attached to each other , enabling them to have a better understanding of each other

To fully appreciate the position of the European Council within the European Union we first took a brief look at how the European Union came about. The European project first started soon after the second world with the creation of the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community) to harmonise relations between the Nations of Europe and to prevent any further conflicts of the scale of the wars that had preceded its creation. The new spirit of cooperation aimed to bring about a new era of peace and prosperity across Europe. The founding nations were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Luxemburg. The first enlargement came in 1973 when Ireland, Denmark and the United Kingdom joined the EU. Since then a further 18