The European Union

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.

EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital, enact legislation in justice and home affairs, and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries, and regional development (European Commission, 2015). Countries accede to the union by becoming party to the founding treaties, thereby subjecting themselves to the privileges and obligations of EU membership.

The European Union is an association of twenty-seven states, who coordinate their economic policy as well as other policy areas; in a governmental structure that has limited power over the governments of the member states. The union is a way states giving some of their sovereignty voluntarily. The European Union has a state-like structure but lacked the central authority of a real state.

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

Since its founding in 1958, the European Union’s main purpose has been to promote peace, human rights, cooperation, democratic ideals, and the well-being of the European people. It has enabled Europe to emerge from destruction of World War II with a much unified marketplace, connected through a single currency, the Euro. The EU is a unique structure in that it is one of the biggest governing alliances worldwide that has been reasonably successful in its purpose. There are several elements of the structure, such as the European Council, European Parliament, Council of the EU, and the European Commission, as well as many others that help the EU to run efficiently and effectively.

The European Union(EU) contains just 7% of the world’s population, but produces 1/3 of the world’s Gross National Product (Delegation of the EU to the US). A single market merges all 28 countries of the EU into one economic free-trade zone with no trade tariffs imposed on one another. The EU accounts for 51% of all trade that the United Kingdom (UK) conducts with the world (The Data Team 2). Since its admittance to the Union in 1973, Britain’s economy has grown from 326 million Euros per capita to 6,116 million Euros per capita in quarter four of 2012. Despite its economic benefits, many have voiced concern over its undemocratic practices. In a summary of the court case Van Loos v. Netherlands Inland Revenue administration, the European

It is difficult to ascertain whether or not the European Union is democratically legitimate on the basis that the concept of democracy appears to be evolving over time. The fact that the European Union is a unique entity, a ‘supernatural union of sovereign states’ also makes it difficult to establish whether it is in fact truly democratic as there is no other entity to compare it to. The common conception is that there are two primary types of democracy. Direct democracy, where by the citizens of the state have the law making power and representative democracy, in which the power of the people is delegated to elected representatives. Article 2 of the TEU provides that the European Union is “founded on the values of respect for human

The European Union is made of the European parliament, the European commission and the Council of Ministers which equates to around 740 members who represent the 27 member states of the European Union. The E.U has many responsibilities which include:

The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC) formed by six countries in the 1950s. In the intervening years the EU has grown, in size, by the accession of new member states and, in power, by the addition of policy areas to its remit. The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union under its current name in 1993. The last amendment to the constitutional basis of the EU, the Treaty of Lisbon, came into force in

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.

Through a historic nationwide referendum on June 23, the outright majority of Britons chose to ignore forecasts of financial doom and diminished global clout to opt out of the European Union (EU). In the process, they tuned out world leaders like US President Barack Obama, who had warned free-agent Britain would start at the “back of the queue” for bilateral trade deals, and financial gurus including Bank of England governor Mark Carney who grimly predicted a recession if the UK quit the union. The final tally showed 30 million people voted in the referendum, a 72% voter turnout, and 52% of them said,“Sayonara, EU.”

It is true that the European Union is taking the steps to have the rebuilding of security against terrorism. The military forces have started to take the actions in order to cope with the increasing issue of terrorism. However, it is also true that the miss-conception has been formed regarding the image of Muslims in the Europe as they are being subjected to wrong treatments for the terrorist impressions as research reports that “…The Ministry of Defense decided to deploy 10,500 soldiers to sensitive areas, with nearly half of them assigned to the protection of the country 's 717 Jewish schools…”

The European Union (EU), as a supranational organization, has increased its stock of importance within the international realm through increased integration. Sector after sector has been targeted in attempts to create a more perfect union where all European member states are represented equally. That quest for deeper integration ultimately brought the founders of the EU at the threshold of defense and foreign policy. No one knows for sure the collective direction of the EU, only to say that the goals of the organization tends towards creating a federal state. That would mean that the EU would be the voice over all pertinent matters including foreign and security policy. It also happens to be that those two areas are held in high regard by

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)

Formally established in 2009, the European Council is not a branch of the United Nations, but a branch of the European Union, a 28-member political and economic union based in Europe. The goal of the European Council is to define the European Union’s, or EU’s, overall political direction and priorities. It is not a legislative body of the EU and therefore does not negotiate or adopt EU laws. Alternatively, the European Council defines the EU’s policy agenda, traditionally by espousing “conclusions” during European Council meetings. These conclusions identify issues of concern and recommend actions to take in order to resolve