The European Union

Europe now, for the first time in modern history, is a partnership sharing common values and a commitment to harmony and cooperation. The dream of European integration, shared by the United States, is now being realized, leaving behind us the wasteful era of wars, hostility, and inequalities. We are on the road to a Europe enjoying a unity and

The European Union’s core foundation began in the 1950’s, when the Treaty of Rome was signed. Decades earlier, right after the Second World War, a movement was created to unite the countries of Germany and France. The EU has, for some time, been a major player in world politics and with twenty-eight member states the EU has had its fair share of complications throughout the years. Foreign policy began to take place early on as the EU was seen as a political system that was making decisions on behalf 28 countries. In the 1970s Henry Kissinger, the United States Secretary of State for President Richard Nixon and President Gerald Ford, brought up the question of “If I want to call Europe, who do I call?” This began a long and stressful debate of who is the official that needs to be called when other foreign actors and institutions want to address a problem or simply ask a question to the European Union. After many years European leaders claimed to have answered Henry Kissinger’s question by creating the European Council President and a European Foreign Minister position. But is it as simple as that? Has this question really been resolved by just creating these positions? We can see that reorganizing the Union’s political structure has strengthened the EU, it has allowed them to show foreign leaders a more united front and show that they, too, have global interests.

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

On the 23rd of June 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union (EU); an event now commonly dubbed “Brexit”. This decision means that the UK will be the first country to leave the common market that is the EU, where a common market is defined as a “group formed by countries within a geographical area to promote duty free trade and free movement of labour and capital among its members” (What is common market? Definition and meaning, 2017). Trade deals with other countries are organised by the EU on behalf of its member states, as well as the rules and regulations governing business activity within the common market. As a result, leaving the EU is likely to result in huge implications for small to medium sized

The European Union was formed with many 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 a peaceful coexistence. However, the EU’s path has not been smooth. Many critical economic as well as political problems have emerged throughout the last decade, raising questions about its credibility.

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 (EU) is the most successful supranational organization in the world to promote and spread democracy. Without the values and result-based monitoring systems structured through this organization, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and ultimately the entire world would be a significantly different place. The EU’s uniqueness and undeniable success stems from its strategic use of integration as key to enlargement and the effective ‘Europeanization’ of countries. Though there are dissenters who would argue the European Union’s lack of effectiveness in the enlargement process since 1989, there is value in noting that enlargement is an on-going phenomenon and not an entity with an expiry date.

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.

With regards to the European Union (EU), its democratic deficit attracts one of the highest levels of attention and discussion. Its importance is clearly seen in the Treaty of Lisbon’s preamble which states that it aims to “enhance the ‘democratic legitimacy of the Union”’ . The EU is the first and most advanced form of supranationalism – a regional or international institution with its own governing institutions and structures in modern history. Due to the EU’s unique characteristics, it is not easy to decide what the standards to evaluate democracy should be . However, for the purpose of this essay, the EU’s democratic performance shall be evaluated based on the principle of subsidiarity, accountability, representativeness and

European Union, and pronounced that it suffers from a democratic deficit. It has been argued that, the European Union is not firmly made to democratic pressures and that it gives a privileged position to the national executives, allowing them to escape proper parliamentary scrutiny. “The European Union has been further described as not transparent, and distant from its citizens. Looking in details the institutions within the European Union (EU), analyzes their powers and the relationship between them, treaty on European Union, the main EU institutions are the European Parliament, the Council, the European Council, the Commission, the Court of Justice, the European Central Bank, and the Court of Auditors. This will explains that these institutions are given different powers, and are required to work together in order to provide the checks and balances within the Union legal order, or the institutional balance, reference to the composition and powers of the EU Institutions, concentrating on some only, and their respective functions, composition and structure”.

Following United Kingdom membership to the European Union in 1973 alongside other European states, further economic integration of the states lead to the Maastricht agreement of 1992 . The central feature of the agreement was the incorporation of the European monetary union (EMU) the EMU was based on four financial principles of inflation, long-term interest rates, fiscal debt and deficit and exchange rate. The aim of the Union was to harmonise trade and economic relations across member states and as such the EMU imposed restriction on infrastructure investment through strict borrowing limits. As a member state Britain had to comply with the four criteria despite the pressure it placed on its public borrowing and financing of infrastructure. To meet its social responsibility the United Kingdom government started the private finance initiative.

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.

Driven by the desire to prevent another World War, many of the founding fathers of the European union envisioned a federalist Europe. Monnet was adamant on the idea that the center of the community should exist a supranational body. Originally established after World War Two, what is now the European Union was formally the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The ECSC was established on the basis that trade and pooling of both commodities would prevent rearmament and another war. Established on the 18th April 1951, by the Treaty of Paris, the founding six member states ( France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) have expanded until it tripling in size. Today, after rapid phases and slower periods of integration, the EU is composed of 28 member-states after. Over 60 years of enlargement, the European union has yet to has still not reached its territorial limits, with numerous application still being processed. Undefined frontiers exist in the Balkans and Turkey, as well as in eastern Europeans regions. With economic interdependence, European countries have united economically and politically with the goal of maintaining peace. The question yet to be answered is, how far and deep should political integration go?

Brexit is the abbreviation nickname given to the 2016 referendum in which the United Kingdom voted to leave their membership in the European Union. In order for the vote to be official they must use a little known provision in their membership clause with the European Union called the Article 50 or the Lisbon Treaty. The European Union was a political and economic cooperation where participating countries used their collective financial and social practices to strengthen social and economic stability. “The European Union began in 1951 as the European Coal and Steel Community, an effort by six nations to heal the fissures of World War II through duty-free trade. In 1957, the Treaty of Rome created the European Economic Community, or Common Market” (Erlanger 2015). On February 20th 2016 David Cameron Britain’s Prime Minister proposed the Referendum for England that would allow a vote to remain or leave the European Union. While David Cameron is in favor of staying in the European his actions prompted many including London’s Mayor Boris Johnson and Justice Secretary Boris Johnson to pledge their support for the Leave campaign. Many Britons who voted to leave were worried about increasing strain of European Markets including those found in Greece who were under incredible financial strain from internal economic policies that threatened the entire region. However “This didn 't affect the UK directly, as it uses the pound rather than the Euro. But some Britons

The European Union is a group of democratic countries, which was founded in 1957, with 6 countries signing the Treaty of Rome. (Roberts et.al, 2008). It was to increase economic prosperity and contribute to an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe and committed to working together e.g. shared currency, financial management, legislative, judicial and executive bodies, regulatory and planning bodies. The main objectives of the EU was to create a unified business environment, the harmonization of company laws and taxation and the freedom of the movement of capital which is closely related to bringing company law of member states into closer agreement. Moreover, The EU set directives for the countries to follow in an attempt to harmonize accounting practices. The two main directives are the fourth directive and the seventh directive, which we will discuss below.