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The European Union Essay

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Introduction

In the course of fifty years, the European Union has expanded from six countries united under economic treaties to a large collective of twenty-five sovereign nations. Maintaining the union within such a large group has grown more difficult as numerous treaties have been drafted to control the governance of the European Union. To reduce the number of treaties in the union, the convention decided to draft a Constitution, which now moves through the process of ratification in each of the sovereign nations. The Constitution works to set up a basis for the expansion of the Union and the requirements that need to be met when a country seeks entry into the Union. But with the greater controls the EU seeks to place on the …show more content…

The proposal limited the life span of the treaty to fifty years, meaning it would expire in 2002. The treaty “was the first significant step towards European integration going beyond intergovernmentalism, establishing a supranational authority whose independent institutions had the power to bind its constituent member States” . From there, the countries decided to expand their connections with the Treaty of Rome in 1957. This treaty created the European Atomic Energy Community and the European Economic Community, both of which helped strengthen economic ties between the countries. The member states strove to create a “common market” amongst themselves by removing trade barriers1. This common market was created slowly with a lengthy transitional period, “during which tariff barriers would be removed and a common external customs tariff set up”2. It was at this point that the High Authority transformed into the Commission, an executive authority within the treaties. The Parliamentary Assembly, Court of Justice and Council of Ministers each then evolved by 1967. In 1992, the Treaty of Maastricht formally created the European Union through new forms of collaboration in inter-governmental affairs of defense and justice1. One of the original goals for the European Union was to spread jurisdiction in countries to help combat international crime organizations and terrorist movements. The expanded

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