The European Union or EU is an
international organisation of
European states, established by the Treaty on
European Union (the
Maastricht treaty). The European Union is the most
powerful international organisation so far in history,
in some ways resembling a state; some legal scholars
believe that it should not be considered as an
international organisation at all, but rather as a
sui generis entity. Major issues concerning the
European Union at the moment are its projected
enlargement (see below), the
Convention regarding a proposed
European constitution, as well as
British participation in the
euro.
The original impetus for the founding of (what was
later to become) the European Union was the desire to
rebuild Europe after the disastrous events of
World War II, and to prevent Europe from ever again
falling victim to the scourge of war. The body was
originally known as the Common Market,
this later changed to the European Community
and then to the European Union. The EU has evolved from
a trade body into an economic and political partnership.
For a more detailed history, see the article
History of the European Union.
At present, the European Union comprises 15 member
states. In
1950 the six founding members were:
Nine further states have joined in successive waves
of enlargement:
Note: In
1990 the European Union territory was effectively
enlarged when
East and
West Germany were united.
The total area of the European Union is
3,235,000
km2. Were it a country, it would be the
eighth
largest in the world by area. In October 2001, the
population of the European Union was approximately 379
million, which would make it the third
most populated country in the world.
The EU, considered as a unit, has the second largest
economy in the world, with a 1999
GDP of 7,809 billion euro, second only to that of
the
United States (8,729
billion euro, 1999 equivalent). The EU economy is
expected to grow further over the next decade as more
countries join the union - although the new States are
invariably poorer than the EU average, and hence GDP per
capita over the whole Union will fall over the
short-term. The number of EU citizens (all EU member
State citizens are EU citizens under the terms of the
Maastricht treaty) is the
third largest in the world (after
India and
China).
The
European Commission's Strategic Report of
October 9,
2002 recommended 10 candidate members for inclusion
in the EU in
2004:
Estonia,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Poland, the
Czech Republic,
Hungary,
Slovakia,
Slovenia,
Malta and
Cyprus. After negotiations between the candidates
and the member states, the final decision to invite
these nations to join was announced on
December 13,
2002 in
Copenhagen, with the
European Parliament voting in favour of this on
April 9,
2003.
On
April 16,
2003 the treaty of Accession was signed by the 10
new members and the 15 old ones in
Athens. The final remaining step is the ratification
of the treaty by the current member states and by each
of the candidate nations. Ratification in the former is
to be done by the parliaments of the member states
alone, whereas in the latter the ratification is first
subject to a
referendum, except for Cyprus where the parliament
will be solely responsible. The 2003 referenda dates (in
many countries a two-day ballot is held) and the outcome
in each of the candidate countries are as follows:
In the event that one of the referenda does not
return an affirmative result, provision has been made
for the enlargement to carry on without that country.
Once the referenda turn out in favour of joining,
ratification is expected to proceed without further
problems and the candidate countries to have done so
will become full members of the EU on
May 1,
2004.
Bulgaria and
Romania have been recommended to join the EU in
2007. Furthermore,
Turkey has officially been recognised as a candidate
for enlargement after having been an Associate Member
since
1963, but it has not yet been permitted to start
negotiations due to concerns about its human rights
record and about the involvement of the military in
Turkish politics. It is however encouraged to continue
its reform process.
-
Free trade of goods and services among member
states (an aim further extended by the
EFTA and
EEA)
- A common external
customs tariff, and a common position in
international trade negotiations
- Removal of border controls between its member
states (excluding the UK and Ireland, which have
derogations)
- Freedom for citizens of its member states to
live and work anywhere within the EU, provided they
can support themselves
- Freedom for its citizens to vote in local
government and
European Parliament elections in any member
state
- Free movement of
capital between member states
- Harmonisation of government regulations,
corporations law and
trademark registrations
- A single currency, the
Euro (excluding the UK, Sweden and Denmark,
which have derogations)
- A large amount of enviromental policy
co-ordination throughout the Union.
- Common
agricultural and
fisheries policies.
- Co-operation in criminal matters, including
sharing of
intelligence (through
EUROPOL and the
Schengen Information System), agreement on
common definition of
criminal offences and expedited
extradition procedures
- A Common foreign policy as a future objective,
however this has some way to go before being
realised. The divisions between the member states
regarding the
Iraq crisis in
2003 highlights just how far off this objective
could be before it becomes a reality.
- A Common security policy as an objective,
including the creation of a 60,000-member Rapid
Reaction Force for
peacekeeping[?] purposes, an EU
military staff and an EU
satellite centre (for intelligence purposes)
- Common policy on asylum and immigration
- Common system of indirect
taxation, the
VAT, as well as common customs duties and
excises on various products
- Funding for the development of disadvantaged
regions (structural and cohesion funds)
- Funding for programmes in candidate countries
and other
Eastern European countries, as well as aid to
many developing countries
- Funding for
research
The trend has been for political power to shift from
the individual states, mostly upwards to the EU but also
downwards to the
European regions.
Many of these objectives depend on the harmonisation
of laws across the member states and so
EC Law is increasingly present in the systems of the
member states. All prospective members must enact
legislation in order to bring them into line with the
common european legal framework (see also
EFTA,
EEA and
Single European Sky).
In practice, the European Community is simply the old
name for the European Union.
Legally, however, they must be distinguished. The
European Union has no legal personality; it is not an
international organisation, but a mere bloc of states.
The European Community is one of two international
organisations these states are members of -- the other
is the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom[?]).
There was once a third organisation, the
European Coal and Steel Community, but it ceased to
exist in 2002. These three organisations used to have
separate institutions; but in 1961 they were merged,
though legally speaking they are still separate
organisations.
The legal system imposed by the EU is correctly
called
EC Law not EU law for this reason.
A basic tension exists within the European Union
between intergovernmentalism and supranationalism.
Intergovernmentalism is a method of decision-making in
international organisations where
power is possessed by the member-states and
decisions are made by unanimity. Independent appointees
of the governments or elected representatives have
solely advisory or implementational functions.
Intergovernmentalism is used by most international
organisations today.
An alternative method of decision-making in
international organisations is supranationalism. In
supranationalism power is held by independent appointed
officials or by representatives elected by the
legislatures or people of the member states.
Member-state governments still have power, but they must
share this power with other actors. Furthermore,
decisions are made by majority votes, hence it is
possible for a member-state to be forced by the other
member-states to implement a decision against its will.
Some forces in European Union politics favour the
intergovernmental approach, while others favour the
supranational path. Supporters of supranationalism argue
that it allows integration to proceed at a faster pace
than would otherwise be possible. Where decisions must
be made by governments acting unanimously, decisions can
take years to make, if they are ever made. Supporters of
intergovernmentalism argue that supranationalism is a
threat to national sovereignty, and to democracy,
claiming that only national governments can possess the
necessary democratic legitimacy. Intergovernmentalism
has historically been favoured by France, and by more
Eurosceptic nations such as Britain and Denmark;
while more integrationist nations such as Belgium,
Germany, and Italy have tended to prefer the
supranational approach.
In practice the European Union strikes a balance
between two approaches. This balance however is complex,
resulting in the often labyrinthine complexity of its
decision-making procedures.
Starting in March 2002, a
Convention on the Future of Europe will again look
at this balance, among other things, and propose
changes. These changes could in turn be adopted by an
Intergovernmental Conference (IGC).
European Union policies are divided into three main
areas, called pillars. The first or 'Community' pillar
concerns economic, social and environmental policies.
The second or 'Common
Foreign and Security Policy' (CFSP) pillar concerns
foreign policy and military matters. The third or 'Justice
and Home Affairs' (JHA) pillar concerns co-operation
in the fight against crime.
Within each pillar, a different balance is struck
between the supranational and intergovernmental
principles. Supranationalism is strongest in the first
pillar, while the other two pillars function along more
intergovernmental lines. In the CFSP and JHA pillars the
powers of the Parliament, Commission and European Court
of Justice with respect to the Council are significantly
limited, without however being altogether eliminated.
The balance struck in the first pillar is frequently
referred to as the "community method", since it is that
used by the European Community.
The pillar structure had its historical origins in
the negotiations leading up to the
Maastricht treaty. It was desired to add powers to
the Community in the areas of foreign policy, security
and defence policy, asylum and immigration policy,
criminal co-operation, and judicial co-operation.
However, some member-states opposed the addition of
these powers to the Community on the grounds that they
were too sensitive to national sovereignty for the
community method to be used, and that these matters were
better handled intergovernmentally. To the extent that
at that time the Community dealt with these matters at
all, they were being handled intergovernmentally,
principally in
European Political Co-operation[?] (EPC).
As a result, these additional matters were not
included in the European Community; but were tacked on
externally to the European Community in the form of two
additional 'pillars'. The first additional pillar
(Common Foreign and Security Policy, CFSP) deal with
foreign policy, security and defence issues, while the
second additional pillar (JHA, Justice and Home
Affairs), dealt with the remainder.
Recent amendments in the treaties of Amsterdam and
Nice have made the additional pillars increasingly
supranational. Most important among these has been the
transfer of policy on asylum, migration and judicial
co-operation in civil matters to the Community pillar,
effected by the Amsterdam treaty. Thus the third pillar
has been renamed Police and Judicial Co-operation in
Criminal Matters, or PJCC.
The three communities, and the three pillars possess
a common institutional structure. The European Union has
five institutions:
There are also two advisory committees to the above
institutions, which advise them on economic and social
(principally relations between workers and employers)
and regional issues:
There are also several other bodies to implement
particular policies, established either under the
treaties or by secondary legislation:
Finally the
European Ombudsman watches for abuses of power by EU
institutions.
See also:
European community law,
United States of Europe,
European flag
-
The European Union On-Line (http://europa.eu.int/)
- Official site (in 11 languages)
-
EU Enlargement (http://europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement/index_en.html)
- Official site on EU enlargement
-
EU in the USA (http://www.eurunion.org) -
Official site of the EU delegation to the US
-
EU Observer (http://www.EUobserver.com) -
Newssite focusing on the EU
