The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 27 member states A Member State of the European Union is any one of the 27 sovereign states that have acceded to the European Union since its de facto inception in 1951 as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). From an original membership of six states, there have been six successive enlargements, the largest occurring on 1 May 2004, when ten states joined, located primarily in Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains, the Kuma-Manych Depression, and the Black Sea to the southeast. Europe is washed.[7][8][9][10] Committed to regional integration European integration is the process of political, legal, economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe. In the present day, European Integration is primarily achieved through the European Union and the Council of Europe, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht The Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 in Maastricht, the Netherlands after final negotiations on 9 December 1991 between the members of the European Community and entered into force on 1 November 1993 during the Delors Commission. It created the European Union and led to the creation of the euro. The Maastricht Treaty has been on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community The European Economic Community (also referred to as simply the European Community, or the Common Market in the English-speaking world) was an international organisation that existed between 1958 and 1993 which was created to bring about economic integration (including a single market) between Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the.[11] With almost 500 million citizens, the EU combined generates an estimated 30% share (US$ The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents (200 half-cents prior to 1857)18.4 trillion in 2008) of the nominal gross world product Gross world product is the total gross national product of all the countries in the world. This also equals the total gross domestic product. See measures of national income and output for more details. The per capita GWP in 2008 was approximately $10,500 US dollars (USD). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in their Third.[12]
The EU has developed a single market A common market is a type of trade bloc which is composed of a customs union with common policies on product regulation, and freedom of movement of the factors of production and of enterprise. The goal is that the movement of capital, labour, goods, and services between the members is as easy as within them. This is the fourth stage of economic through a standardised system of laws which apply in all member states, ensuring the freedom of movement of people, goods, services, and capital In European Union law, the Four Freedoms is a common term for a set of treaty provisions, secondary legislation and court decisions, protecting the ability of goods, capital, services, people and labour to move freely within the internal market of the European Union. More precisely, they are:.[13] It maintains common policies on trade,[14] agriculture The CAP combines a direct subsidy payment for crops and land which may be cultivated with price support mechanisms, including guaranteed minimum prices, import tariffs and quotas on certain goods from outside the EU. Reforms of the system are currently underway reducing import controls and transferring subsidy to land stewardship rather than, fisheries The Common Fisheries Policy is the fisheries policy of the European Union. It sets quotas for which member states are allowed to catch what amounts of each type of fish, as well as encouraging the fishing industry by various market interventions. In 2004 it had a budget of €931 million, approximately 0.75% of the EU budget[15] and regional development The Regional policy of the European Union is a policy with the stated aim of improving the economic well-being of certain regions in the EU. Around one third of the EU's budget is devoted to this policy, the aim of which has been stated to be to remove the disparities in wealth across the EU, restructure declining industrial areas and to diversify.[16] A common currency, the euro The euro is the official currency of 16 of the 27 member states of the European Union (EU). The states, known collectively as the Eurozone, are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. The currency is also used in a further five European, has been adopted by sixteen member states that are thus known as the Eurozone The eurozone is an economic and monetary union (EMU) of 16 European Union member states which have adopted the euro currency as their sole legal tender. It currently consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Eight other states. The EU has developed a limited role in foreign policy, having representation at the WTO The World Trade Organization is an international organization designed by its founders to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, replacing the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1947. The World Trade Organization deals, G8 The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for governments of the six richest countries in the world: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1976, Canada joined the group (thus creating the G7). In becoming the G8, the group added Russia in 1997. In addition, the European Union is represented and G20 summits, and at the UN The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and. It enacts legislation in justice and home affairs, including the abolition of passport controls between many member states which form part of the Schengen Area The Schengen Area is a group of twenty-five European countries which have abolished all border controls between each other. It originates from the eponymous agreement signed in the Luxembourgish town of Schengen in 1985, which has since been absorbed into the European Union. All EU members except Ireland and the United Kingdom are required to.[17]
An international organisation An international organization is an organization with an international membership, scope, or presence. There are two main types: sui generis Sui generis is a Latin expression, literally meaning of its own kind/genus or unique in its characteristics. The expression is often used in analytic philosophy to indicate an idea, an entity, or a reality which cannot be included in a wider concept,[18][19][20] the EU operates through a hybrid system of supranationalism Supranationalism is a method of decision-making in multi-national political communities, wherein power is transferred to an authority broader than governments of member states. Because decisions in some supranational structures are taken by majority votes, it is possible for a member-state in those unions to be forced by the other member-states to and intergovernmentalism It is usually said that intergovernmentalism refers to the decision-making methods in international organisations, where power is possessed by the member states and decisions are often but not always made by unanimity. Independent appointees of the governments or elected representatives have solely advisory or implementational functions. In certain areas, it depends upon agreement between the member states; in others, supranational bodies are able to make decisions without unanimity. Important institutions and bodies of the EU include the European Commission The European Commission acts as an executive of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union, the Council of the European Union The Council of the European Union is the principal decision-making institution of the European Union . It is often informally called the Council of Ministers or just the Council, the name used in the treaties; it is also called Consilium as a Latin-language compromise. Within the competencies of the Community pillar, it is the more powerful of the, the European Council The European Council is the highest political body of the European Union. It comprises the heads of state or government of the Union's member states along with the President of the European Commission. Its meeting is chaired by the member from the member state currently holding Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the European Court of Justice The European Court of Justice (officially the Court of Justice of the European Communities), is the highest court in the European Union in matters of European Union law. It is tasked with interpreting EU law and ensuring its equal application across all EU member states. The Court was established in 1952 and is based in Luxembourg. It is composed, and the European Central Bank The European Central Bank is one of the world's most important central banks, responsible for monetary policy covering the 16 member States of the Eurozone. It was established by the European Union (EU) in 1998 with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. The European Parliament The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU). Together with the Council of the European Union (the Council), it forms the bicameral legislative branch of the Union's institutions and has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world. The Parliament and Council form the is elected every five years by member states' citizens, to whom the citizenship of the European Union Citizenship of the European Union was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992. It exists alongside national citizenship and provides additional rights to nationals of Member States of the European Union is guaranteed.
The EU traces its origins to the European Coal and Steel Community The European Coal and Steel Community was a six-nation international organisation serving to unify Western Europe during the Cold War and create the foundation for European democracy and the modern-day developments of the European Union. The ECSC was the first organisation to be based on the principles of supranationalism formed among six countries in 1951 and the Treaty of Rome The Treaties of Rome are two of the treaties of the European Union signed on March 25, 1957. Both treaties were signed by The Six: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany in 1957. Since then the union has grown in size through the accession of new countries, and new policy areas have been added to the remit of the EU's institutions.
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Q. In other words, should Belarus, Moldova, Serbia, and Bosnia, in particular be included in the European Union? What problems/benefits would result in such an expansion of the EU?
Asked by Amanda W - Tue Sep 22 16:34:14 2009 - - 3 Answers - 0 Comments
A. There are reasons why those countries you have mention above are not Incorporated into the EU. Russia also won t like it when Belarus. So the EU don't want to upset the Russians. Moldova cannot join the EU because there are no firm policies. The absence of a strong political will on the part of the government is the key obstacle hindering Moldova from making progress on the path to European integration. Serbia problems is it won't reconize the independent of Kosovo which the EU recognised Kosovo. So therefore that is holding back Serbia from joining the EU. Bosnia must reform its constitution and hold a census before becoming a candidate for European Union membership
Answered by Christian - Tue Sep 22 20:18:25 2009
