The European Union (EU) The World’s Strongest Supranational Organization

What is it? The European Union (EU) is a family of democratic European countries, committed to working together for peace and prosperity. Economies needed a jumpstart after WWII Fear of communism Initially focused on reducing trade barriers after WWII Now, they focus on political and economic unity.

The European Union: 500 million people – 28 countries Member States of the European Union Candidate countries and potential candidates

Enlargement: from six to 28 countries

GROWTH OF THE EU

Winston Churchill “Let’s form a United States of Europe.” 1946 Marshall Plan

European Coal and Steel Community 1950 Schuman Purpose was to reduce potential for conflict between the member states by pooling vital resources Fore-runner of the EEC, EC, and EU West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France

1957: Treaty of Rome The six founding countries expanded cooperation to other economic sectors, creating the European Economic Community (EEC) – or “common market.” As a result, people, goods, services, and capital today move freely across the Union. Britain left out, formed EFTA instead EURATOM: shared nuclear energy research 1960s: Common Agricultural Policy Signing of the Treaty of Rome

1957 Treaties of Rome Creation of European Economic Community (EEC) Creation of Euratom

1962 Cooperation on agriculture Added Greece

1967 All industrial tariffs removed Workers could move freely between countries

1968 12 member states Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain added

1979 First direct election for the European Parliament

1980s All 12 of the EC’s members agreed to give the European Council power to make decisions on issues even when individual member states disagreed EC given limited tax powers

1985 Single European Act Remove all barriers in trade: money, goods, and people by 1992 Made Europe the single largest trading area in the world

1991 Maastricht Treaty Political and economic union Single currency—the Euro Same social and domestic policies (police, death penalty, etc.) Common foreign and defense policy

United in Diversity - The €uro

The big enlargement: uniting east and west 1989 Fall of Berlin Wall – end of Communism EU economic help begins: Phare programme 1992 Criteria set for a country to join the EU: • democracy and rule of law • functioning market economy • ability to implement EU laws 1998 Formal negotiations on enlargement begin 2002 Copenhagen summit agrees to a big enlargement of 10 new countries 2004 Ten new EU members: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia 2007 Bulgaria and Romania join the EU 2013 Croatia joins on 1 July

History of the EU Phases of growth The historical roots of the European Union lie in the Second World War. Idea of European integration conceived to prevent such killing and destruction from ever happening again First proposed by the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman in a speech on May 9, 1950. This date, the "birthday" of what is now the EU, is celebrated annually as Europe Day Phases of growth Initially, the European Economic Community (EEC) consisted of just six countries: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (1958) European Communities (EC) (1967) Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined in 1973 Greece in 1981 Spain and Portugal in 1986 European Union (EU) (after 1992) (Maastricht Treaty) Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995 Largest enlargement took place with 10 new countries joining May 9, 2004

SUMMARY The European Union is the strongest supranational organization in the world shared currency & financial management legislative, judicial, and executive bodies regulatory and planning bodies The EU is growing geographically, and its growth suggests a core-domain model core and domain are borne out by distribution of income The EU does not appeal to all Europeans (at least not yet) small states in particular seem skeptical Roughly comparable to the US in some ways population slightly larger than that of the US somewhat more densely settled than the US economy is at least as strong as the American economy other social statistics (e.g. literacy, infant mortality & homicide) are as good or better than the US