1. Economic Integration Efforts of Europe
Sarah Calzia
12/02/2015

2. After the Berlin Wall came down I visited that city and I will never forget it. The abandoned checkpoints. The sense of excitement about the future. The knowledge that a great continent was coming together. Healing those wounds of our history is the central story of the European Union.
David Cameron

3. Economic Integration

4. Economic Integration
an economic arrangement between different regions marked by the reduction or elimination of trade barriers and the coordination of monetary and fiscal policies.
Objective: Increase Welfare
Goals: (1) Reduce costs for both consumers and producers, and (2) increase trade between the countries taking part in the agreement

5. Levels of Integration:
Free Trade Area
Customs Union
Common Market
Economic Union
Political Union

6. European Union

7. Brief History created by the Maastricht Treaty on November 1st, 1993.
political and economic union between various European countries which makes its own policies concerning the members’ economies, societies, laws, and to some extent, security.
not created in one go by the Maastricht Treaty, but was the result of gradual integration since 1945, an evolution when one level of union has been seen to work, giving confidence for a next level.

8. History Contd.
Europe’s post war nations weren’t after just peace, they were after solutions to economic problems
A key problem was raw materials being in one country and the industry to process the materials in another.
Treaty of Paris
Signed by 6 neighboring nations: Germany, Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, and Luxembourg

9. Evolution to the EU
Various conditions and events slowed the progression and development of the EU until the Maastricht treaty was signed
The change was to broaden the work of the supernational bodies, based around three pillars: the European Communities, giving more power to the European Parliament; a common security/foreign policy; involvement in domestic affairs of member nations on “justice and home affairs”
creation of a single currency

10. Treaty of Lisbon
installed an EU president and Foreign Minister, as well as expand the EU’s political power.
took effect because voters were concerned about the economic effects of not passing it

11. The “Sick Man of Europe”

12. The Greece Drama
OCED predicts unemployment will hover around 25 percent throughout 2015
Household incomes have dropped by one third
public debt has exceeded 175 percent of Greece’s GDP
Greece ran large deficits and lived off borrowing money from the outside world

13. The Drama Continues…
Greek Parliament failed to agree on a president after three rounds of voting.
Greeks would then take to the polls
What’s at Stake? How Greece will adhere to the current austerity regime
Syriza: the Greek Opposition Party

14. Potential Consequences
Speculations that the Eurozone might fall apart
Restructuring the Debt Level
Political Contagion

15. So yeah…..