The Expansion of European Integrative Processes - Essay Example

College The Expansion of European Integrative Processes The term European Union (EU) refers to the national member s’ union comprising of twenty-seven independent European countries. It was founded in 1993 and its main functions are to enhance economic, political and social co-operation. The European Union has also fostered peace, security, justice and freedom among the nations formed the organization. The European integration is the process of economic, legal, industrial and political unification of the European states. European integration, formerly European federalism, was changed to its current name by the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher three decades since its formation in the 1950s years shortly after the devastating second World War and serves many functions, which include lowering of risks and emergence of war, eliminating of trade barriers at the national level that has led to the economic growth among the member states of the union. Through the removal of trade barriers, the European integration has led to the development of European Economic Community (EEC), which has enabled better exchange of goods and services among the member states. This includes, for example, import and export sector, which, in turn, entails goods like machinery, automobiles, chemicals, industrial goods, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology products, not mention other import and export goods (Haines 56). European Economic Integrative Processes Over the years European Union has undergone several integrative processes which have helped it achieve its objectives. The integration processes include the economic, regional, social and political integrations. To begin with is the economic integration which forms the most important function of the European Union. European economic integration according to the “founding fathers” like Walter Haallstein and Jean Mannet considered the EEC as the gateway in the direction of the foundation of the “United States of Europe” since it the economic aspect shaped the most important obligation of the union. The European Union operates a solitary economic marketplace and is characterized by the use of one single currency (the euro) among its constituent member states. This economic integrative process is ensured by the EEC which eliminated the quotas, tariffs and preference on the imports and exports among its members thereby creating a Free Trade Area (FTA). According to the Free Trade Association, all types of the national legislation- all that caused hindrance to the manufacturers from moving freely from one market to the other had to vanish and infrastructure later improved. This led to many countries signing the European Union Association Agreement (AA) that had the Free Trade Area provisions and included Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Tunisia among the many nations. Other agreements signed include Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) and the Eastern Partnership (Haines 59). As per the Maastricht Treaty created in 1992, EU’s main goal was to ensure creation and maintaining of a solitary market which guaranteed the “four basic freedoms” to make certain the liberated movements of goods, capital, people and services across the EU market. This led to the creation of European Economic Area (EEA) which allowed three nations: Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to participate in the EU single market without necessarily joining it (Segell 200). Several custom unions were also created for instance the European Customs Union which defined the removal of the tariff barriers which were imposed internally among the EEC constituent member states which was brought into impact in 1968. The countries that belong to the EU custom union include the San Marino and Andorra while Turkey was given the association by the EUTCU (European Union –Turkey Customs Union) (Kramberger 56). Several European economic integrative processes followed on then and these include the fiscal unions and other monetary unions which have assisted in the realization of economic growth through offering customers several individual benefits and ensure surplus revenue grasp. Establishment of economic marketplaces brought about signs of alliances between the members states therefore enabling the EU succeed in its targeted objectives. Other institutions established in Europe for the expansion of the European economic integration include the European Civic Aviation Conference (ECAC), European Control Aviation Area (ECAA) and Eurocontrol in the aviation sector while the energy economic institutions include the INOGATE, Energy Community and Energy Charter Treaty among the many treaties (Mandic? 55). Social and Political Integrative Processes Besides economic integrative processes, social and political integrative processes were also enacted by the EU. For example, the founding of Schengen Agreement was reached to ensure abolition of physical boundaries among the EU member states forming the EU. The member states subjected to this Shengen Agreement include twenty five EU members and four non-EU members .In order to meet the need for unity of EU member states, the rights of foreigners to vote in any country has also extended by the integration to give citizens voting rights as indicated in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. Examples of the nations extended by this treaty include Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Turkey. This integrative processes have also been expanded where within the EEA, two of the EU members grants full voting rights to all foreigners. These nations are Iceland and Norway (Lindberg 43) With the health sector of the social integrative processes, the EU launched the Smart Open Services for Patients (epSOS) which performed two functions. The first being to allow network between the health officers and specialist and the patients in different countries where the patients get the prescriptions electronically or get treatment on a waiting list in another EU state. Secondly is that the epSOS permitted free movement of the ailing patients. Besides the epSOS project, the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) was founded, where the citizens of EU were issued free medical rights and also allowed everyone governed by the EEA social security scheme to be given medical attention in any nation within the EU at a reduced cost or actually for free. It also gave the potential of cure of chronic pre-existing ailments such as Kidney dialysis and diabetes. The education system was also expanded through the European integrative processes through the programmed institutions like the ERASMUS, Lisbon Recognition Convention and European Higher Education Area (EHEA) established in 1987 and whose core functions was to encourage and facilitate free movement of the scholars and students across the EU. The EHEA through its mandated function to integrate educational schemes has also enabled the joint recognition of the degrees by the all member states of the EU. A number of transnational research associations have also been founded to ensure efficient and successful research by the students and scholars, which would reward the success in their career pursuit. Some of these research institutions include: European Space Agency, CERN, European Southern Observatory and the EUMETNET. The Visa policy in the EU has also been founded to ensure free movement of the citizens from one nation to another within the EU borders (Lindberg 48). European Political Integration Several political integrative processes have taken place since the foundation of the European Union in the early 1950s. Founded at this era soon after the Second World War, the European Union (EU) was formed for the purpose of political unification among the Europe nations to avoid another emergence of such devastating war that claimed a lot of lives and damage of property and the infrastructure. This has been having the multi-national peacekeeping and military forces that would serve as the European Union army and would be commanded by the EU. The forces comprises of all European Union states except Denmark, Malta, Norway and Turkey (Haltern 95). The European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) made comprehensive agreements in 2002 according to the Berlin-Plus Agreement. Having agreed upon the “right of first refusal” condition, this agreement permitted the EU to use the NATO chattels in the times of any emergence o f international crisis without the NATO acting itself. T his has helped the EU in the realization of its core function to promote peace and avoid emergence of another world war. OF the 28 member states of the NATO, 21 states belong to the EU, two are EEA while two are EU aspirants (Haltern 78). With the space sector many integrative processes have been launched too to ensure successful research and navigation with the spacecrafts. This was initiated by the establishment of European Space Agency founded in 1975 during the merging of the ELDO and ESRO. Since then, numerous political integrative processes have been undergoing to ensure a general structure for space activities throughout the EU borders. Through this integration, EU’s ambition was to make ESA one of its agencies by 2014 (Lindberg 67). Besides the political, social and economic integration, regional integration serves as the most important of all these because without the regional cooperation the rest of the integrative processes would not have existed. Numerous of this regional integration efforts were enacted to successfully promotes international cooperation thereby reducing the emergence of any regional conflict between the member states of the EU. Examples of this include; the Benelux which is a political and economic union between Belgium, Netherland and Luxembourg. For the Baltic Sea region, there is the Baltic Assembly which provides cooperation and unification of the Baltic States’ parliaments. Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) was founded for intergovernmental cooperation among the Baltic Sea nations. Other foundations include the British Isles Council (1998) for the islands, the Common Travel Area (1922) comprising of Jersey, Guernsey, the UK and Ireland, which provides a passport-free zone that, in turn, allows free movement of people, therefore, enhancing cooperation and union of the citizens of the member states within the European Union (Lindberg 59). Prognosis Over the years numerous debates have taken place about the future of the European Union but still conflicting answers have been given since then making the European Union’s future uncertain but what is certain about the integration is about the expansion and the union with the other nations in the world. This is due to the European Union council holding organizations and meetings with the other countries and other regions and is normally held after two years. Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), a forum that since 1996 has been held on a regular basis; its constituents are some Asian countries and the EU states and it aims at enhancing democracy among the nations. From the view of political and social analysts, the integration process yields no fixed end. Therefore it gives an indefinite end result. As opposed by the eurosceptics, the whole integration process may conflict with the cultural identity and national sovereignty. Throughout the years the expansion of the European Union has always been the issue and topic of discussion in the Europe’s politics at each level either national or at the local level. But the major challenge of EU is the nations to the east of the EU boundary like Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus who are threatening to form another union the Eurasian Union with the backing of other Soviet nations who could be possibly joining their bid. This would be a major setback to the European Union whose core functions is to foster union and cooperation among the European Union states. Works Cited Haines, C G. European Integration. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1957. Print. Rosamond, Ben. Theories of European Integration. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. Print. MacDonald, Frank, and Stephen Dearden. European Economic Integration. London: Longman, 1992. Print. Lindberg, Leon N. The Political Dynamics of European Economic Integration. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1963. Print. Kramberger, Boris. "European Economic Integration and Health Systems in the Enlarged Europe - Duscussion of the Challenges." Health & Social Security. (2000): 242-243. Print. Mandic?, Srna. "Economic Integration and Access to Housing: A European Bias?" Le Logement. (2003): 140-145. Print. Segell, Glen. European Integration and Political Conflict. Gary Marks and Marco R. n.d. Web. 04 Dec 2012. Steenbergen (eds). “International Relations and Development. Europe.” Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004, 280pp. Isbn: 0521535050. Journal of International Relations and Development. 7.4 (2004). Print. Haltern, Ulrich R. "The Dawn of the Political: Rethinking the Meaning of Law in European Integration." Schweizerische Zeitschrift Fu?r Internationales Und Europa?isches Recht : Szier. 2004). Print. Read More