Introduction of the Euro and the European Constitution in Terms of Framework, Authority, and Aspirations - Term Paper Example

Discuss the introduction of the Euro & the European Constitution in terms of framework, ity & aspirations Like all other world bodies, there was a need to bring all the European nations to a single platform. This was all the more needed because the rulers of the respective nations wanted their own particular identity and this brings us to the question that if they needed such an identity what was the need of having European Union (EU)? They could have easily made a body comprising of two or for that matter three countries and enacted their own policies and gone about it in the long run but bringing all the European nations together to a single platform only means that there was a courteous move behind the very same. There was an understanding that since these nations had so much in common amongst each other, thus there should be an understanding as concerns to their oneness and unity which could only be achieved through the formation of a body that could track down the problems of the member nations and keep all the troubles that hinder the respective progress of these nations. As for the European Union (EU), the following details are pretty significant to understand first. The capital of EU is Brussels within Belgium. The member states till the 1st of January 2007 are 27, presently they are 25. The President of the European Council is Matti Vanhanen and the Council of the EU is situated in Finland. The European Commission is headed by Jose Manuel Durao Barroso and the European Parliament is taken control by Josep Borrell Fontelles. Europe Day is celebrated on 9th May, 1950 every year and the total population of Europe is approximately 463,500,000 by 2006 estimates. National governments have been at the helm of affairs as far as the European Union matters are concerned. These nations are the principal actors and play their ever-increasing role in EU despite the interdependence amongst its members comprising of nearly all the European nations. The European Unification process is based on a vision more so on the basis of a 20th century one. The founder of the European Community (EC) was Jean Monnet, who found out ways and thus proposed a plan in which the nations from Western Europe could become strong and economically well off by rising above the intrinsic limitations imposed on them with respect to their national boundaries. This commission enforced the European states to overcome the inefficiencies in the fields of society and economy that they had and allowed them to stand in direct competition with the rest of the world. This was also as a result of the two wars that had occurred in the period of 25 years, leaving a lasting impression on the economy and thus the social order of the continent in particular. Humanity was affected and so were the values and traditions. The EU government wanted to merge all the federal European governing agencies into a single entity, which could be more sovereign than each of its member nations, and one that can easily and effectively impose its powers on every member with consummate ease. The EU government makes sure that all its member countries cede sovereign control over it so that an air of expansion can be seen in the economic and social policies. This would naturally help decrease the tension that these countries are under for the last 25 years or so because of a series of domestic and other wars. These have really shaken the pillars of the respective governments of EU member countries and want a commission like the same to work for their betterment in every possible clique. National governments within the European Union have conceded the executive tasks as regards with policy formation to the Brussels-based European Commission. Its president as well as his 20 commissioners led the same. These people help solve the problems of European members entailed with internal market pressures as well as their remedies and rectifications plus the trade negotiations, both in the countries themselves as well as of an external nature. Apart from these two, it also helps in chalking out measures for a comprehensive policy, which can be prepared for competition amongst different EU markets as well as at the international level. Not only this, the commission also drafts policies on fishery and agriculture. The 20 commissioners, thus working in the EU-based government setup are appointed by their national governments that take their oath in accordance with the EU commission. Their supreme duty is to uphold the EU treaties and forbid themselves from favoring their national interests over them. The national governments are somewhat pushed down a little, whereby they are relegated to the official positions of legislators, acting as representatives for their respective countries in different EU meetings and the ones in which they are delegated duty from the EU charter. These people meet at the “Council of Ministers” held in Brussels from time to time where their main focus is to discuss matters pertaining to the approval, rejection or amendments the commission put forwards, mostly in the form of proposals and drafts. Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) has stood as one of the weakening factors of European Act of 1985, which had some amendments in the Maastricht Treaty on EU of 1991. This QMV was used as a legislative control authority that had its share in the voting through a qualified majority in the Council. QMV has the right to help the council in anyway it can to recommend the approval of any proposal pending on the commission’s table providing it has the support of nearly 70 percent of the total votes cast. This also varies in accordance with the voting member states’ population size in the Council. The Council of Ministers also has the legal binding to hold governmental and law making responsibilities with the European parliament. It is another fact to be noted here that the influence the parliament has on legislation and government as such is very restricted and severe. The EU government also has the added responsibility of monitoring the member states’ compliance with EU directives and orders and work in accordance with those laws and regulations, under any and all circumstances. If the same is not done by a member state, it can be asked to show up in the European Court of Justice (ECJ). ECJ is the EU’s Supreme Court where every EU law takes precedence over national laws, mainly in the ones where EU makes unique distinctions in different institutions in worldwide relations. Its other purpose is to build a European body, which constitutes laws by helping eradicating disputes and fights, if any and also by facilitating tasks between the member states. Parameters of EU competence must definitely be adhered to whilst drawing up these results and processes. The other branch that comes under the EU is Committee of Embassies of Permanent Representatives or COREPER for short. This committee has the responsibility of carefully examining the policy proposal, which reaches it from the Council of Ministers. Its specialized team also helps the COREPER in its working. National delegations and other members are sometimes at the forefront of originating an initiative for the policies that will later be a part of the commission. European Council has been there ever since EU decision-making processes have taken place, since 1975 to be exact. The leadership at that time contributed to the drawing up of decisions within the EU and it also guided in forming up a political agenda for the European Union. This Council of late has been working since that time at a steady pace to strengthen its place at the top of EU. All these branches of the European Union have been working hand in hand even before the EU government came into its own. The commission is aware of the need for the policy coordination between its ranks, thus a clear cut policy of help and assistance is thus followed in EU and within its branches. The national governments decided to build a three-pillared structure for the smooth working of an EU government, which was duly signed in Maastricht Treaty. It aimed at providing a greater coordination amongst the policies worked upon by the amalgamation of different proposals as well as its permission for the commission to extend the European Commission’s methodology into increasing awareness about sensitive and receptive measures in the fields of domestic policies as well as a number of other issues, attached in more ways than one with the same context. This three-pillared structure focused on the encircling of single markets with traditional and age-old European Commission businesses. This formed the first pillar with its objective also drawn to operate under the governance of EU whereby a competent authority could be established to carry out the same business, and linkage with its roles. These roles entailed for the commission itself, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and lastly the Parliament. The second pillar depended on the foreign policy cooperation where intergovernmental procedures and the rule of agreements prevailed. The commission was seen to play a vital role in this one with little or no room for the supervision of ECJ. The third pillar is mainly made up of the cooperation on matters pertaining to home and justice affairs, which included the ones like asylum, and immigration laws, border controlling mechanisms and lastly the anti-terrorist policies. This last one was also driven chiefly by the procedures laid down by the inter-governments. The structure basically comprises of the realization involved in driving the most committed individuals or countries present in the existing EU lot to consider the ways and means in which a new and more political yet flexible structure for the EU is built upon. This structure is based more on the themes relating with the notion of “variable geometry” or in other words, a fast developing Europe. This means that the countries that are willing to come ahead will be granted the rights to go deep down inside and integrate their specific policies in conjunction with the policies laid down by that of EU. The rest, who are unwilling and not happy with these policies, can oblige and would not, in anyway, be forced to attach with the laid-down policies of the EU. Monetary Union forms the basic part of Europe’s new fast track approach, which leaves a lot to be desired. Questions emerge in the wake of this new approach, which can be summarized like this: 1. How can EU manage relationship between the nations who are in the Euro currency zone and the ones who are not? 2. How can EU be a single whole, keeping in mind all the nations in it? (The most important one of the two) There is pessimism in the ranks of all concerned with EU if it tries to put a new layer of complexities attached with institutions. This new level will only serve in weakening the sense of attachment, there is, if any, between the EU citizens, in different European nations and the idea there is of a real and authentic European Union. The EU has a single market currency which makes it a strong point for focus amongst all the competing world bodies. The single currency called the Euro is managed by the European Central Bank and has been adopted by 12 of the 25 adopted states of the EU in the complete sense within their respective economies. There also is a Common Agricultural Policy, a Common Trade Policy as well as a Common Fisheries Policy. There is also an agreement underway to abolish the system of having passport controls for the member states which should really make the European markets a great attraction for the tourists of the rest of the world. Thus the single space of mobility is an added incentive for the people who think of visiting Europe. They know they can get so much more when they come to this region. More than that, the citizens of EU can live in a free and fair manner, invest easily, travel at will and work where they desire to. The European Union Constitution needs some pointers here so that we can talk about it. The proposed new Treaty for establishing a Constitution for the continent of EU in essence aims to do away with the three pillar structure and with that there would be no discrimination that stems out from the EU and the European Community, which in all fairness brings out the Community’s activities and tasks under the direct heading of the EU and thus transfers the Community’s legal self towards the authority of the Union. There is some tension that exists along the way of the EU which is between the intergovernmentalism and supranationalism. The former is in essence a particular method which aims to look at the decision making activities in the international organizations where the power is decentralized into the member nations and all of the decisions are made by a complete sense of unanimity and union. In other words, there is a complete accord between the decisions thus made. Thus intergovernmentalism is one such aspect which is made use of in the present times by majority of the world organizations within their respective ranks. However there is an alternative method towards making decisions when the talk goes out loud concerning the international organizations, one such being EU, known as the supranationalism. In this form of decision making, power is concentrated within a single personality, who is an appointed official or at times by a series of representatives who are basically elected by the legislatures of people from the different member nations. Thus, in supranationalism, member nations have their respective powers which they can easily share with the other actors present within the Union. The decisions in such a process are made by a system of majority votes and there is a valid enough rationale for making a member state to revert on the decision which had been made by it in the past completely. In other words, the decision can be overturned by the majority vote. There are some forces within the EU which favor the formation of the intergovernmental approach while there are some bodies which suggest the substitute one, i.e., the supranationalism is the way to go about doing things within the EU. On the part of the EU, there are efforts to bring the two approaches to a common ground and strike a balance between them. The resultant balance is not only difficult to achieve but is also complex as it results in convoluted decision making procedures. EU is one of the most sought after bodies in the world since its working models are the most up to date and have no semblance with the working methodologies of the United Nations, which is a body aging half a century. There are certain changes that need to be made within the charter of the EU in the near future and all said and done, this is one world body that is surely going to become a huge hit when historians talk about it in the years to come. BIBLIOGRAPHY WALLACE, William. (2000). Policy-Making in the European Union. Oxford University Press. DALE, Reginald. (2003). European Union, Properly Construed. Policy Review. HANSEN, Johan. (1999). Assessing Equal Opportunities in the European Union. International Labor Review Vol. 138 PECK, Bryan T. (1996). The European Union Faces East. Phi Delta Kappan Vol. 78 Word Count: 2,531 Read More