The Major Issues and Difficulties Facing the European Union and Its Attempts to Effectively Fight Fraud Against Its Budget - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... In 1992, the Treaty of Maastricht was signed which gave rise to the European Union (EU). A single market devoid of any boundaries was established where people could go from one country to another freely. The single currency concept came into being in 2002 with the introduction of Euro. The EU family is growing day by day and more countries are joining in. The European Parliament, the body governing the EU, takes care of all the activities of the member states. The member countries set up the parliament by giving their votes. The votes are directly proportional to an individual country’s size. The parliament consists of Commissioners of different countries led by a President. (History of European Union, n.d.)
With the enlargement of EU, more countries came into its fold. The challenge for the EU was to induct these countries into its set up. The problem faced by EU in this regard was that the Parliament was influenced by the bigger countries as they had the lion’s share of commissioners. The treaty of Nice underlined that the small countries will get to cast a minimum amount of votes while the big countries would cast the bigger share. This means that the bigger countries will influence all the decisions taken in the EU. (The treaty of nice, n.d.)
Perhaps, the main issue facing the EU right now is the fraud against their budget. The symptoms are widespread now and the EU is facing severe problems in controlling the frauds against the budget. Despite the measures taken by the EU in controlling the frauds, various scams, and frauds surfaced which has led to the decrease in public trust on EU. OLAF was set up to look after the corruption against the budgetary frauds. (EU budget fraud, 16th January 2010).
With the introduction of new member countries in the EU fold the problem of the transition begins. ...Download file to see next pagesRead More