European Union: Issues and Policies - Essay Example

The European Union (EU) can be regarded as one of the largest economic as well as political unions, which comprises 21 member states that are generally located in different geographical positions within Europe. EU operates its wide range of policies and regulations through its independent bodies namely Supranational and Intergovernmental institutions with the decisions negotiated by its member nations. The EU outlines its origin to the European Economic Community (EEC) which was founded during the year of 1957 (Eurogems, n.d.).

At that time, the main purpose was to develop an effective custom union as well as a single market which can facilitate the global firms to produce goods and sale them into the common market. Later on, the purpose of EU had also developed in the year 1993 with the unification of monetary as well as fiscal policies which has immensely facilitated to develop the member nations to perform their trade operations beyond their national boundaries (European Commission, 2012). Current Economic Position of European Union In the current circumstances, it has been determined that the EU is undergoing certain turmoil and critical scenarios in terms of economic position due to the sustained financial crisis especially in the Eurozone in the year 2012.

The member nations of the EU faced a slower rate of growth during the first quarter of 2013 (European Commission, 2013). Owing to the fact, the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate of the member states has been projected to face a decrease of ? % in the present year where the nations had experienced a negative growth during the year 2012 (European Union, 2012). Critical Analysis of the Key Economic Issues The major purpose of this policy paper is to design an effective course of action which can facilitate the stakeholder organisation (i.e. EU) and provide adequate counsel to improve its policy concerning economic integration.

Moreover, this policy paper will primarily take into concern the development of the EU’s economic guiding principles through complying with three major components such as considering the growing economic issue, the major reason of this issue and possible courses of actions to be executed to address the issue. Policy Position Policy position demarcates the potential issue(s) which can hinder the performance of any stakeholder organisation in terms of achieving substantial growth in the global economy.

In this regard, the proposed policy paper intends to highlight the possible intimidation that can arrive from the Chinese economy which can hinder the continuous progression of EU. In order to analyse the economic structure of EU, it is observed that the notion of economic integration process plays a vital role for the organisation to achieve substantial economic growth. The concept of economic integration has derived from Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) which had been taken by the European Council in the year 1991 and was preserved later under the treaty of EU (Indiana University, n.d.). EMU