European Union Establishment - Essay Example

European Union Establishment In MLA Format 2007 Outline I. Introduction II. Reasons/motives for establishment of the European Union (EU) III. Process of the establishment IV. Structure of the European Union V. Conclusion VI. Work Cited VII. Today it is hard to imagine that sometime in the past the earth was not divided into continents and countries. It is even harder to believe that once the world countries were not involved in various treaties and alliances. However, no matter how obvious and ever lasting some concept is there is always something that operated before it came to existence. Today we all are used to the fact that most European countries are united in the alliance called the European Union ( the EU), however not all of us are familiar with the history of its arrival as well as the reasons that caused it to be established. In my paper I would like to present the history of the establishment of the EU, describing the motives for its creation as well as the outcomes. Though, the primary task of my paper is to, after conducting the research and deeply studying the EU concepts, answer the question of whether the EU was mainly created due to political or economical reasons. It is rather surprising that the European Union was officially created fourteen years ago, in 1993, because the idea of United Europe was pursued by many thinkers long before the 1990s. The list of historical personalities, who in different ways followed an idea of EU, is remarkable. It starts with Charlemagne, Charles V, Napoleon, and Metternich, and can be continued with such intellectuals and philosophers as Rousseau, Marx, Kant, and Leibniz the remarkable thinkers who proposed the idea of a European Community "as a long-term desirable political objective" (Davies). Furthermore, the first great effort to integrate an imperative section of Eurasia and the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea was brought up in the times of Roman Empire. It was the time when the idea about "eurocenttrism" and superiority of the European civilization arose for the first time (Davies). For those living in Europe, World War I and World War II meant the beginning of the end of the traditional time-honored European civilization. For the majority it was the period of perplexity and uncertainty, the Europeans were simply squeezed between the two growing powers: the USA and the USSR. Though, there was a minority of people who, having survived the wars, drew some important conclusions. At that point of time people realized that the way Europe reacted to wars and actually its capacity to react to military operations depended on its ability to surmount the hostile nationalism that brought about only catastrophes, desolation, and misery (European History Spartacus Educational). For that little group of people it was clear that the time to adopt the ideal of a joint and peaceful Europe as a common project has come (Davies). Nonetheless the fact that there was only a minority of those advocating the creation of joint and peaceful Europe, there were three reasons, or so to say "realities" that evidently showed that the time for new orientation towards the European integration had come. To begin with, the Europeans, even the most nationalistic ones were fully aware of their overall political and economical weaknesses. The world was once and forever changed by the wars, and the eminent and traditional European hegemony was in the past, while the two new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, were formed possessing a superior economic, political and military strength. Secondly, having learnt the lesson from the two drastic wars, the European countries were fully aware of impossibility and malignancy of repeating the confrontation among European States. The last but not least reason for the establishment of European Union was a desire to create an open, just and more affluent continent in which the international relationships were developed in a frame of harmony, peace, and unity. The first step in the process of foundation of the European Community was made by Robert Schuman who was the Foreign Minister of France after the WWII. In one oh his speeches Robert Schuman proposed France and Germany and, of course, any other European country that possesses a will to join together and pool in all their coal and steel resources. Schuman's plan was one of the first steps towards European integration of, moving away the haunt of war in Europe. Even though not all the European countries agreed with Schuman's proposal, it was obvious for everybody that economic integration was the only sensible way toward a political union that should be achieved after having gone through a long, painful, and destructive process of two wars. The next step was taken on the 25th of March 1957. On that day the two treaties that gave birth to the European Economic Community (EEC) and to European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) were signed in Rome, receiving the name "the Treaties of Rome". The countries' representatives who were present that day in Rome and who signed the noteworthy document were: Christian Pineau from France, Joseph Luns representing the Netherlands, Paul Henri Spaak from Belgium, Joseph Bech from Luxemburg, Antonio Segni from Italy and Konrad Adenauer from the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). It took couple of month for the Treaties of Rome to be approved and ratified by National Parliaments. However, the documents came into force on 1st of January, 1958. The main concepts of the Rome Treaties were the basics of common market that was an entirely free circulation of goods, and free crossing of persons through the countries participants' boarders. Still, what must be said, is that, even though the documents were officially ratified, capitals and services "continued to be subject to numerous limitations" (Dinan). Probably the year 1958 was too early for a genuine unified market and a complete European integration, and it was necessary to wait until the year 1987 when Single European Act was signed. This brought about the European Union Treaty signed in 1992 in Denmark. In 1992 the previous treaties of Paris, Rome and Single European Act were revised and modified and a solid decision of taking a course towards rapid and strong European integration was made. Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined in 1995, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined in 2004 (Dinan), and Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007. From the time of establishment of the EU it was stated that not every country would be able to enter the union. According to the EU standard the member countries must direct their economic policies toward achieving such objectives as: "reduction of inflation and interest rates, control of government deficit and debt and respect of normal fluctuation margins provided for by the exchange-rate mechanism on the European Monetary system (Europa Glossary). The criteria a country has to meet in order to enter the EU received a name of Copenhagen Criteria that was defined at the 1993 Copenhagen European Council. The evaluation of a country's fulfillment or failure to meet the Copenhagen criteria rests upon the responsibilities of European Council (Europa Glossary). In order to give a clearer picture on how the EU functions, lower I would like to present and describe main EU institutions. The first and biggest institution is the European Parliament that represents 370 million citizens of the European Union. Its key role is to pass legislation and to control the use of decision-making power of the institutions of the European Union. The next institution is the Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers), its role is to identify political objectives, and synchronize and organize national policies (NATO Handbook). The third main institution of the EU is the Commission that is EU's organizational and executive body, based Brussels (Schuman). The main task of the Commission is to draft legislation proposals and policies for the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. The last big EU institution is the European Court of Justice that consists of a judge from each member country and advocates-general, who make a "preliminary" verdict on every case before an ultimate judgment (Archer). Before concluding my paper I would like to mention four people who took a vital part in the establishment and functioning of the EU. These people are Charles De Gaulle, Pompidou, Christian Fouchet and Margaret Thatcher. Charles De Gaulle was the activist of the EU, a president of France, who wanted EU to be a system where governments cooperated though remaining separate. Christian Fouchet, being an ambassador of France and the chairman of the European Committee, in 1961 had put forward proposals on the political status of a "union of European people". The peculiarity of Fouchet's proposal laid in the fact that his plan on respect for the "identity of the Member States", that in reality was rejecting federal opinion (European Parliament Fact Sheets). Margaret Thatcher, who as well as Charles De Gaulle had a formidable support towards the sovereignty of states, as well as she was a most obstinate opponent of "supranationalism" in the history of European Committee (Euro Know). Having conducted the research about the reasons and motives behind creating the European Union I was able to answer the primary question of my paper that is whether the European Union was established mainly due to economical or political forces. In my opinion, it is impossible and simply inaccurate to say what forces were chiefly stronger, the economical or political ones. What is for sure is that Europe has benefited from the establishment of the European Union both politically and economically. The establishment of the European Union has greatly enlarged the political scope of the European Economic Community, especially in the area of foreign policy where it has assisted in creation of a central European bank as well as the adoption of single currency - the euro that today becomes more and more valuable (Nugent). The EU has also become one of the largest producers on the planet, in terms of GDP and other economical factors, and the euro has sustained a competitive value against the U.S. dollar to say nothing about other currencies (Nugent). Therefore, the EU has adopted a process of integration that is slowly but surely incorporating the diverse economic and political sectors. Thus, it is clear that the union was created owing two both of these forces, economical and political, equally united with the intention of achieving great outcomes. Work Cited 1. Archer, Clive, the European Union: Structure and Process, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000, pp. 22, 37-39, ISBN 0826447813. 2. Davies, Norman, Europe: A History, Published 1996 Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198201710, p. 95. 3. Dinan, Desmond, Europe Recast: A History of European Union, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, pp. 34, 56, 60-61 4. Europa Glossary, Accession Criteria (Copenhagen criteria), retrieved on November 13th, 2007 from < http://europa.eu/scadplus/glossary/accession_criteria_copenhague_en.htm>. 5. European History Spartacus Educational, Treaty of Maastricht (1992), retrieved on November 12th, 2007 from . 6. Euro-Know, retrieved from http://www.euro-know.org/dictionary/t.html on November 22nd, 2007. 7. European Parliament Fact Sheets, Developments up to the Single European Act, retrieved from < http://www.europarl.europa.eu/facts/1_1_2_en.htm> on November 22nd, 2007. 8. NATO Handbook, Chapter 15: The Wider Institutional Framework for Security the European Union (EU) The Structure of the European Union, retrieved on November 13th from . 9. Nugent, N, The Government Politics of the European Union:6th Ed, Duke University Press, 2006, pp. 36,79, 129, 240-248, ISBN 082233870X. 10. Schumann, Wolfgang, Institutional Structure at the Supranational Level, retrieved on November 13th, 2007 from . Read More