The European Union

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The European Union

• The formation of the European Union is an attempt
  to unify Europe in order to rebuild the European
  economy and prevent new conflict

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Steps Toward Unity 1951

• 1951 France and West Germany signed a treaty that
  gave control of their coal and steel resources to
  a multinational group, the European Coal and
  Steel Community, the ECSC.
• Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Netherlands also
  joined the ECSC.

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Goals of the ECSC

• The leaders of the six ECSC nations believed that
  this alliance would bring stability into the
  region.
• Each nation would depend on each other for
  industrial resources.
• Their economies would equally suffer if another
  war was fought.
• The believed that no country could secretly
  prepare for war without the other nation knowing
  about it.

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Cooperation Among Members

• 1957- Formation of the European Economic
  Community EEC, also called the Common Market.
• This alliance removed trader barriers, set common
  economic goals, and allowed people to live and
  work in any member country.

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Growth of the EEC

• By 1967, the membership in the EEC had
  quadrupled.
• 1967- the EEC merged with the ECSC forming a new
  European economic alliance called the European
  Community, or EC.

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New Members Sought

• 1973- The European Community, EC began to admit
  other European nations.
• 1993, as a result of a trade treaty, the European
  Union was formed to replace the EC.
• Today there are 27 member nations

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Progression of European Union
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Purpose of the EU

• One goal is to create a trade block that will
  strengthen the economy of all member nations.
• To ease travel, work and trade between member
  nations.
• To create a sense of European citizenship without
  reducing the sense of ones own nationality.

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Economics and Politics

• Membership in the EU has its share of challenges.
  
• The member nations must be willing to give up
  some of their sovereignty and national identities
  to the union.
• Some nations fear that membership will result in
  a loss of control of their own economies.

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The Euro

• One of the major goals of the EU is to create a
  common currency, the Euro, that every member
  nation will adopt as their form of money.
• Many countries are not ready to give up their own
  currency for fear of losing their national
  identity.

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The Single Currency

• 1 Euro 1.29 as of 12-10-12

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Political Challenges

• The EU members have voiced their support or lack
  of support for candidates in many political
  election held within member states, thus
  influencing the outcome of elections.
• Some believe that this kind of interference in
  the political arena will eventually tear the
  European Union apart and cause tension among
  members.

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Expanding the EU

• In time the European Union may have 28 member
  nations (500 million people). Administering this
  large of an alliance may prove to be very
  difficult.
• Many of the nations waiting for membership were a
  part of the former Soviet Union.

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Diversity Within the Union

• Growth of the European Union may make day-to-day
  operations difficult and the great diversity may
  pose problems.

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Prerequisites For Membership

• Must be a European nation
• Must be democratic
• Must have a clean record on human rights issues
• Must have free market economies
• Must not be involved in any current conflicts
  within or outside of its borders

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Member Nations

• Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech
  Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,
  Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia,
  Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands,
  Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia,
  Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom

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Member Candidates

• There are five official candidate countries,
  Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of
  Macedonia, Montenegro, Iceland, and Turkey.
• The western Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia
  and Herzegovina, and Serbia are potential
  candidates.

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The End