Encyclopedia
| European Union |
Flag of the European Union |
| Motto: In varietate concordia |
| Anthem: Ode to Joy |
| |
| EU institution sites | Brussels
Frankfurt am Main
Luxembourg
Strasbourg |
| Monetary authority | European Central Bank |
| Administrative centre | Brussels |
| Largest city | London |
| Member states | 25 member states,27 in January 1st of 2007 |
| Official languages | 20 official languages |
| Presidencies |
|---|
| European Council | Matti Vanhanen |
| Council of the EU | Finland |
| European Commission | José Manuel Durão Barroso |
| European Parliament | Josep Borrell Fontelles |
| History |
|---|
| Europe Day | May 9, 1950 |
Formation as EEC
- Signed
- Enforced | Treaty of Rome
- March 25, 1957
- January 1, 1958 |
Formation as EU
- Signed
- Enforced | Maastricht Treaty
- February 7, 1992
- November 1, 1993 |
| Statistics |
|---|
Area
- Total | 7th if ranked
3,976,372 km²
1,5352,86 sq mi |
Population
- Total
- Density | 3rd if ranked
461,500,000
115.6 people/km²
299.4 people/sq mi |
GDP
- Total
- Per capita | 1st if ranked
$12.43 trillion
$28,100 |
| HDI | – high |
| Other information |
|---|
| Currencies | Euro
Other currencies:
British pound
Cyprus pound
Czech koruna
Danish krone
Estonian kroon
Hungarian forint
Latvian lats
Lithuanian litas
Maltese lira
Polish zloty
Slovak koruna
Slovenian tolar
Swedish krona |
| Time zone | UTC 0 to +2 |
| Internet TLD | .eu |
| Calling codes | |
| Official Website | http://europa.eu/ |
See other official names
See European symbols
Only for Eurozone members and EU institutions
Not de jure - Brussels is unofficialy referred to as The Capital of the European Union because it is the hub of EU institutions: it hosts the European Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament.
If counted as a single unit.
Total: According to IMF Estimations & Reports for 2005; Per capita: According to the CIA World Factbook [https://cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ee.html#Econ].
Estimated using members' HDI, and weighted by estimated current population.
Would be 9th if member states were not counted.
+1 to +3 during DST; French overseas départements, UTC −4 to +4
Plans for a EU-wide +3 prefix were abandoned. The European Telephony Numbering Space, +388 3 is somewhat similar. Current members' codes begin with either +3 or +4. |
The
European Union is an intergovernmental and supranational union of 25
democratic member states. The European Union is the world's largest confederation of independent states, established under that name in 1992 by the Treaty on European Union . However, many aspects of the Union existed before that date through a series of predecessor relationships, dating back to 1951.
The Union currently has a common single market consisting of a customs union, a
single currency managed by the
European Central Bank , a
Common Agricultural Policy, a common trade policy, and a
Common Fisheries Policy. A Common Foreign and Security Policy was also established as the second of the
three pillars of the European Union. The
Schengen Agreement abolished passport control, and customs checks were also abolished at many of the EU's internal borders, creating a single space of mobility for EU citizens to live, travel, work and invest.
The most important EU institutions include the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the
European Court of Justice, the
European Parliament, the
European Council, and the
European Central Bank. The European Parliament's origins go back to the 1950s and the founding treaties, and since 1979 its members have been elected by the people they represent. Every five years elections are held in which registered EU citizens may vote.
The European Union's activities cover most areas of public policy, from
economic policy to
foreign affairs, defence, agriculture and trade. However, the extent of its powers differs greatly among areas. In some the EU may resemble a
federation , in others a confederation , and in yet others an
international organisation .
Status
The members of the European Union have transferred to it considerable sovereignty, more than that of any other non-sovereign
regional organisation. As has been mentioned, in certain areas the EU begins to take on the character of a
federation or confederation. However, in legal terms, member states remain the
masters of the Treaties, which means that the Union does not have the power to transfer additional powers from states onto itself without their agreement through further international treaties. Further, in many areas member states have given up relatively little national sovereignty, particularly in key areas of national interest such as foreign relations and defence. Because of this unique structure most simply classify the European Union as a
sui generis entity and leave it at that.
On October 29, 2004, EU member state heads of government and state
signed the
Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. This was later ratified by 13 member states. However, in most cases ratification was based on parliamentary action, rather than popular vote, and the process faltered on May 29 2005 when French voters rejected the constitution in a referendum by 54.7%.
The French rejection was followed three days later by a Dutch one, in which 61.6% of voters refused the constitution as well.
The current and future status of the European Union therefore continues to be subject of political controversy, with widely differing views both within and between member states. For example, in the
United Kingdom one poll suggested that around 50% of the population are indifferent to the European Union and 20% voted for parties that wanted to withdraw from the EU in the 2004 EU elections . Public opinion in Denmark and Austria is similarly
Eurosceptic. However, other countries are more in favour of European integration — soon after the Netherlands and the French voted "no" on the constitution, the Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg voted "yes." What the term "
European integration" itself means is also the subject of much debate.
Current issues
Issues currently facing the EU cover its membership, structure, procedures and policies. They include the status and future of the
constitutional treaty;
enlargement to the south and east; problems of financial probity and democratic accountability; relative economic viability; revision of the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact; and the future budget and the
Common Agricultural Policy.
At the December 2005 European Council, which is a semi-annual meeting of the heads of state and government of the EU member states, a decision was taken on how it should allocate the EU budget for the next seven years . Also, the "Financial Perspective" was defined as EU members agreed to fix the common budget to 1.045% of the
European GDP. UK Prime Minister
Tony Blair agreed to review the
British rebate, negotiated by
Margaret Thatcher in 1984, despite a promise to the contrary made to the UK Parliament. French President
Jacques Chirac declared that this increase in budget will permit Europe to "finance common policies" such as the
Common Agricultural Policy or the Research and Technological Development Policy. However, France's demand to lower the VAT in catering was refused.
Issues controversial during budget debates include the
British rebate, France's benefits from the
Common Agricultural Policy, Germany and the Netherlands' large contributions to the EU budget, and reform of the
European Regional Development Funds.
Many commentators believe that these debates represent a major split between governments such as France and Germany, who call for a broader budget and a more federal union, and governments such as that of the UK, who demanded a slimmer budget with more funding transferred to science and research .
The
Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , commonly referred to as the European Constitution, is an international
treaty intended to create a
constitution for the European Union. The failure of the constitution to win popular support in some member states caused other countries to postpone or halt their ratification procedures, and the Constitution now has an uncertain future. Had it been ratified, the treaty would have entered into force on November 1, 2006. However, as of May 2006,
Austria,
Belgium,
Cyprus,
Estonia,
Germany,
Greece,
Hungary,
Italy,
Latvia,
Lithuania,
Luxembourg,
Malta,
Slovakia,
Slovenia and
Spain had ratified the constitutional treaty. The two countries due to join the European Union in 2007,
Bulgaria and
Romania, have already accepted the constitutional treaty too, ratifying their accession treaty.
Origins and history
Attempts to unite the disparate nations of Europe precede the modern
nation states; they have occurred repeatedly throughout the history of Europe. Two and a half thousand years ago, Europe was dominated by the
Celts and other tribes which were not a single political entity, and then conquered and ruled by the
Mediterranean-centred
Roman Empire. This early union was created by the force of one central state. The
Frankish empire of
Charlemagne and the
Holy Roman Empire united large areas under a loose administration for hundreds of years. The 1800s customs union under
Napoleon and the 1940s conquests of
Germany had only transitory existence.
Given Europe's collections of
languages,
cultures and ethnic groups, these attempts usually involved military subjugation of unwilling nations, leading to instability; others have lasted hundreds of years and promulgated large spells of peace and economical and technological progress as in the Roman Empire's
Pax Romana. One of the first proposals for peaceful unification through cooperation and equality of membership was made by the
pacifist Victor Hugo in 1851. Following the catastrophes of the
First World War and the
Second World War, the impetus for the founding of the European Union greatly increased, driven by the determination to rebuild Europe and to eliminate the possibility of another war. This sentiment eventually led to the formation of the
European Coal and Steel Community by
Germany,
France,
Italy and the
Benelux countries. This was accomplished by the Treaty of Paris, signed in April, 1951, and taking effect in July, 1952.
The first full customs union was originally known as the
European Economic Community , established by the
Treaty of Rome in 1957 and implemented on 1 January 1958. This later changed to the
European Community which is now the "first pillar" of the European Union created by the Maastricht treaty. The EU has evolved from a trade body into an economic and political partnership. As president of the Convention on the Future of Europe, the former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing proposed to change the name of the European Union to United Europe but it was not adopted.
Demographics
The European Union is a densely populated, culturally diverse union of 25 member states, constantly expanding and developing. Over the next two decades the total population of the EU25 is expected to increase by more than 13 million inhabitants, from 456.8 million on 1 January 2004 to 470.1 million in 2025. Population growth in the EU25 until 2025 will be mainly from net migration, since total deaths in the EU25 will outnumber total births from 2010. The effect of net migration will no longer outweigh the natural decrease after 2025, when the population will start to decline gradually. The population is estimated to be 449.8 million in 2050 - a decrease of more than 20 million inhabitants compared to 2025. Over the whole projection period the EU25 population will decrease by 1.5%, resulting from a 0.4% increase for the EU15 and a 11.7% decrease for the ten new Member States.
Member states and enlargement
The European Union's 25 member states cover an area of 3,892,685 square kilometres and have approximately 460 million inhabitants as of December 2004 . The European Union's member states combined represent the world's largest economy by GDP, the
seventh largest territory in the world by area and the third largest by population. The EU describes itself as a "a family of democratic European countries",. Part of the problem with Turkey's possible accession is the fact that 97% of its land mass lies on the Anatolian peninsula of western Asia and a mere 3% lies within continental Europe. Turkish officials have countered this by stating that countries such as
Ukraine and
Belarus lie just as far east, whilst
Georgia, which is partially within Europe geographically, is situated even further east than Turkey and shares part of its northeastern border. Thus it can be claimed that Turkey shares a border with another European state to both the east and west.
The
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has been given official candidate status as of December 2005.
The
EFTA states of
Norway,
Iceland and
Liechtenstein are members of the
European Economic Area which allows them to participate in most aspects of the EU single market without acceding to the EU.
Switzerland, the fourth EFTA state, rejected EEA membership in a referendum; however, it has established close ties to the EU by means of various bilateral treaties.
Albania,
Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Montenegro and
Serbia are officially recognized as potential candidates.
Context — rationale for enlargement and future prospects
Supporters of the European Union argue that the growth of the EU is a force for
peace and
democracy. They argue that the wars which were a periodic feature of the history of Western Europe have ceased since the formation of the European Economic Community in the 1950s. They also claim that in the early 1970s, Greece, Portugal and Spain were all dictatorships, but the desire of the business communities in these three countries to be in the EU created a strong impetus for democracy there. Others argue that peace in Europe since
World War II is more because of other causes, such as the moderating influence of the U.S. and NATO, the need for a unified response to the threat from the
Soviet Union, a need for reconstruction after World War II, and a collective temporary tiring of waging war, and that the dictatorships cited came to an end for totally different reasons.
In more recent times, the European Union has been extending its influence to the east. It has accepted several new members that were previously behind the
Iron Curtain, and has plans to accept several more in the medium-term. It is hoped that in a similar fashion to the entry of Spain, Portugal and Greece in the 1980s, membership for these states will help cement economic and political stability.
As the EU continues to enlarge eastward, the candidate countries' accessions tend to grow more controversial. As previously explained, the EU has completed its accession negotiations with Romania and Bulgaria and set an entry date for the two countries in 2007. However, the rejection of the EU Constitution by France and the Netherlands, together with the EU's slow economic growth, have cast doubt on whether the EU will be ready to accept new, far poorer members after 2007. The prospect of large-scale economic migration from Romania and Bulgaria into the major EU economies such as the UK, Germany, Italy and France has also reared its head. These countries have only just begun to manage the major influx from the 2004 accedant member states such as Poland and the Czech Republic , although in most cases this influx has been generally welcomed as migrants are filling gaps in traditional labour markets such as low-paid work or where there is a national shortage of skilled labour in a particular field, eg, plumbing or construction services. However, it is feared by these economies that they will be unable to cope with additional economic migrants which are projected to number in the hundreds of thousands from 2007 to 2010 alone. Both Romania and Bulgaria also fear that they will suffer a national 'brain drain' of their skilled and specialist workforce, similar to what the 2004 member state entrants are experiencing now.
Institutions and legal framework
EU institutions and bodies
The functioning of the European Union is supported by five major institutions:
The
European Council , which is a regular meeting of the 25 head of member states and the
European Commission president is sometimes also listed as an institution, although since it lacks its own staff, budget and the legal powers held by the above 5 institutions, it is better described as a "quasi-institution".
There are two financial bodies:
There are also two
advisory committees to the institutions:
There are also a great number of more specialized
agencies of the European Union, usually set up by secondary legislation, which exist to implement particular policies. Examples are the
EUROPOL , the
European Environment Agency, the
European Aviation Safety Agency or the
Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, the Political and Security Committee, established in the context of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, monitoring and advising on international issues of global security.
Location of EU institutions
As soon as the European Economic Community was established, political and legal wrangling began over where the European institutions should be located. The Member States were unable to reach agreement on where the permanent seats should be, particularly since the concept of a European district, proposed by Jean Monnet, won little support. From 1958, the Commissions of the EEC and the European Atomic Energy Community had their seats in Brussels.
Until such time as the member states reached agreement on a single permanent seat for the Community institutions, European officials were distributed between Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg, leading, in particular, to a considerable increase in overheads. Brussels was chosen as the seat of the Single Commission and the Council of Ministers. In practical terms, this meant that most European officials were employed there. Luxembourg sought compensation for the loss of the High Authority and the Special Council of Ministers of the European Coal and Steel Community , both of which were relocated to Brussels. However, Luxembourg became the seat for the new European Investment Bank and was given the assurance that certain meetings of the Council of Ministers would be held there, in April, June and September. The Court of Justice, the Central Statistical Office, the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, the Advisory Committee and the financial services of the ECSC and the Secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly also remained in Luxembourg. Meanwhile, France refused to renounce its claim for Strasbourg as seat of the Parliamentary Assembly. An expensive and inconvenient compromise was reached whereby Parliament’s Members met in plenary session in Strasbourg but meetings of parliamentary committees were held in Brussels. Certain plenary meetings were also held in Luxembourg, which was also the seat of the Secretariat of the European Parliament.
The EU has no official capital and its institutions are divided between several cities:
- Brussels — considered the de facto capital of the EU, being the seat of the European Commission and the Council of Ministers. It is also the venue of the European Parliament's committee meetings and mini-sessions and the host city for all European Council summits.
