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The European Union
•History
•System
•Analysis
•Discussion / questions
1
EU-History
Vision
"A day will come when all the nations of this continent, without
losing their distinct qualities or their glorious individuality, will fuse
together in a higher unity and form the European brotherhood. A
day will come when there will be no other battlefields than those of
the mind - open marketplaces for ideas. A day will come when
bullets and bombs will be replaced by votes".
Victor Hugo, 1849
EU-History
Beginning: war and peace
•Europe as the scene of frequent wars for centuries
•1951: European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)
•Belgium, West Germany, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Netherlands
EU-History
From three communities to the European Union
•1957: Treaties of Rome: EURATOM / EEC: forming a common
market
•1967: Merger of the Institutions (ECSC, EURATOM, EEC)  one
single Commission / Council of Ministers / European Parliament
•1979: First direct elections into the European Parliament
•1992: Treaty of Maastricht: new forms of cooperations between
the member states  European Union
EU-History
Integration means common policies
•Countries have to take joint decisions on many matters
•Wide range of common policies: agriculture, culture, consumer
affairs, competition, and so on
•One voice (common Foreign and Security Policy?)
EU-History
One single market for
•goods
•services
•capital
•people
 greater mobility for the citizens
EU-History
One single currency: the Euro
•1992: Decision to introduce one single European currency,
managed by the European Central Bank
•1999 - 2002: Euro became reality and replaced national
currencies in twelve of the 15 countries of the European Union
EU-History
1951 Belgium, West Germany, Luxembourg, France, Italy
Netherlands
1973
Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom
1981
Greece
1986
Spain, Portugal
1995
Austria, Finland, Sweden
2004 Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia.
???
Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Switzerland, …
EU-History
EU-History
The development of the Res Publica
EU-History
Achievements (in our opinion)
•Integration has succeeded in overcoming age-old enmity between
European countries.
•The EU has created a single currency and a dynamic single
market in which people, services, goods and capital move around
freely.
•In no other region of the world have sovereign countries pooled
their sovereignty to this extent and in so many areas of crucial
importance to their citizens.
How the political system works
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EU – How it works
Executive
Executive / Legislative
Judicature
Legislative
EU – How it works
President José
Manuel Barrosso
EU – How it works
EU – How it works
President Josep
Borrel Fontelles
EU – How it works
EDD
UEN
NI
V/ALE
PPE-DE
GUE/NGL
ELDR
PSE
EU – How it works
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EU – How it works
EU – How it works
EU – How it works
5 other important bodies:
•European Economic and Social Committee
•Committee of the Regions
•European Central Bank
•European Ombudsman
•European Investment Bank
EU – How it works
The draft of the constitutional treaty proposes, among other things:
•An EU Minister for Foreign Affairs should be appointed. He or she should be both a
Commission Vice-President and a member of the European Council.
•The European Union should be given legal personality.
•The European Parliament should be given greater legislative and budgetary
powers.
Analysis
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EU-Analysis
Overall goal of the EU:
•increasing the efficiency in environmental, social & economical
concerns
EU-Analysis
Problems & tradeoffs
•language problem, differences in cultural values
•complexity (many countries & many subjects)
•independency of the EU states vs. centralisation
•power distribution
•net receiver, net payer (new member states)
•foreign policy conflicts
•maximise individual rather than overall gains often leads to
efficiency losses
EU-Analysis
Strengths
•economical power (independency from US & Asia)
•monetary antagonist to USD and Yen
•free move of goods, services & people within the EU
•united migration policy (Europol)
•employment & social affairs
EU-Analysis
Weaknesses
• member states look first for self interests
• political system (slow & unfair)
•not united forgeign policy
• gap of wealth of the member states
EUAnalysis
Forecast
•integration process of the new member states?
•efficiency and transparency improvement?
•europe‘s strategy towards the United States of Europe?
•superpower EU vs. USA?
EU-Analysis
Scenarios
•United States of Europe
•Alliance between sovereign member states
•Break apart of the European Union
Discussion
30
EU-Discussion
Question:
According to the article, what are the problems and risks of the
European Union? Do you agree?
Vocabulary:
transfixed
unscathed
ordeal
rift
gridlock
splinter
inept
incoherent
muddied
realign
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Probe, Test
Riss, Unstimmigkeit
stoppen
zersplittern
unpassend
widersprüchlich
unklar, verworren
wieder einordnen