The European Union is an alliance currently made up of 27 European nations including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. These countries band together for political and economic strength. The European Union shares decision-making authority with constituent nations; it doesn’t replace the power of sovereign nations. The motto of the European Union is “United in Diversity,” reflecting the many cultures and languages that compose this union (Europa 2007). The European Union states, “Any European country can join, provided it has a stable democracy that guarantees the rule of law, human rights and the protection of minorities. It must also have a functioning market economy and a civil service capable of applying EU laws” (Europa 2007).

Rising from the Ashes

The European Union has been a somewhat fluid concept developing for more than 50 years. It stems from leaders and citizens of European nations desiring to prevent the devastation that occurred during World War II from ever happening again. Western European political leaders believed that some sort of alliance needed to be forged to help strengthen the economies and to ensure peace in European nations. French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman and French politician Jean Monnet envisioned a gradual unification that would naturally result from European nations working together toward common economic goals. They believed the integration would benefit all countries involved. In Monnet’s ideal union, “The means would be economics, but the goal was always political” (Burgess 1996). On May 9, 1950, Robert Schuman presented his plan in a press conference to integrate Western Europe’s coal and steel industries.

Schuman’s vision eventually materialized into two treaties. The nations of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and Netherlands signed the Treaty of Paris in April of 1951. This treaty established the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The purpose of the ECSC was to help make trading raw materials among the nations easier, thereby boosting their coal and steel industries. The ECSC was a huge success, and in 1957 these same nations signed the Treaties of Rome, creating the European Economic Community to help encourage trade among member nations, as well as the European Atomic Energy Community, to encourage the development and production of nuclear power. These three communities were important first steps in realizing Schuman and Monnet’s vision of uniting the nations of Europe.

In 1967, the three communities combined to become the European Community, which helped to strengthen the economic ties among the six nations. The European Community, the predecessor to the European Union, was governed by three bodies called the European Common Assembly, the Council of Ministers, and the European Commission. In 1952, Paul-Henri Spaak was appointed president of the European Common Assembly, which later became known as the European Parliamentary Assembly and, finally, as the European Parliament. At first, national governments chose members of the Parliament. It wasn’t until 1979 that the control of Parliamentary elections was turned over to the citizens of the European Community.

The European Parliament shares legislative responsibilities with the Council of Ministers, which is today known as the Council of the European Union (or, simply, the Council). The Council consists of representatives from each member country, but the representatives do not represent the countries themselves. Rather, each minister represents a sort of task force. Councils focus on issues such as finance, agriculture, and security policies. They vote on issues pertaining to their council, not specifically to their country of origin.

The third governing body, the European Commission, is responsible for proposing and enforcing laws and policies such as proposing the European Union budget and creating policies on how member countries will cooperate to enforce each other’s civil and criminal laws. Currently there is one commissioner from each nation in the European Union, but commissioners are required to act autonomously of their home country. They represent the interests of the European Union as a whole, not individual countries.

From Infancy to Adolescence

Since the beginning, the European Union and its ancestor organization, the European Community, have striven to define and fortify themselves. Several policies developed during the 1960s to strengthen the economy of the members of the European Community. In 1962, the Common Agricultural Policy was put into effect, giving the Community control over the production of crops by managing supply and demand of food production, subsidizing farmers’ wages, and overseeing the conservation of natural resources. In 1968, member nations removed customs duties on goods traded within the community, thus furthering the common market vision of the 1950s.

In 1972, member nations of the European Community were eager to further the development of a European Union, but they were unsure how to go about it. Member states were hesitant to require nations to relinquish any additional governmental control to further the development of the Union. By the early 1980s, Altiero Spinelli, an Italian European Commissioner, was frustrated with the Union’s inability to define itself. He argued that the European Community would never progress to become a Union because it was too weak. He wanted the Community to more aggressively establish and enforce political policies, and he pushed for a more united federalist form of government. He instigated a movement for the Community to write a treaty forming an official federalist union armed with more power to create and enforce policies.

Several important developments took place in the 1980s to help facilitate the development of the European Union. Altiero Spinelli spearheaded a parliamentary committee that wrote a draft for a treaty that would replace the existing European Community with a European Union. In 1984, the draft treaty was adopted by the Parliament. In 1985, European Commission president, Jacques Delors, released a document stating 279 actions that needed to be taken to fully integrate the market of member nations and a proposed schedule of when lawmakers should accomplish these actions. He proposed that all 279 actions should be accomplished by December 31, 1992. In February of 1986, member states of the European Union signed the Single European Act, which modified the way that decisions were made concerning a common market. With the Single European Act, most decisions concerning the common market could be made by qualified majority voting instead of only by a unanimous vote, with some exceptions including decisions that involve taxes and the safety and well-being of workers. As in Jean Monnet’s original vision of unification, member nations relinquished some control of their economies in order to band together for greater economic security.

By the 1990s, the idea of a European Union gained momentum and many important developments took place. One of the most significant events in the history of European integration happened on February 7, 1992, in Maastricht, Netherlands, when the Treaty on the European Union was ratified, transforming the European Community into the European Union. The treaty prompted member nations to create a schedule to fully integrate their economies and monetary systems. It expanded the influence of the European Union beyond finance to things like foreign policy and defense. It also created a collaboration for criminal prosecution and law enforcement. The Treaty on the European Union was the boldest step in political integration that the alliance had made yet.

In 1986, members of the European Community had promised to work toward completely integrating their markets for labor, goods, and other forms of trade. On January 1, 1993, as part of the schedule created at Maastricht the year before, Union members kept that promise and established the Single European Market, which introduced the freedom to trade goods, services, labor, and money (Europa 2007). In 1995, the Schengen Agreement made travel within the nations of France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands more accessible--to people of all nationalities as well as Europeans. With the Schengen Agreement, travelers are no longer required to present passports when moving among participating countries. Nations of the European Union are not required to participate in the Schengen Agreement, and England and Ireland have chosen to reject the agreement out of concern for national security. To date, 24 countries, including three non-European Union countries (Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland) have signed the agreement.

In 1997, the Treaty of Amsterdam was signed, amending the Treaty of the European Union. The purpose of this treaty was “to create the political and institutional conditions to enable the European Union to meet the challenges of the future such as the rapid evolution of the international situation, the globalization of the economy and its impact on jobs, the fight against terrorism, international crime and drug trafficking, ecological problems and threats to public health” (Europa 2007). And in January of 1999, the euro was introduced as the common currency of the European Union, but only for commercial transactions.

The European Union Today and Beyond

The European Union of today is the realization of many of the dreams of its founders. It continues to explore new frontiers in political policy, defense, and the economy. By early 2002, euro notes and coins were mass distributed, replacing the local currency in many countries of the European Union and taking economic integration one step further. In March of 2003, armed forces of the European Union took over for NATO troops in the former Yugoslavia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In May of 2004, ten countries from Central and Eastern Europe joined the European Union (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia), expanding it beyond an exclusively Western Europe alliance. On February 6, 2001, the European Union signed the Treaty of Nice. This treaty helped to prepare the Union for future growth by modifying the way voting takes place in the Council of Ministers and by changing the size and composition of the European Commission (Europa 2007).

But with so many different treaties governing the European Union, decision making at the Union level became inefficient and difficult. In an effort to simplify Union processes, the European Convention was born with the main objective to write a constitution for the European Union. A constitution was completed and signed in 2004, but it was never ratified. Citizens rejected the constitution in a popular vote, and it is currently under revision.

Though the European Union is still working to more completely define itself and iron out all of the details of policy making and upholding, it has made great strides in creating a more unified European continent. Collectively, it now stands as one of the world’s economic superpowers. There is a greater measure of peace among the participating European nations, and they are in a better position to defend themselves from external threats. Citizens are at liberty to work, live, and study within the Union as they choose. While the European Union will continue to experience growing pains, its commitment to democracy, opportunity, and improving the quality of life for all Europeans will impact citizens within its boarders and beyond now and for years to come.

-- Posted December 7, 2007

References

Europa: The European Union Online. 2007. Accessed: November 1, 2007.