European Union Countries

Introduction

European Union itself reflects globalization by changing laws of European countries, and also European Union is very important in world’s economy strategies. What does globalization mean, indeed? By definition, globalization is a process of change in some kind of area such as technology, trade market of war, which affects the whole world. Sometimes globalization can bring a great gift for the people of the world, sometimes not. The main idea of the European Union means to bring the peace to the whole world by respecting human rights and by uniting people together. As I said above the globalization has to affect at least few countries or whole world, other wise it is not globalization. The point is that European Union consists of twenty seven sovereign countries. And decision which comes from the European Union affects all this twenty seven countries. Also European Union has big influence in world trade market, because of the currency of the European Union is in the second place in trade market. Also, economy of the European Union stays on the second place by the world’s rates. In addition, the European Union has voice in United Nations organization, and it can change most of the decisions either in good way or bad.

The history of the European community is incredible, and it had experienced almost everything. European community had experienced wars between neighbor countries, revolutions, colonialism and many other things. However, now European community is one of the strongest economical powers in the world. Most of the time the European Union was an international organization, but now it has big influence in military services, also it functions in monetary system of the European countries, and it has big importance in economy. The European Union is a part of the government for each European country. Also, the monetary system of the European Union is one of the significant systems in Eurasia, which provides economic stability in European Countries.

European Union

All the great and powerful unions were not made at once. Unions were made step by step, and improving their visible and weak factors. In our days one of the powerful and influenced unions is European. “Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single, general plan. It will be built through concrete achievements, which first create a factor of solidarity”. (Robert Schuman). With this words Schuman declaration accurately predicted the way in which the Community has become the Union today.

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When the European countries created the European Union, the first target of the union was to gain a peace between European countries. In 1950 the European organizations such as European Coal and Steel Community started to unite countries, because this organizations wanted to keep the peace between European countries, and also it was big benefit to European countries in economical and political spheres. Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg and the Netherlands were the countries which formed first European Union. The speech given by French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman inspired European countries to unite. (The history of EU).

One of the successes which European Union gained was stopping of custom charges between European countries. Also, the member countries of the European Union made contract between each others to control production of food. This decision was made to improve agricultural structure, and the European Union wanted to produce enough food for the member countries. (The ‘Swinging Sixties’ – a period of economic growth). “1962 The Council of Europe adopts the first directive. It establishes the EEC global foodstuff regulation by defining which colorants can be added to food.” (BBC News, 5 December, 2000). In 1967 the European Union had united the main ruling institutions, such as European Parliament, Commission and Court. (History of the European Union). Which meant that European institutions work as one system, and each member country of the European Union had a person who presented the county’s interests. In 1992 the Treaty of Maastricht offered to have one single army, which in the situation of the threat they can protect each others interests as one power (History of the European Union).

The European Union consists of twenty seven sovereign countries. Member countries of the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (Member State of the European Union). As the facts shows there are more countries which want to join European Union, and one of the main candidate is Turkey. The main achievement of these counties is democracy. Democracy means to protect human values, and it means freedom. These are the main values which European countries store.

For over half a century, the European Union has: delivered half a century of stability, peace and prosperity within its member countries. European Union raised its citizen’s standards of living to unprecedented levels, and even strengthened Europe’s voice in the world. The European Union has given its member countries citizens many different benefits in different aspects of life. It has made life easier and more convenient in many ways. It has even promoted peace and a spirit of brotherhood between old rival nations. Another benefit of the European Union is a single currency. Joining European Union has many benefits, such as political, economical, social, and environmental. Republic of Poland, for example, gained all these benefits joining the European Union. The political benefit of Republic of Poland is to participate in acceptance of the laws in European institutions. Also, joining to the European Union provides Polish people to travel without visa in Europe, and Polish people can find the jobs in any part of the European Union. In addition, Republic of Poland can count on European Army’s support in a situation of war conflict. The economical benefits are open market, changes in agriculture, and Poland can stabilize their inflation. Open market will provide Poland to sell their products in every European country, which will help to increase competition between companies, and it will decrease the prices of goods. (Joining European Union, List of Benefits)

The social benefit which Poland gained was European standards of life. Also the Polish students who study in other parts of European Union can get scholarship, and they can provide their knowledge about Poland to student abroad. Another important benefit is environmental benefit which Republic of Poland gained joining European Union. The Poland should follow the environmental aspects of European Union, which means they will improve their environmental problems. (Joining European Union, List of Benefits).

The European Union has given its citizens greater freedom of movement. Traveling within the European Union nations is now very convenient. In most of the European Union you can travel without carrying passport and without being stopped for the checks at the borders. A citizen of the European Union can travel, study and work wherever she or he chooses to in any of the European Union countries.

Departments and policies of European Union

The European Union has a very complex system. It has different bodies carrying different important jobs that make the system work properly. Each job has its significance. While all the member countries of the European Union work as one, and its system function well as one body, they become very successful as they take on many difficult tasks of accomplishing a united, integrated Europe.

The countries that make up European Union are all committed to the same fundamental values, such as peace and democracy. And in this bases all ruling institutions has been made. The main institutions of the European Union: the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the Court of Justice and the European Court of Auditors. (EU institutions and other bodies).

The European Parliament is one of the main institutions of the European Union. The main job of the European Parliament is to introduce the new legislations. Also European Parliament gives opinions on new legislations, and it makes decisions about new legislations together with the Council of Ministers. The final decision of the new legislation has to be taken by the European parliament and the Council of Ministers. In addition, the name of the European Parliament is “watch dog” of the European Union. They named European Parliament as “watch dog” because it monitors all operations in European Union. Also European Parliament monitors budget of the European Union, because the money of the EU budget has to be distributed lawfully. The locations of the European Parliament are Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxemburg. The Members of the European Parliament are elected by the people whose country they represent. Also, the European Parliament is elected every five years by the citizens of the European countries. (The European Parliament)

The Council of the European Union is a main institution which takes final decisions passing new legislation. The Council of the European Union consists of twenty seven ministers. Every minister represents the country in which he or she has been selected to represent country. When the Council of the European Union is going to accept new legislation which can affect sphere of transportation, then the Minister of Transport will attend, and so on. (The Council of the European Union)

The European Commission’s main job is to prepare new legislation and laws before the legislation will be accepted in the European Parliament. The European Commission also does a job as the peacemaker. When the member countries of the European Union argue between themselves the European Commission will solve their problems. Every member of the European Commission has to put the interests of the European Union first, rather than their own country. When some kind of problem or situation happens in European Union the members of the European Commission have to solve these problems as uniform system. (The European Commission)

The European Court of Justice’s location is in Luxemburg. The European Court of Justice consists of one judge from every member country of the European Union. Most of time thirteen judges take part in court to solve the problem. The main job of the European Court of Justice is to monitor the laws. Every citizen of the European Union has to obey the Court of Justice and laws of the European Union. (The Court of Justice)

The European Court of Auditors work is to monitor the budget of the European Union. This organization makes sure that documentations of the taxpayers are legal and right. In some cases if the documentations are wrong the European Court of Auditors have right to investigate any types of economical operations. In additions, the European Court of Auditors doesn’t depend on other institutions; however, it keeps touch with other institutions. (The European Court of Auditors)

European Union Monetary

When the European Union created monetary system for whole European countries, the first target of the monetary system was to prevent economic damage, and stabilize economic situation in a moment of need. When the European Union created European Monetary Institute the first target of it was to create uniform currency for European member countries. (European Monetary System). The main idea of the European monetary system is to create more jobs for citizens of the European community, and to make European economy function better.

On 1^st January, 1999 the European Union has let out uniform currency, named Euro. The number of the first member countries of European Union which made Euro their national currency was eleven. On the other hand, member countries such as United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden did not adopted Euro as their national currency, they decided to keep their own national currencies. After the adaptation of the Euro, it did not show the success compared to other currencies. In addition, at the beginning the Euro felt down to 30% in world trade market. (BBC News, 5 December, 2000). “The Euro symbol – @ -, developed by the European Commission, was inspired by the Greek letter epsilon and also denotes the first letter of the word “Europe”. The two parallel lines refer to the stability inside the Euro area.” (The Euro)

Every system has its weaknesses and benefits. According to the economists of the United States and Europe the last analyses shows that European Monetary Union has advantages. The first benefit is that European countries do not need costs of current exchange. The second benefit is exclusion of the currency’s destabilization between member countries of the European Union. The third benefit is the fast growth of economy of European Union countries. The fourth benefit is the solvency of the more complicated monetary problems. (“Benefits and Costs of European Economic and Monetary Union”, Gerhard Fink; Dominic Salvatore)

With the advantages every monetary system also has problems, such as inflation. Inflation is a rise in the general level of prices overtime. It may also refer to rise in the prices of a specific set goods or services. In either case, it is measured as the percentage rate of change of a price index. According to the “EuroStat” statistics the inflation has made 2.3% in European Union in August. Compared to 2006 the inflation norm was 2.2% in 2005. In 2006 the norm of inflation rose 0.1 percent every month (Gian Luigi Mazzi and Rosa Ruggeri Cannata, August 2006). In a low inflationary spheres have got countries such as Finland, Sweden, and Poland. The inflation average in these countries was 1.5 percent. (2006). In a high inflationary sphere have got countries such as Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia and Spain. The inflation average in these countries was 4.9 percent. (2006)

The European Union always wanted to avoid the misunderstandings between member countries, and it always wanted to advance the unity of European community. Also, the main raisin of the European Union is the European Monetary System. On the other hand, today’s trade market showed to European community that it is difficult to maintain current single currency. In addition, the main problem of the single currency for the European community is instability of Euro. When the leading companies of the Europe invest money abroad it can change the income of the companies, because when the currency is unstable it will change the amount of the money when they expressed to Euro. (Richard W. Stevenson, July 31, 1993)

Conclusion

In conclusion, the European Union is one of the powerful organizations in the whole world. It has influence in military, world’s economy and so on. Before the unifying Europe had gone through the difficult times, such as war, economic disasters, and unemployment. European countries gain many benefits by unifying. European countries realized that they can not succeed along, the unity of these countries was the great step which they gained. The economy of the member countries of the European Union increased to many times after the unity. Still remains the question will the European Union stay the same or will it change the directions of unity. People of the Europe has big pessimism about European Union, people say unemployment is still stays unstable. However, Europe would never gain these kind of success if they were not united.

Can you imagine what European countries could gain if they had been united in ancient times. They could have avoided the wars between European countries. However, European countries are united now, and this is a huge success in a history of Europe. “A day will come when all the nations of this continent, without loosing 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)