Preview

European Union

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
600 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
European Union
The European Union; a curse or a blessing?
The European Union started in 1951 with the collaboration of six countries to pool the steel and coal resources of its member-states under the name ‘European Coal and Steel Community’. This formation evolved into what is now the largest free-trade zone in the world with 27 countries using a single market. The European Union has caused growth and power for Europe and convenience for its citizens, but it also always had its share of criticism. For this essay the following statement is discussed: "The creation of the European Union was a bad idea, and the EU should be abandoned to prevent the financial crisis from getting worse." This essay will clarify why this stand should be objected.
Let’s begin by saying that the European Union is flawed and is in no way perfect. This essay is not meant to sketch an untrue illustration about the European Union, but rather to clarify why it would be impractical and unreasonable to abandon the European Union.
The financial crisis in Greece put a great amount of pressure on the European Union. The huge debt and the deficit management has caused for the country to go bankrupt, which means that the European Union needed to step in and help Greece out. Needless to say, this left a poor impact on Europe and the credibility of the euro. With the same financial disasters lurking for countries like Portugal and the Republic of Ireland, many experts fear this would further damage the euro's reputation and could lead to a substantial fall against other key currencies.
Admittedly, the European Union made several mistakes with the euro. The launch of the euro caused for inflation in many of the countries it was introduced in, which made people feel poorer as a result. Another flaw of the euro is its one-size-fits-all monetary policy which means that a single interest rate is used in the entire Eurozone. However, with this policy the different economies, regulations and paces of a country are

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    References: Archick, K 2015, ‘The European Union: questions and answers’, Congressional Research Service, p. 4.…

    • 885 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The European Union is a political and economic Union, which is collectively made up of twenty-eight European countries. The intention of the European Union is to foster economic and political cooperation between the member states, and “to make war not only unthinkable, but materially impossible.” (Schuman Doctrine) The belief of the European Union is that by promoting trade and interdependence between the member states, it will not only make them less likely to engage in war with each other, but it will also be against their best interests both politically and economically. Today, the European Union collectively possesses the world’s largest economy, is home to the world’s third largest population, and is the world’s largest exporter and…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Today, as an economic union, the EU allows free movement of labour, trade and capital. This provides greater economic interdependence between the member countries and therefore greater economic security, key to sustainable growth. Furthermore, the EU shares common economic and political…

    • 1027 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the financial crisis, some members of the European Union viewed this crisis as an American phenomenon (Jackson 2009). But this view that people had, has changed as the EU has declined at a very fast pace. Matters went worse when the global trade started to decline sharply when it started eroding prospects for European exports giving safety valve for local industries that are reducing output (Gojinetchi 2012). Moreover the rise in unemployment and having a lot of concerns over the growing financial turmoil, are making the political stakes to increase for the EU government and for the leaders (Nanto 2009). The more the economic crisis persist the more will pressure mount on the governments…

    • 918 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    George, Stephen. "The Background: Britain and Europe, 1945-1973." An Awkward Partner: Britain in the European Community. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. N. pag. Print.…

    • 1719 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    European Union

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The European Union is an economic union consisting of 27 member states. To make a free market and remove trade barriers between member states are the ultimate aim of European Union (Hill p289). Among these ,17 nations are members of the ‘Eurozone’, distributing a currency with the purpose of further assimilating economic systems and plummeting trade obstacles caused by international currency conversion . As a member in Eurozone ,their fundamental goal is to maintain harmony because they have to depend on each other and their economy are interrelated.…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Eurocrisis

    • 3363 Words
    • 14 Pages

    It is the European integration of the previous years that has in fact led to the current European crisis and as a result, the European integration would have to be redefined so as not to fall into the same traps of past years. (More stringent rules of accession to the EU, such as stricter public deficit limits, more powers of sanctions from the EU commission to member states etc…). We will explore in a first part how the European integration was conceived and orchestrated pre-crisis, the rules of accession established by the different treaties, as well as the single currency process, then we will go through a brief outline of the crisis as well as the reasons of the whole crisis we are in, to finally address the problem and attempt a redefinition of the European integration process.…

    • 3363 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why Was the Eu Created?

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages

    1. Why was the European Union created? Are these goals still matching the actual needs of the Union? In 1795, German philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote in his famous essay Towards a Perpetual Peace that the ‘the spirit of commerce sooner or later takes hold of every people 1 and it cannot exist side by side with war’ . In the case of the European states this spirit has been able to manifest itself through the evolutionary creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC) and finally the European Union (EU), through the Treaty of Paris (1951) and the Treaties of Rome (1957), Maastricht (1992) and finally Lisbon (2007). The ECSC was created in the wake of Europe’s need to rebuild as a primarily economic cooperative focused on the resources of the British occupied Ruhr Valley. Initially evolving into a union to promote trade by abandoning internal tariffs, the EU quickly evolved into an entity looking to safeguard prosperity and peace across its member states by broadening the cooperative spirit of trade into a more political union. While this purpose continues to act as the foundation of the EU’s purpose and ability to act, the shifting geopolitical landscape and the emergence of the EU as the single largest trading bloc in the world – endowed with the power to expand geographically – require the EU to go beyond its initial purpose to serve as a relevant actor on the world stage. th As the European Union continues to expand – planning to add its 28 member, Croatia, in July of 2013 – it is expanding into a region where its founding purpose will be very much needed and relevant. The Balkans experienced continuous political instability and conflict between the onset of the Yugoslav Wars in 1991 and the declaration of Montenegro’s independence in 2006. Adding a second former Yugoslavian territory to the Union will help to incentivise neighbouring countries to align their policies to the EU’s as they gear up their own membership…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    The establishment of the European Union (EU) has its foundations of integration belonging to an economic community: the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) 1950.1 There has been a cycle of support, peaking in the 1990 at 71% and the lowest of 48% in 2004, as measured by the Eurobarometer 2. There is a clear divide between people who support the EU and Eurosceptics. Support for the EU can be encapsulated by Herman Van Rompuy, president if the European Council, ‘The age of the nation state is over and the idea that countries can stand alone is an ‘illusion’ and a ‘lie’’3 Eurosceptics on the other hand argue for the remodelling of the EU or the rejection of. Most notably the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) have stated in their manifesto that they wish to exit the EU as, ‘It does mean the end of Britain as an independent European state. It means the end of a thousand years of history.’4 This is a case of hard euroscepticism, as Taggart and Szcerbiak established, as opposed to soft euroscepticism which focuses upon remodelling. Therefore integration of the EU has caused a larger rift between those who support and those who do not.…

    • 2485 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    While the European Union was originally made as a project to unite European nations against the possibility of future wars, the initial focus of the Union was on trade and economic union. However, as more and more nations joined and its mandate expanded in scope, an incongruity between popular democratic representation and expansion has developed. ‘Democratic deficit is a concept used principally in the argument that the European Union and its various bodies suffer from a lack of democracy and seem inaccessible to the ordinary citizen because their methods of operating are so complex.’…

    • 1812 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    The Eurozone crisis

    • 3510 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The Eurozone crisis was not caused by a single factor, it was the result of a compound of errors made by member states in different sectors of the European economy. There are three causes that have been identified as directly leading to the crisis. The problems of competitiveness, debt and the lack of a comprehensive growth model. There are several other causes, but the problems of Greece mirror the problems of the rest of the Eurozone. In order to fully evaluate and understand the causes of the Eurozone, it is necessary to first look at the way Greece’s debt rose to 112.9% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2009. This was the first asymmetric shock in the Euro, but it wasn’t seen as cause for concern at the time it was revealed. Another major issue that needs to be evaluated is the blatant ignorance of the rules of the Maastricht treaty rules about deficit spending and sovereign debt. This laid a poor foundation for the financial stability of the European Monetary Union (EMU) and its ability to absorb asymmetric shocks. There are doubts about whether or not Europe is an optimal currency area and what makes an optimal currency area, economists have argued over this for some time. The OCA will be evaluated in more detail in this essay. There are a lot of lessons to be taken away from the Euro Crisis, lessons that could help prevent future crises arising from asymmetric shocks, some of these lessons will be evaluated in this essay. Throughout this essay, references will be made to the Greek debt crisis as a case study for the wider issues in the Euro crisis.…

    • 3510 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    - It is becoming more and more clear that the Euro cannot survive in its present form. EU leaders still refuse to recognise the inevitable, and think that they can take on the world bond markets and win. Greece and Portugal are bankrupt, Italy and Spain in trouble, and Germany is not going to give them a blank cheque.…

    • 383 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bibliography: Radaelli, Claudio M., ‘Europeanisation: Solution or Problem, European Integration online Papers’ (EIoP), Vol. 8, No. 16. [OnlineAvailable at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=601163, Date Accessed: 27/10/2013, 1:15pm…

    • 2731 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Eurozone Crisis

    • 1637 Words
    • 5 Pages

    8. Grauwe, P. (2013). Design failures in the eurozone: can they be fixed?. London School of Economics, (57), Retrieved from http://www.lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/LEQS/LEQSPaper57.pdf…

    • 1637 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    European Union

    • 6335 Words
    • 26 Pages

    All 15-member states hand over some control to the EU 's network of institutions. National governments are represented in the Council of the European Union, whilst citizens of the member states are elected to the European Parliament. In 1993, the Maastricht Treaty (which renamed the EEC as the European Union), created European citizenship. It strengthened the power of the European Parliament, laid out plans for the Economic and Monetary Union, as well as for committed members to negotiate for expansion of the EU to include Central and Eastern European countries. As part of the EMU, 12 EU member countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Austria, Netherlands, Ireland and Luxembourg) adopted a new common European currency, called the "Euro". The Euro currency entered into general circulation in January 2002. The monetary policy is managed by the European Central Bank (ECB), which works in collaboration with the national central banks of the 12 Euro zone countries.…

    • 6335 Words
    • 26 Pages
    Good Essays