European Union: Pros and Cons

The European Union was formed in February 1992 with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. It consist of originally twelve members Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, and Germany. Those twelve members originally formed the European Union until 1995 when three other countries joined the Union – Austria, Finland, and Sweden. The European Union currently is formed of twenty-five members with the ten new members – Cyprus, Malta, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia being added in 2004. In 2007 two other countries (Romania and Bulgaria) could join the European Union. European Union covers a mass majority of the Europe and the current Union membership covers a population base of nearly half a billion people. In 1992 the European Union decided to go for economic and monetary union, involving the introduction of a single European currency managed by a European Central Bank. The single currency, the euro, became a reality in January of 2002, when euro notes and coins replaced national currencies in twelve of the 15 countries of the European Union (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland). The European Union is a group of countries whose governments work together. It's a bit like a club. To join you have to agree to follow the rules and in return you get certain benefits. Each country has to pay money to be a member. They mostly do this through taxes. The EU uses the money to change the way people live and do business in Europe. Countries join because they think that they will benefit from the changes the EU makes. Do you think it is useful to join into a union especially the European Union to strengthen their economic positions? The question could be simple to answer but an individual must look much deeper into the situation. For instance, what are the pros and cons of joining a