1. The European Union (EU)
The World’s Strongest Supranational Organization

2. What is it?
The European Union (EU) is a family of democratic European countries, committed to working together for peace and prosperity.
Economies needed a jumpstart after WWII
Fear of communism
Initially focused on reducing trade barriers after WWII
Now, they focus on political and economic unity.

3. The European Union: 500 million people – 28 countries
Member States of the European Union
Candidate countries and potential candidates

4. Enlargement: from six to 28 countries

5. GROWTH OF THE EU

6. Winston Churchill “Let’s form a United States of Europe.” 1946
Marshall Plan

7. European Coal and Steel Community 1950
Schuman
Purpose was to reduce potential for conflict between the member states by pooling vital resources
Fore-runner of the EEC, EC, and EU
West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France

8. 1957:
Treaty of Rome
The six founding countries expanded cooperation to other economic sectors, creating the European Economic Community (EEC) – or “common market.”
As a result, people, goods, services, and capital today move freely across the Union.
Britain left out, formed EFTA instead
EURATOM: shared nuclear energy research
1960s: Common Agricultural Policy
Signing of the Treaty of Rome

9. 1957 Treaties of Rome Creation of European Economic Community (EEC)
Creation of Euratom

10. 1962
Cooperation on agriculture
Added Greece

11. 1967 All industrial tariffs removed
Workers could move freely between countries

12. 1968
12 member states
Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain added

13. 1979
First direct election for the European Parliament

14. 1980s
All 12 of the EC’s members agreed to give the European Council power to make decisions on issues even when individual member states disagreed
EC given limited tax powers

15. 1985 Single European Act
Remove all barriers in trade: money, goods, and people by 1992
Made Europe the single largest trading area in the world

16. 1991 Maastricht Treaty Political and economic union
Single currency—the Euro
Same social and domestic policies (police, death penalty, etc.)
Common foreign and defense policy

17. United in Diversity - The €uro

18. The big enlargement: uniting east and west
1989
Fall of Berlin Wall – end of Communism
EU economic help begins: Phare programme
1992
Criteria set for a country to join the EU:
• democracy and rule of law
• functioning market economy
• ability to implement EU laws
1998
Formal negotiations on enlargement begin
2002
Copenhagen summit agrees to a big enlargement of 10 new countries
2004
Ten new EU members: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia
2007
Bulgaria and Romania join the EU
2013
Croatia joins on 1 July

19. History of the EU Phases of growth
The historical roots of the European Union lie in the Second World War.
Idea of European integration conceived to prevent such killing and destruction from ever happening again
First proposed by the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman in a speech on May 9, This date, the "birthday" of what is now the EU, is celebrated annually as Europe Day
Phases of growth
Initially, the European Economic Community (EEC) consisted of just six countries: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (1958)
European Communities (EC) (1967)
Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined in 1973
Greece in 1981
Spain and Portugal in 1986
European Union (EU) (after 1992) (Maastricht Treaty)
Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995
Largest enlargement took place with 10 new countries joining May 9, 2004

20. SUMMARY
The European Union is the strongest supranational organization in the world
shared currency & financial management
legislative, judicial, and executive bodies
regulatory and planning bodies
The EU is growing geographically, and its growth suggests a core-domain model
core and domain are borne out by distribution of income
The EU does not appeal to all Europeans (at least not yet)
small states in particular seem skeptical
Roughly comparable to the US in some ways
population slightly larger than that of the US
somewhat more densely settled than the US
economy is at least as strong as the American economy
other social statistics (e.g. literacy, infant mortality & homicide) are as good or better than the US