The European Integration

The European Integration

Europe made up more than 30 countries and even more distinct cultures; it is now trying to adjust to new economic systems throughout the world.

In this essay I shall attempt to show you firstly the purpose behind the European Union / advantages to have a united Europe to the people of Europe, secondly Spain's accession to the European Community and thirdly the effects of introduction Euro.

Schemes for European integration are almost as old as the idea of Europe as a distinct political and cultural entity and much older than the conception of a Europe of nation-states. The birth of idea of Europe went hand in hand with the emergence of the first schemes for European integration. Indeed, the conception of Europe as a distinct entity presupposed or implied a potential basis for European cohesion and integration. The term integration can be understood, in context of the European Union, as a situation of unification between individually sovereign nations into a collective body, sufficient to make that body a workable whole. A fully integrated European Union could be seen to have two possible outcomes. Either a)A Federalist or ‘stewed’ union, where all member states give up their individual sovereignty and form a superstate that would be an economic world power, or b)A Confederalist or ‘salad bar’ union, where each member state has its own place in a continental alliance, maintaining national sovereignty and individually contributing, through trade and cooperation, to form a greater whole. Sovereignty can be defined quite simply as the supreme authority to not only declare law but create it, deriving this power from a populace who have given up their personal sovereignty and power and vested it in the sovereign.

Europeans have long disagreed as to which states and poples should properly be included in Europe. There have been long debates as to how far countries such as Russia, Turkey, Albania, Georgia, Armenia, Israel or Morocco should be included in Europe, politically, militarily, culturally or economically. The factor that must always be borne in mind in any consideration of Europe is that definitions of Europe and the configurations of European states are fluids rather than solids. They are constantly changing.The idea of nation and of European order based upon sovereign nation-states is of relatively recent origin and is likely to be as ephemeral or short-lived as all previous European state configurations. It is on the eternal fluidity of European states systems, rather than on any deterministic belief in a teleogical progression towards a preordained "federal goal", that federalists should rest their hopes for a federal Europe in the twenty-first century.

The EU has stated explicitly that its objectives are “to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe ... the constant improvement of the living and working conditions of the people, and the reduction of differences in wealth between regions".

The whole purpose behind the European Union is to maintain peace between the European countries, and to integrate them. The founding gentlemen of the EMS wanted to restore the integration of the European Communities. In 1949, the Council of Europe was founder to promote political and social unity in Europe. Later in 1952, the European Coal and Steel Community was started to “allay fears of a ‘military-industrial complex’ fuelling renascent German nationalism”. Economic integration and unity was brought to a head in March of 1957 when the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community were formed. These two treaties were used to help stabilize and form the ECU. All three of these organizations/treaties were essential to forming what is today called the European Union. The European Union/European Monetary System failed for three basic reasons in the early 1990’s. First of all, it failed because it was inefficient due to the low-inflation system and the recession in that time period. The recession elaborated on the conflicts between the member countries of the European Union. Second, it is not sufficiently competitive at the current rate of exchange. Third, the real interest rate of the world would need to decline drastically in order for the EU to work. Also in the early 1990’s there were “smaller expectations of devaluations”. The current European Union has been a result of recent treaties. The first treaty that was signed in February 1992 helped the unification of Europe be that much closer. It set the groundwork for one currency throughout Europe called the euro. In order to update the current treaties the Amsterdam Treaty was signed as a result of the Intergovernmental Conference. This treaty resulted in a plan to listen to the citizens, get closer to a more secure Europe, to make Europe more vocal throughout the world, and to make the European Union more efficient. As of January of 1997 there were 15 countries belonging to the regional and economic European Union. The countries currently involved are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In the future the European Union hopes to grow and add more countries to this list. The banking system that the European Union uses is a Central Banking System. With the evolvement of the Euro the economics of Europe will be easier to maintain.