The European Union (EU)

The European Union (EU)

The EU is union of 28 independent states based of The European Communities a founded to enhance political, economic and social co-operation formerly known as European Community (EC) or European Economic (EEC). The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community formed among six countries in 1951 and the Treaty of Rome formed in 1957 by the same states. Since then, it has grown in size through enlargement and in power through the addition of policy of its remittance. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht upon the foundations of the European communities. The last amendment of the constitutional basis of the EU came into force in 2009 and was the Lisbon treaty by virtue of which the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union was elevated to legally binding status.

Objectives

The principle objectives of the EU are the elimination of all obstacles to the free movement of goods, service, capital and labour between the member countries and the establishment of common policies in the spheres of agriculture and transport and a common external commercial policy.

Organization structure

The EU is a kind of super-government in economic affairs and in relation of the community. Like any Government there, it has specific agencies to execute to legislate and to settle disputes.

  1. European Economic Council:

    The principal administrative body of European Union is European Economic Council. It functions as an executive agent of the Community. It has to make day-to-day decision, formulate rules of conduct, make new legislations and ask good embers to carry out the provisions of the Treaty.

  2. European Commission:

    The council is assisted in kites work by the European Commission. This consists of 20 Commissioners. The Commission has to look to the application the Treaty, study special problems and make recommendations to the Council.

  3. Advisory Institutions:

    Advisory institutions include the following: (i) European Economic and Social Committee is crated as an advisory body, which consists of representative of industrial workers, farmers, etc. (ii) A Monetary Committee is also formed as an advisory body to watch over balance of payment and such other matters of the community.

  4. Court of Justice:

    The Court of Justice adjudicates disputes relating to agriculture, competition policy and social security for migrants among the member counties.

  5. Court Of Auditors:

    It audits the Community budget, monitors its expenditure thoroughly and lays down better procedure for the collection of duties and levies.

  6. European Parliament:

    The largest multinational parliament kin the world, the European Parliament, performs the same role as any other parliament to pass good laws and to scrutinize and control the use of executive power. However the tasks of the European Parliament control is exactly compared with those of National Assemblies or Parliaments in Member States, since the EU has no Government for Parliament to form and oversee: moreover Parliament has only a limited say in the framing of legislation. But the important thing is that the Parliament is directly elected by the people once every five years since 1979.

  7. Economy:

    It is considered as a single economy, the EU generated and estimated nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US $ 16.77 trillion (18.45 trillion international dollars’ based on purchasing power parity in 2012, amounting to over 21% of the world’s total economic output in terms of purchasing power parity which makes it largest economy in the world by nominal GDP and the second largest trade bloc economy in the world by PPP valuation of GDP. It is also the largest exporter, and large importer of goods and service, and the biggest trading partner to several large countries such as China and India.

  8. Agriculture:

    The aim of the agricultural policy is to provide farmers with a reasonable standard of living and consumer with quality fold at air prices. The way these aims are met has changed over the years, Food safety, preservation of the rural environment and value for money are no wall the major key concept.

The agricultural sector thrives mainly on the EU subsidies, kin various forms like the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In recent times, it is these agricultural subsidies which constitute 40-50% of the total EU Expenditures.

The CAP intends to encourage productions in agriculture sector. Ensure supply of food grains, stabilize the market, ascertain fair prices to the consumers and assure quality lifestyles to farmers. Around 2.3% of EU’s GDP comes from this sector.

  1. Industry:

    Enterprise and industry policy aims to ensure that all business compete and trade on fair and equal terms and that Europe becomes an attractive place to invest and work. It nevertheless takes into account the EU. This can mean taking specific needs ad characteristics of individual sectors into account, such as the car or textile industries and ensuring that strategically important industries can flourish. These are industries such as the life sciences, aerospace or biotechnology. Technology and innovation are key factors in creating an environment for development of industrial enterprises. The EU provides large amounts of development of industrial entrepreneurship, encourages Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in order to make the countries self dependent.

The manufacturing industries contribute about 28.4% to the EU’s GDP. Tourism industry is a flourishing sector in the country both on national and international levels, bringing in sufficient foreign earnings.

  1. Services:

    The service sector, considered as the most significant area of the European Union, accounts foreign earnings.

  2. Foreign Trade:

    The European Union is the second largest importer and the largest exporter, on the global basis. On the national level, removal of tariffs and restriction in the border has facilitated inter- state commercial activities to flourish.

  3. Energy:

    The EU has legislative power in the area of energy policy for most of its existence; this has its roots in the original European Coal and Steel Community. The introduction of a comprehensive European Council in October 2005, and the First Draft Policy was published in January 2007.

  4. Employment and Social Affairs:

    More and better jobs and equal opportunities are the watchwords of European employment and social policy. The European Union wants to make sure that everyone is equipped for change in a knowledge based economy confronting the challenges of globalization. The Main framework is a Social Agenda designed to ensure that the benefits of the EU’s growth reach everyone in society while at same time ensuring that the policies to achieve this are environmentally sustainable.

The EU’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 6.9% as per the available data of June 2007. However, this rate varies extensively, when the EU member States are considered together.

  1. Single Market and Monetary Union:

    Since its origin, the EU has established a single economic market across the territory of all its member countries. Currently a single currency is in use in all the 22 member countries known as Euro zone.

The Euro is designed to help build a single market by, for example: easing travel of citizens and movement of goods, eliminating exchange rate problems, providing of citizens and movement of goods, eliminating exchange rate problems, providing price transparency, creating a single financial market, price stability and low interest rate, and providing a currency used internationally and protected against shocks by the large amount of internal trade within the Euro zone.

By way of conclusion, the European Union is the world’s biggest trader, accounting for 20% of global imports and exports. The Union is therefore, a leading player in efforts to liberalize world trade for the mutual benefit of rich and poor countries alike.

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