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European Union
The European Union (EU) is a grouping of 28 European-ish countries. It is primarily an economic union aiming to harmonise financial and business activity between its member countries according to reasonable folk. The EU is often popularly ridiculed in the United Kingdom for its silly rules about square strawberries, straight bananas and designating the carrot as a fruit, although most of these "rules" do not exist, or were exaggerated or misinterpreted by eurosceptics.[1] Though some of it's aspects have a great influence all over Europe, the power of the EU and the European Comission is often exaggerated in crank areas.
There is some debate about the what direction the EU should take in the future, with some looking for a "wider" association and some for a "deeper" one. Those who wish a wider union are typically in favour of European expansion without any increased integration of the countries involved. Those who wish a deeper union are more interested in increased integration of the existing countries. These differing objectives can cause some conflict, as the wider the union becomes the more difficult it is to achieve integration; and the deeper the union becomes, the more difficult it is for new member countries to join.
Not to be confused with the Council of Europe, or a number of other things...
Contents |
[edit] How many supranational European organizations are there anyway?
[edit] A "short" history
[edit] Formation and many abbreviations (+/-1950 - 1983)
After the Second World War ended, European opinions on post-war relations with Germany were divided. Some, especially right-wingers, strongly believed Germany should be kept weak, underpopulated and divided, with it's war recourses under Allied control, or another war would be inevitable. Others, mainly pussy liberals[citation NOT needed], feared such harsh treatment would only repeat the string of events after the Versailles Treaty in 1919, and argued that the Germans should be treated as an equeal and should slowly be re-accepted into the post-war order. In 1950 Robert Schuman, then the French foreign minister, drafted a plan which would found a 'European Coal and Steel Community' (ECSC). In this construction, France, Germany and any other possible members, would 'outsource' the management of coal and steel, the classic war resources, to a trans-national authority. Since the German-French rivalry had been the axis of both World Wars, Schuman and his supporters believed the ECSC would garantuee peace for generations to come. The ECSC was founded in 1951, with Germany, France, the Low Countries and Italy as founding members, and is generally seen as the first step towards the modern European Union.[2]
As the bureacracy kept expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureacracy, another treaty was signed in Rome in 1957. This founded the so-called 'European Economic Community', which was essentially a big brother of the ECSC; it created a regular exchange and coordination of, amongst others, agriculture policy and infrastructure construction. Another agency (EURATOM) was founded to coordinate nuclear energy and weaponry, and civil servants all over Europe rejoiced over these exciting new job oppurtunities. The Treaty of Brussels in 1967 combined all these agencies under the authority of the so called 'European Communities' (EC).[3] It is imporant to note that this organisation was very different from the modern European Union, and more a shouting match discussionroom for international cooperation then a truly 'trans-nationonal' authority. The Communities stumbled on in their alphabet soup for the next twenty years, with varying degrees of succes and without attracting much attention from your average European.
[edit] Making of one 'Community' under the Delors Comission (1985 - 1993)
In the late ’80s and early ‘90s the European Communities embarked on a trail towards ‘European integration’, which has been the magic word in Brussels for a long time. A key figure in this process was Jacques Delors, President of the European Commission from 1985 untill 1994, the longest serving Commission President in EC history. Delors was a unusually strong President and through a combination of bravura and a large network of associates he had more power over the European Communities than any President since Hallstein; the European Commission as an institution also gained considerably in political power, especially since the foundation of the European Political Cooperation in 1987, which was an important step towards common security policy. Delors' lengthy ‘rule’ oversaw the Schengen treaty being signed in 1985, the Single European Act in 1986/87 and the pivotal Maastricht treaty. Together these treaties opened up inter-European borders, established a single market, decided on founding a common currency and combined all the different E-abbreviations into one central organisation, the European Community (EC) (in contrast to the European Communities). This basically turned the loose structure of the European Communities into something resembling the modern European Union, which is why Delors is often revered as a hero by EU federalists and enthusiasts and hated a dismal enigma by Euro-sceptics.
[edit] From Maastricht to Lissabon, some sightseeing in Amsterdam (1993 - 2009)
The European Community that Delors left after his retirement in 1993 was a very different organisation from the European Communities that he had found in 1985, with more power and more responsibilities. It's leaders were often outspokenly federalist and openly encouraged other countries to join, if they obeyed the norms that the Maastricht treaty subjected every EC member to, like, you know, honest reporting of the state's income, a inflation rate below a certain fixed rate and fighting corruption. Luckily, these Maastricht-rules were only obeyed when states felt like it. It is a public secret that the Comissions since Delors' have been to easy on countries wishing to join the EC, but it is good to know that when the German inflation rate rose higher then the treaty allowed in the early 2000's, they really didn't give a damn about the Comission's complaints either. This is typical for EC/EU politicians; when other countries break a rule, everyone cries wolf, but when it's your own nation fucking up, well, we wouldn't want to be too harsh, would we?
The 1999 Amsterdam treaty was a follow-up to the Maastricht treaty of 1993, and vied to further consolidate the growing European Community. It gave the EC it's first true supranational powers; the legislation of immigration law, civil law and civil procedure on a European level, while also establishing a permanent European Court of Justice. The European Parliament, which had hitherho been a discussion club for ex-politicians with limited power but good pay, also gained a more active role in representation and legislation. Even tough this was a step towards further integration, the Amsterdam treaty still left a lot of questions unanswered about the function of the Community's institutions, the long term goals of EC and the way it would handle the integration of new members. The 2005 'Constitution of the European Union' was supposed to tie all these loose ends up and would turn the European Community into a more tightly knit organisation with more clearly defined powers and responsibilites, but was rejected by referendums in the Netherlands and France that same year. The Constitution was a public relations disaster for the EC/EU; in some nations, proposed referendums were quickly postponed by leading politicians when polls on the subject turned out negatively. It confirmed the popular image of 'Eurocrats' who push their European agenda regardless of what the people think. The European Constitution was modified into the 'Treaty of Lissabon' (ejecting words like 'constitution' and abandoning the 'European anthem') which was subsequently accepted by parliaments throughout Europe in 2007 without another round of referendums.
[edit] Trouble comes to town (2009 - 2014)
The financial crisis of 2008, the European sovereign debt crisis and the ratification of the Lissabon treaty in 2009 have severly damaged the public image of the European Union and the latter half of the 00s have seen populist, anti-EU parties pop up all over Europe.
[edit] Structure of the European Union
The European Union consists out of seven institutions. These are:
- The European Parliament
- The European Council
- The Council of the European Union
- The European Commission
- The Court of Justice of the European Union
- The European Court of Auditors
- The European Central Bank
[edit] Member countries
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[edit] Potential future members
[edit] Official candidates
The following countries are recognised as candidate countries.[4]
- Iceland's hopes and prospects for joining are so complex that the other wiki has a whole article about it.
- The
Former YugoslavRepublic of Macedonia, which Greece plans to reject if they get close to membership because the northern part of their country is also called "Macedonia." Rappers have had more substantive feuds. - Montenegro
- Serbia
- Turkey has been trying to get in for twenty years, but has been refused on every application. It seems that it may have some way to go before it meets all EU standards, particularly as it only barely meets the "being in Europe" one.[5] It should be noted however that despite being a member of the EU, Cyprus lies wholly outside Europe.
[edit] Potential candidates
The following countries are recognised as pre-candidate countries.[6]
There are also three other nations that have said they would like to join the EU, and are forming "association agreements", which are seen as the first step to entry.
- Moldova
- Georgia (not the American state, the other one)
- Ukraine
[edit] Other countries of note
Norway and Switzerland have both been invited but turned the offer down, meanwhile Morocco attempted to join the EU, but were also upset to be informed they weren't part of Europe.
Despite its non-membership in the EU, Norway is displayed as part of the map of Europe on some modern euro coins, serving the vital purpose of making the rest of Scandinavia look less like a giant dong.
[edit] The euro
A subset of member nations form the "eurozone", which has its own currency unit, the euro (sign: €, code: EUR). It's one of the most traded currencies in the world, second only to the United States dollar.
[edit] The Antichrist
The peaceful European Union will later become the dreadful Beast of the Apocalypse, that of the number 666! Among certain fundamentalists this is a common, though disputed, interpretation of Revelation.[7][8][9][10] They claim the EU is the successor to the Roman Empire and the Fifth Empire prophesied by Daniel. There were, obviously, other empires between the Babylonians and Romans, and after the Romans. So there's no reason to assume that the Romans were the Fourth or the European Union is the Fifth. But alas, enjoy the fundie shoehorning.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ BBC News: Guide to the best euromyths
- ↑ http://www.cvce.eu/obj/treaty_establishing_the_european_coal_and_steel_community_paris_18_april_1951-en-11a21305-941e-49d7-a171-ed5be548cd58.html
- ↑ http://www.cvce.eu/obj/the_european_communities-en-3940ef1d-7c10-4d0f-97fc-0cf1e86a32d4.html
- ↑ EU website on expansion
- ↑ Turkey status EU
- ↑ List of Countries, Europa
- ↑ Rapture Ready, European Union In Prophecy - This one says very near the bottom of a very long web page that we can't be sure the EU is the empire of the Antichrist but gives the impression beforehand that we are certain: "The great question of our time, prophetically speaking, might be: Is the European Union the prophesied governmental body that will eventuate in becoming the ten kingdoms that will provide Antichrist with his beastly power? No one can say for certain..."
- ↑ Rapture Ready, Will the Antichrist come out of the European Union? - This one contradicts the one above though they are from the same fucking website. It claims "the European Union is clearly the fulfillment of this prophetic event." Do they hope their readers are too silly or too lazy to read through everything and find the contradiction? Apparently so.
- ↑ The Antichrist, European Union, and Rome - This site recognizes that the EU is often seen as Antichrist but interprets the Bible differently.
- ↑ Islam, Antichrist, and the European Union - This one expects Europe to become Islamic and then become the Antichrist.