Introduction

European Union is the organization of European countries dedicated to increasing

economic integration and increase cooperation among its members. The European Union head
office is in Brussels, Belgium.
The European Union was formally established on November 1, 1993. It is the most
recent in a series of European cooperative organizations that originated with the European Coal and
Steel Community, which became the European Community.
The members of the EC were Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland,
Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Spain. In 1991 the
governments of the 12 member states signed the Treaty on European Union, which was then ratified
by the national legislatures of all the member countries. The Maastricht Treaty transformed the EC
into the EU. In 1994 Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU, bringing the total membership to
15 nations.1
The EU has a number of objectives. Primarily, it works to promote and expand
cooperation among its members in several areas, including economics and trade, social issues,
foreign policy, security, and judicial matters. Another major goal has been to implement Economic
and Monetary Union (EMU), which established a single currency for EU members. With the
exception of EMU, which went into effect in 1999, progress toward these goals has been erratic.
The EUs ability to achieve its goals has been limited by disagreements among member states,
external political and economic problems, and pressure for membership from the new democracies
of Eastern Europe.2
History
The history of European integration shows constant growth of the scope and
strength of the EUs powers and the geographic expansion of the EU.
The movement towards deepening and widening of the EU emphasizes its
dynamic and evolving nature, which is not surprising bearing in mind that the EU was not created to
deal with existing situations but, as Article 1 TEU states, to attain objectives which the Member
States have in common.3

1
2
3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union
Idem
http://europa.eu/about-eu/eu-history/1945-1959/index_en.htm

Accordingly, European integration is not an acquired situation, but a process, and not a result, but a
means which is used by the Member States to create ever closer union among the peoples of
Europe and to promote peace, EU values internally and externally and the well-being of the
Unions citizens.
In order to achieve common objectives the Member States have conferred important
competences on the EU, with the result that the EU constitutes a unique regionally integrated
political entity. In order to appreciate and understand the nature of the EU it is necessary to examine
its history and origin.
In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West
Germany signed the Treaty of Rome, which created the European Economic Community and
established a customs union.
This countries also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy
Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both of these treaties came into force in
1958.4
The European Economic Comunity and Euratom were created separately from
ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly.
Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a
customs union members.5
In 1973, this Communities included Denmark, Ireland, and the United
Kingdom. Norway had negotiated to join in the same year, but Norwegian voters rejected
membership in a national referendum.
In 1979, the first direct and democratic elections to the European Parliament were
held.6 After that, Greece joined in 1981; and after 5 years, Portugal and Spain.
The Schengen Agreement was the new idea for the creation of open borders without
passport controls between most member states and some non-member states.
The European flag began to be used in 1986 by the Community and the Single
European Act was signed.7
In 1990, after the fall of the Eastern Bloc, the former East Germany became part
of the Community as part of a reunified Germany.8
The European Union was formally established when the Maastricht Treaty came into
force on 1 November 1993.
http://europa.eu/about-eu/eu-history/1945-1959/index_en.htm
http://www.cvce.eu/obj/a_european_customs_union-en-a11a5f17-d744-479e-ba752c70b6058608.html
6
http://www.cvce.eu/obj/the_new_european_parliament-en-e40aba1b-45f1-43bf-bbd1a34bb52f15db.html
7
http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/symbols/flag/index_en.htm
8
http://europa.eu/about-eu/eu-history/1980-1989/index_en.htm
4
5

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The treaty also gave the name European Community to the EEC. Austria, Finland,
and Sweden joined the EU in 1995.
The 2002 year was very important because euro banknotes and coins replaced
national currencies in 12 of the member states. Since then, the euro zone has increased to include 19
countries.
The European Union sawits the biggest enlargement to date in 2004,
when Cyprus, CzechRepublic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and
Slovenia joined the Union.9
Romania and Bulgaria became EU members in 2007. In the same year, Slovenia
adopted

the

euro, followed

in

2008

by Cyprus and Malta,

by Slovakia,

Estonia, Latvia

and Lithuania in 2015.

The Lisbon Treaty entered into force on December 2009 and reformed many
aspects of the European Union.
In particular, this treaty changed the legal structure of the European Union,
merging the EU three pillars system into a single legal entity provisioned with a legal personality,
created a permanent President of the European Council.
In 2012, the EU received the Nobel Peace Prize for having "contributed to the
advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy, and human rights in Europe."10
Croatia became the 28th EU member in 2013. 11
Geography
The EU's population is highly urbanised, with some 75% of inhabitants living in
urban areas. Cities are largely spread out across the EU. An increasing percentage of this is due to
low density urban sprawl which is extending into natural areas. In some cases, this urban growth
has been due to the influx of EU funds into a region.12
The EU's member states cover an area of 4,423,147 square kilometers.
Including the overseas territories of France which are located outside the continent
of Europe, but which are members of the union, the EU experiences most types of
climate from Arctic to tropical. 13

Politics
Idem
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2012/
11
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union
12
"Urban sprawl in Europe: The ignored challenge, European Environmental Agency" (PDF).
Retrieved 13 October 2013.
13
Idem
9

10

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Historically, at least, the EU is an international organization, and by some criteria, it

could be classified as a confederation; but it also has many attributes of a federation, so some would
classify it as a (de facto) federation of states.14
The organization itself has traditionally used the terms "community", and later "union".
The classification of the European Union in terms of international law has been
much debated.
Generally speaking, they can be classified into two groups: those which come into
force without the necessity for national implementation measures and those which specifically
require national implementation measures.15
The European Union operates within those competencies conferred on it by
the treaties and according to the principle of subsidiary. Laws made by the EU institutions are
passed in a variety of forms.
The difficulties of classification involve the difference between national law and
international law; they can also be seen in the light of differing European and American
constitutional traditions.16
Especially in terms of the European constitutional tradition, the term federation is
equated with a sovereign federal state in international law; so the EU cannot be called a federal
state or federation, at least, not without qualification. Though not, strictly, a federation, it is more
than a free-trade association.17
The Constitutional Court of Germany refers to the European Union as
an association of sovereign states.18 Others claim that it will not develop into a federal state but has
reached maturity as an international organization.
Governance
The Council of the European Union
The Council is the legislative institution of the European Union that defines and
implements the EUs CFSP, based on the guidelines set by the European Council.

Burgess, Michael (2009) "Federalism". In Wiener, Antje; Diez, Thomas. European Integration
Theory (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. P. 2542.
15
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union#Acts
16
Schtze, Robert (2012). European Constitutional Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. pp. 4779
17
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ee.html
18
Article 23.1 sentence 3, Article 79.3 GG
14

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It represents the national interests of each Member State and, being an intergovernmental body, its meetings risk degenerating into diplomatic conferences. However, it is also
an EU institution, and thus it is required to promote the interests of the EU.19
The main powers conferred on the Council are defined in Article 16 TEU. This
provision states: The Council shall, jointly with the European Parliament, exercise legislative and
budgetary functions. It shall carry out policy-making and co-ordinating functions as laid down in
the Treaties.20
The European Council
The European Council plays a very important role in the institutional system of the EU.
In the exercise of its supreme political power the European Council can be compared to holding a
kind of presidential authority of the EU. And what I believe is that the European Council has a big
problem with democracy. 21
The European Parliament
The European Parliament, previously known as the Assembly of the European
Communities, renamed itself in 1962 in order to emphasize the role it should play in the
Communitys policy-making process.
The European Parliament is not divided into a government and an opposition like a
party. General and permanent democratic supervision is exercised by the European Parliament over
the Commission, the Council and other institutions and bodies by various means.22
The Court of Justice of the European Union
Article 19(1) TEU specifies that the ECJ shall consist of one judge from each
Member State. This allows the ECJ to have a judge who is an expert in the national law of a
Member State, and who speaks the language of that Member State.

19
20
21
22

Kaczorowaska Alina, European Union Law, Routledge, Third Edition, New York, 2013, p. 71
Idem
Kaczorowaska Alinap. 80
Idem
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Political requirements
These political requirements are defined in Article 2 TEU, which states that: The
Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule
of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These
values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination,
tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.23
A liberal-democratic model of government of a candidate State ensuring respect
for the civil, political, economic and social rights of its citizens is a vital element of membership of
the European Union. 24
Only democratic States which respect human rights can apply for membership.25
Economic requirements
The requirements derive from the economic nature of the European Union and they
are stated in Article 49 TEU or in any other Treaties. A candidate State is required to have a
functioning and competitive market economy, and a good legal and administrative framework in the
public and private sectors.
An applicant country without those characteristics could not be effectively
integrated; in fact, membership would be more likely to harm than to benefi t the economy of such a
country, and would disrupt the working of the Community. 26
The relationship between values and objectives
The values on which the EU is based characterize the EUs identity and provide the
key to achieving its objectives.
Article 7 TEU provides a procedure under which the Council may determine the
existence of a clear risk of a serious breach by a Member State of values on which the EU is
based and, if there is no adequate response from the Member State concerned, the European

Article 2 TEU
Frowein S., The European Community and the Requirement of a Republican Form of
Government, (1984) 82 Michigan Law Review, p. 1311
25
Kaczorowaska Alinap. 42
26
Institute for European Environmental Policy (2012) Manual of European Environmental Policy,
Earthscan, London.
23
24

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Council may then determine the existence of a serious and persistent breach by a Member State of
the values set out in Article 2.
The consequence of such a determination is that the Council may decide to suspend
certain rights of the Member State concerned, including the voting rights of the representative of
that Member State in the Council.
However, in doing this, the Council shall take account of the possible consequences of
such a suspension on the rights and obligations of natural and legal persons.
With regard to the external world, the suitability of a candidate State to become a
Member State is assessed by reference to the values of the EU.27
A candidate State must demonstrate that it respects the values.
Finally, the founding values are the basis for relations with non-Member States in
that international commitments entered into by the EU must not compromise the EUs values.28
There are two legal requirements.
First, a candidate State must be a State within the meaning of public international
law. A candidate State must be recognized as a State. Reference to the rules of public international
law will clarify the legal status of the applying entity.
In practice, since the Council must reach a unanimous decision regarding admission
of a candidate State, if that State is not recognized by every Member State, its application for
admission will be rejected. 29
So far, no irreconcilable problem has arisen in this area, although the candidacy of
Cyprus posed delicate problems. Further, the accession of Kosovo may be a challenge, as only 22 of
the 27 members of the EU have recognized Kosovo as a State. The Republic of Cyprus has always
been recognized by the international community as one State exercising sovereignty over the entire
island of Cyprus although it does not control the Turkish sector.
A political settlement between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots was not
achieved before the Republic of Cypruss accession to the EU. As a result, the Republic of Cyprus
became a Member of the EU on 1 May 2004, but the Turkish sector, which is recognized only by
Turkey as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, being under military control of Turkey, did not,
in fact, join the EU. However, Turkish Cypriots, being citizens of the Republic of Cyprus, are EU
citizens, and are entitled to vote in elections to the EP. Reunification of the two communities is
subject to on-going negotiations between the President of the Republic of Cyprus and the leader of
the Turkish Cypriots. The opening of accession negotiations between the EU and Turkey will
almost certainly force all interested parties to settle peacefully the problem of Cyprus.
27
28
29

Idem
Kaczorowaska Alinap. 29
Idem
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Second, a candidate State must accept the EU acquis which, according to the
European Parliament, constitutes a criterion of global integration. 30 The term means, in the
context of accession, the acceptance by a new Member State, without reservation, and from the
commencement of its formal membership, of the body of common rights and obligations, actual and
potential, that bind all EU Member States together in other words, a candidate State must accept
all of EU law and its basic political principles and values.
Acceptance means more than translation of the acquis into national law. It requires
that a candidate State has properly implemented the acquis through adequate administrative and
judicial institutions.31
Monetary Union
The European Unions attempts to establish a single European currency, as set out in the
Maastricht Treaty, were controversial from the start. For instance, some EU countries, including the
United Kingdom, worried that a shared European currency would threaten their national identity and
governmental authority. Despite their concerns, many of the EUs member countries struggled to meet
the economic requirements for participating in a shared currency.
The Treaty of Maastricht paved the way for the establishment of European
Monetary Union.
On 1 January 1999, the euro became the common currency in 11 Member States.
Criticism was expressed by many economists relating to EMUs institutional design.
Firstly, it was about the concerns for the extreme independence of the European
Central Bank, the body which is in charge of the monetary policies for the entire euro zone. The
European Central Bank is neither accountable to any EU institution or to the participating Member
States. 32
On the other hand, is that the institutional design of European Monetary Union is
incomplete, because in respect of economic policies, there is no EU institution equivalent to the
European Central Bank. This means that budgetary and fiscal policies remain within the exclusive
domain of each Member State participating in the euro.
The global financial crisis of 2008 emphasized the weaknesses of European
Monetary Union. In particular, the requirements set out in the Treaties relating to budgetary deficits
were neither respected nor enforced against Member States running large deficits.33
Johnson, S.P. and Corcelle, G. The Environmental Policy of the European Communities,
Graham & Trotman, London, p. 98
31
Kaczorowaska Alinap. 43
32
Idem
33
Idem
30

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Whether the Fiscal Pact will be sufficient to move the euro zone from crisis into
stability, or whether more changes are required to prevent the collapse of the euro, remains to be
seen.
The Fiscal Pact is expected to enter into force on 1 January 2013 after obtaining
twelve ratifications from Member States whose currency is the euro, or on the first day of the month
following the deposit of the twelfth instrument of ratification by a Member State whose currency is
the euro, whichever is the earlier. If it enters into force, it will constitute a big step towards the
creation of a real economic union for the Member States which have ratified it.34
Europes Migration Crisis
Migrants and refugees are that people who coming from Africa into Europe. Our
continent was called the most dangerous destination for migration. Most of the nationalist parties
from the member states are very worried about the Islamic terrorism. A part of the members was
capable to implement hard reforms for the immigrants.
Political confusion from the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia is reshaping
migration trends in Europe. The number of illegal border-crossing detections in the EU started to
surge in 2011, as thousands of Tunisians started to arrive at the Italian island. The most recent surge
in detections along the EU's maritime borders has been attributed to the growing numbers of Syrian
and Afghan migrants and refugees.35
There are a few European member who was hardest hit by the economic crisis, for
exemple Italy and Greece. This countries has served as the main points of entry for refugees.
51% of the migrants entering in EU illegally via Greece.
The Central Mediterranean passage connecting Libya to Italy was the most
trafficked route for Europe-bound migrants in 2014.
In April 2015, EU leaders tripled the budget for Frontex's Triton border patrol
program to 9 million euro a month, but refused to broaden its scope to include search and rescue.
A growing number of Syrians and Afghans traveling from Turkey and Greece
through Macedonia and Serbia have made this EU member state the latest frontline in Europe's
migration crisis. From the start of 2015, the illegal migration was extended into Hungary. In
Hungary was chaos because 80% of Hungarians believed that no asylum seeker should be allowed
to enter in their country.

Kaczorowaska Alinap. 32
http://uk.businessinsider.com/angela-merkels-popularity-is-falling-over-the-refugee-crisis2015-10
34
35

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If were thinking about the crises, the national interests have consistently trumped
a common European response to this migrant influx.
Countries like France and Germany have also cited security concerns as
justification for their reluctance in accepting migrants from the Middle East and North Africa.
The biggest problem is that its very difficult, or maybe impossible to integrate
minorities into the social European countries. Almost all of these immigrants are coming from
Muslim countries, and they have totally another rules that guide their lifes. "Europe has historically
embraced more ethnic than civic approaches to nationhood, unlike the United States, and that is
part of the reason immigration is proving so difficult" says Charles Kupchan.
Almost all the European countries are asking for non Muslim migrants. They
have a strong preference for that. For example, Slovakia was so clear when announced that it
would only accent Christian refugees. Also Hungary has explained an anti migrant politics.
While selecting migrants based on religion is in clear violation of the EU's nondiscrimination laws, these leaders have defended their policies by pointing to their own
constituencies' discomfort with growing Muslim communities. 36
My opinion is that Germany has the entire fault for all this migrant crises. Its
normal to help other states, member or even non EU member, that have problems with war or
terrorism, but not to receive them in our countries. There is very obvious that Europe has a totally
different king of culture and social life than Asia or Africa. Everybody should stay in his country
and fix their own problems. The German Cancelar Angela Merkel and her open arms for refugee
makes her popularity falling down. The editor Felix Steiner is calling it the "twilight of Merkel's
chancellorship."37
The biggest problem is that in 2016 the German government estimated that
almost one million refugees would arrive in their country. In the minds of people around the world,
Germany is like the most welcoming destination for refugees. German people are in danger because
of the terrorism.
Now is too late to fix this problem.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

36
37

Idem
http://uk.businessinsider.com/angela-merkels-popularity-is-falling-over-the-refugee-crisis-2015-10
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1. Burgess, Michael (2009) "Federalism". In Wiener, Antje; Diez, Thomas. European Integration
Theory (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
2. Frowein S., The European Community and the Requirement of a Republican Form of
Government, (1984) 82 Michigan Law Review.
3. Institute for European Environmental Policy (2012) Manual of European Environmental Policy,
Earthscan, London.
4. Johnson, S.P. and Corcelle, G. The Environmental Policy of the European Communities, Graham
& Trotman, London.
5. Kaczorowaska Alina, European Union Law, Routledge, Third Edition, New York, 2013
Schtze, Robert (2012). European Constitutional Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6. "Urban sprawl in Europe: The ignored challenge, European Environmental Agency" (PDF).
Retrieved 13 October 2013.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union
2. http://europa.eu/about-eu/eu-history/1945-1959/index_en.htm
3. http://www.cvce.eu/obj/the_new_european_parliament-en-e40aba1b-45f1-43bf-bbd1a34bb52f15db.html
4. http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/symbols/flag/index_en.htm
5. http://europa.eu/about-eu/eu-history/1980-1989/index_en.htm
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union#Acts
7. http://uk.businessinsider.com/angela-merkels-popularity-is-falling-over-the-refugee-crisis-201510

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