Reasons for the development of the EU and historical outline

Explain the reasons for the development of the European Union.

The European Union is a collection of 28 member nations who share an economic and political bond. They all exist on the continent of Europe and share the currency of the Euro. It is a bit like a club, to join in you have to agree to follow the rules and in return you get certain benefits. Each country has to pay money to be a member and they mostly do this through taxes.

The EU began as an Economic agreement between 6 European nations shortly after the conclusion of World War II. Many European countries wanted to ensure that there would never be war and killing on the scale experienced in WWII again. In 1949 the council of Europe was formed to this effect. The original European countries were: Belgium, France, West-Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands. These 6 countries went on to form the ECSC (The European Coal and Steel Community) in 1951, this was so successful that the 6 countries moved to integrate their economies even more. So in 1957, a short 7 years later, the European Economic Community (EEC) was founded. The goal of this new entity was to eliminate trade barriers between the 6 countries. By having all of the member nations sign the Treaty of Rome, the European common market was born. People, goods and services were now able to flow freely between the member countries.

The creation and adoption of the Euro by the EU was a major economic decision that still affects world economies today. The currency of the Euro was first used on January 1st, 1991. This became the new currency for the EU except for the UK, Sweden and Denmark.

The first enlargement of the EU did not occur until 1973, 22 years after the formation of the ECSC. But between 1973 and 199...

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...However, this commission has very limited legislative power, making it more of an investigative and fact finding entity, than a law-making one.

The Legislative branch is bi-cameral, similar to the US’s, meaning it has 2 branches. The 1st branch is made up of each countries ministers, the same ministers from the Council. There are 345 votes in this branch, and voting powers are distributed proportional to a countries population. The 2nd branch is the European Parliament, with 736 seats. Seats are allocated by a countries population and the representatives are elected by each member nation.

The final of the 3 branches is the judicial branch, which houses the Court of Justice of the European Union. This court has 28 justices, one from each nation, and is the final authority when it comes to treaties, issues between EU institutions and issues between EU member states.