The European Union

The European Union is an organization of European countries. Its principal goal is to increase
economic integration and strengthening cooperation among its members in trade, social
issues, foreign policy, security and defense and judicial matters. The European Union
headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium.

History:
- First serious thoughts of European cooperation appeared after wars. After the WWI. There
was a French initiative to create a “peace union” and after the WWII. Winston Churchill
proposed to create the European confederacy. However, the first official kind of union
appeared on 9 May 1950, when Schuman declaration proposed the establishment of
European Coal and Steel Community, which became reality with Treaty of Paris on 18
April, 1951. The agreement of 6 states (Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, France,
Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) created a common market in coal and steel
among these founding states.

- Later, the Six decided to build a European Economic Community and European Atomic
Energy Community known as EURATOM. It was the substance of Treaty of Rome, signed on
25 March 1957. They agreed to abolish customs duties and started to do common
decisions in trade and agriculture policy.

- In 1973, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom decided to join the Community. In the
same time, they established new social and environmental policies. In 1975, they created
European Regional Development Fund.

- First elections to the European Parliament took place in 1979. Since then, these elections
are held every five years.

- The second enlargement was in 1981 when Greece decided to join the community.

- The Single European Act signed in 1986 was the first major revision of the Treaty of Rome
from 1957. Members of the Union wanted to simplify the international trade so they
canceled checking people and cargo on boarders among member states. It also meant the
end of “Duty free shops”. The year 1986 is also the year of the 3rd enlargement, Portugal
and Spain became members.

- The Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992 created the European Union based on three pillars
(European Communities, Common foreign and security policy and Police and judicial
cooperation in criminal matters). Following treaties (The Amsterdam Treaty – 1997 and
The Nice Treaty – 2001) only edited previous treaties.

- The fourth enlargement happened on January 1, 1995 when Austria, Finland and Sweden
decided to join.

- However, the largest enlargement happened on May 1, 2004. 10 countries (Czech

Republic, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and
Hungary) joined the European Union. Later, in 2007, Bulgaria and Romania also became
members.

- The European Union became bigger and it caused the discussion about new treaty. The
first unsuccessful try was the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. The second
one is The Lisbon Treaty signed on December 13, 2007, effective since December 1, 2009.
 Structure of the EU
- The EU is a political as well as an economic organization. The major bodies of the EU are:

European Commission

The European Commission is the highest administrative body in the EU. It proposes policy
and law to be discussed by the Council and carries out the Council’s decisions. It is also
responsible for the day-to-day running of the Community. Its members are chosen by the
Community governments and serve for 5 years.

Council of the European Union

The Council of the European Union, also called The Council of Ministers) represents the
national governments. It is the primary decision-making authority of the EU, and the most
important and powerful EU body. Each member country has a seat on the Council. Usually,
countries are represented by its Ministers of Foreign Affairs. However, other ministers may
be delegated. Voting power is based on the population of the country.

European Parliament

The European Parliament is made up of 785 members who are directly elected by the
citizens of the EU for a period of five years. The European Parliament can’t make laws but
the members can ask the Commission to create the legal enactment. Also, the European
Parliament with the Council decides to pass or reject the law. EP has also the power to
reject the Community Budget.

European Court of Justice

The European Court of Justice is the judicial arm of the EU. Each member country appoints
one judge to the Court. The ECJ is responsible for the law that the EU establishes for itself
or its member states. The Court has no direct links to national courts and no control over
how they apply and interpret national law.

Court of Auditors

The Court of Auditors is made up of 27 members, one from each EU member state. The
court oversees the finances of the EU and ensures that all financial transactions are
carried out according to the EU budget and laws.

Euro
The euro is the monetary unit of the European Union. At present, there are 17 states which
replaced the national currencies and joined the Eurozone. In order to make the Euro a
stable currency the EU had set economic criteria that member countries had to meet
before they could adopt the euro (they are called: “the Maastricht criteria”). These criteria
dealt with levels of inflation, amount of budget deficit, government debt and stability of
the existing national currency. The euro is divided into 100 cents. Euro notes
(5,10,20,50,100,200,500) and coins (1,2,5,10,20,50 cents and 1, 2 Euros) have unified
design on one side and a national design or emblem of the Eurozone country on the
reverse. There are benefits of the Euro currency, for example: for citizens because they
don’t have to exchange money if they want to visit another state in the Eurozone and also
 for businessmen. However, the crisis in Greece showed that common currency has also
disadvantages.

The EU and the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic became the member of the European Union on May 1, 2004. Citizens
decide to join the Union in referendum. The membership brought some positive and also
negative changes.

- Each Czech resident is also a citizen of the European Union. It means that we can stay or
work in any of the member states.

- We can travel without checking on boarders in the Shengen area.

- Regional Operational Programmes funded by the EU help us to finance construction of

water lines, ...

- Czech language is now one of the official languages of the EU. It means that that all official
documents are translated into Czech.

- We don’t need an international driving license in the EU member countries.

- Czech students have the right to spend their whole studies at European Universities. The
only conditions are perfect knowledge of the local language and good results at the
secondary school.

- Although the Czech Republic is still a democratic state with its president, parliament,
government and constitution, there are some people, for example Václav Klaus or Jana
Bobošíková who are afraid that our sovereign is in danger because we have to follow the
instructions from Brussels.

Future of the European Union

It is probable that new states (Croatia, Macedonia) will join the EU in next 10 years but I
think that the EU parliament will reject Turkey as a member. The main reason is that this
state has very different temper and also it would be the largest state of the European
Union. There are also some negative tendencies inside the Union. Some people say that
there will be “the EU in the EU”. However I hope it won’t happen and the European Union
will become one of the strongest unions of the world.