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Introduction
The European Union is over half-a-century old and has brought political stability & economic prosperity to its citizens. It has created a frontier-free single market and a single currency Euro. The EU is a major economic & commercial power and the world s biggest donor of development aid to poorer countries. Though richly diverse, EU countries are united in their commitment to peace, democracy, respect for human rights etc. The motto of EU is to uphold these values & exercise the member countries collective influence by acting together on the world stage.
Evolution
A peaceful Europe the beginnings of cooperation (1945 1959)
The European Union was set up with the aim of ending the frequent and bloody wars between neighbors, which culminated in the Second World War. As of 1950, the European Coal and Steel Community began to unite European countries economically and politically in order to secure lasting peace. The six founders were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The 1950s were dominated by a cold war between east and west. Protests in Hungary against the Communist regime were put down by Soviet tanks in 1956; while the following year, 1957, the Soviet Union took the lead in the space race, when it launched the first man-made space satellite, Sputnik 1. Also in 1957, the Treaty of Rome creates the European Economic Community (EEC), or Common Market .
The 1960s saw the emergence of 'youth culture , with groups such as The Beatles attracting huge crowd of teenage fans wherever they appear, helping to stimulate a cultural revolution and widening the generation gap. It was a good period for the economy, helped by the fact that EU countries stop charging custom duties when they traded with each other. They also agreed joint control over food production, so that everybody had enough to eat - and soon there was even surplus agricultural produce. May 1968 became famous for student riots in Paris, and many changes in society and behavior become associated with the so-called 68 generation .
The changing face of Europe - the fall of the Berlin Wall (1980 1989)
The Polish trade union, Solidarno , and its leader Lech Walesa, became household names across Europe and the world following the Gdansk shipyard struck in the summer of 1980. In 1981, Greece became the 10th member of the EU and Spain and Portugal followed five years later. In 1987 the Single European Act is signed. This was the treaty which provides the basis for a vast six-year program aimed at sorting out the problems with the free-flow of trade across EU borders and thus created the Single Market . There is major political upheaval when, on 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall was pulled down and the border between East and West Germany opened for the first time in 28 years, and this lead to the reunification of Germany when both East and West Germany were united in October 1990.
In 1995 the EU gained three more new members Austria, Finland and Sweden. A small village in Luxembourg gave its name to the Schengen agreements that gradually allowed people to travel without having their passports checked at the borders. Millions of young people studied in other countries with EU support. Communication was made easier as more and more people started using mobile phones and the internet.
Geopolitical Impact
The impact of this large populace can be measured as:
Energy dependence
The overall level of the EU s reliance on imported energy was 52.3% and is forecasted to rise as domestic resources dwindle. At present, the EU gets about 50% of the gas it consumes from just three sources Russia, Norway and Algeria. To handle its growing import dependence, the EU is working hard to increase energy efficiency, develop renewable resources.
The EU has set a target of generating 21% of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro, geo-thermal and biomass by 2010. And EU is focusing more on climate change related issues & thus plays an important role in the global arena. To reach the Kyoto protocol target of cutting their gas emissions by 8%, EU-15 countries have agreed upon a burden-sharing arrangement whereby the economically less advanced can still increase emissions while the rest reduce theirs. As a comparison Japan, under the Kyoto Protocol, has committed to a 6% reduction. The United States has not even ratified the Kyoto Protocol.
Results
According to an opinion poll, a majority of people in the EU (54%) consider their country has actually benefited from its membership of the Union. Here the strongest believers are in Ireland (87%), followed by newcomer Lithuania (77%), and then Denmark and Greece (both with 74%). The biggest skeptics are in Hungary, Sweden and the UK, where only 39 to 41% of those polled thought their country had benefited from being in the EU.