Thangai VS Annan

The EU was set up in the aftermath of World War Two to bring peace, stability and prosperity to Europe. Europe’s mission in the 21st century is to:

• provide peace, prosperity and stability for its peoples;
• overcome the divisions on the continent;
• ensure that its people can live in safety;
• promote balanced economic and social development;
• meet the challenges of globalisation and preserve the diversity of the peoples of Europe;
• uphold the values that Europeans share, such as sustainable development and a sound environment, respect for human rights and the social market economy.

The Council of the European Union, which represents the member states, is the EU’s main decision-taking body. When it meets at Heads of State or Government level, it becomes the European Council whose role is to provide the EU with political impetus on key issues.

The European Parliament, which represents the people, shares legislative and budgetary power with the Council of the European Union.

The European Commission, which represents the common interest of the EU, is the main executive body. It has the right to propose legislation and ensures that EU policies are properly implemented.

The ten historic steps taken by the European Union over the years are given below-

• On 9 May 1950, the Schuman Declaration proposed the establishment of a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which came into force with the Treaty of Paris of 18 April 1951. This put in place a common market in coal and steel between the six founding countries (Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands).
• The Six countries then decided, on 25 March 1957 with the Treaty of Rome, to build a European Economic Community (EEC) based on a wider common market covering a whole range of goods and services. Customs duties between the six countries were completely abolished and common policies, notably on trade and agriculture, were also put in place during the 1960s.
• Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom decided to join the Community on seeing the success of the Union. This first enlargement, from six to nine members, took place in 1973. At the same time, new social and environmental policies were implemented, and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) was established in 1975.
• In 1979, the first elections to the European Parliament were held by direct universal suffrage. These elections are held every five years.
• In 1981, Greece joined the Community, followed by Spain and Portugal in 1986. This strengthened the Community’s presence in southern Europe and made it all the more urgent to expand its regional aid programmes.
• The worldwide economic recession in the early 1980s brought with it a wave of ‘euro-pessimism. In 1985 the European Commission, under its President Jacques Delors, published a White Paper setting out a timetable for completing the European single market by 1 January 1993. This ambitious goal was enshrined in the Single European Act, which was signed in February 1986 and came into force on 1 July 1987.
• The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, leading to the unification of Germany in October 1990 and the coming of democracy to the countries of central and eastern Europe as they broke away from Soviet control. The Soviet Union itself ceased to exist in December 1991. The new Treaty on European Union was adopted by the European Council, composed of presidents and/or prime ministers, at Maastricht in December 1991. The Treaty came into force on 1 November 1993. By adding areas of intergovernmental cooperation to existing integrated Community structures, the Treaty created the European Union (EU).
• Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the EU on 1 January 1995.  The Berlin Wall was pulled down in 1989 and the old divisions of the European continent gradually disappeared.
• By then, the EU was on course for its most spectacular achievement yet, creating a single currency. The euro was introduced for financial (non-cash) transactions in 1999, while notes and coins were issued three years later in the 12 countries of the euro area (also commonly referred to as the euro zone).

The euro is now a major world currency for payments and reserves alongside the US dollar. Europeans are facing globalisation. New technologies and ever increasing use of the Internet transform the economies, but also bring social and cultural challenges.

In March 2000, the EU adopted the ‘Lisbon strategy’ for modernising the European economy and enabling it to compete on the world market with other major players such as the United States and the newly industrialised countries. The Lisbon strategy involves encouraging innovation and business investment and adapting Europe’s education systems to meet the needs of the information society.

Still, unemployment and the rising cost of pensions are putting pressure on national economies, making reform all the more necessary. Voters are increasingly calling on their governments to find practical solutions to these problems.

• Scarcely had the European Union grown to 15 members when preparations began for a new enlargement on an unprecedented scale. In the mid-1990s, the former Soviet-bloc countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia), the three Baltic states that had been part of the Soviet Union (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), one of the republics of former Yugoslavia (Slovenia) and two Mediterranean countries (Cyprus and Malta) began knocking at the EU’s door.

The EU welcomed this chance to help stabilise the European continent and to extend the benefits of European integration to these young democracies. Negotiations on future membership opened in December 1997. The EU enlargement to 25 countries took place on 1 May 2004 when 10 of the 12 candidates joined.  Bulgaria and Romania followed on 1 January 2007.

Current Scenario

The European Union’s influence in world affairs is on the increase. The process of integration, the launch of the euro and the progressive development of a common foreign and security policy are all providing the EU with political and diplomatic status to match its undoubted economic and commercial clout.

With quite a few strategic foreign policy objectives, the Union first seeks to establish a stable Europe with a stronger voice in the world. The recent wars in Bosnia and Kosovo and the bloody fighting in Chechnya underline how important it is to secure peace, democracy and respect for human rights throughout Europe. Enlargement can help achieve that by creating an internal market of over 500 million consumers and ending the long divide in Europe.

Being the world’s biggest trading partner, the EU is also determined to secure its international competitiveness while at the same time promoting global commerce through further liberalisation of world trade rules – a process that it believes will be of particular benefit to developing countries.

Until recently, there were three main components to the Union’s external activities: trade policy, development aid and the political dimension. The Union now wants to reinforce these capabilities, if and when necessary, trying to use force where its vital interests are at stake and be able to respond more effectively to crises. The significance is not on fighting wars or creating a European army. It means greater cooperation between EU members in carrying out humanitarian and peacekeeping tasks. The Union is also becoming more involved in security issues, taking on greater responsibility for ensuring peace and stability in parts of the world close to its own spheres of influence.

The Union attacks issues ranging from the need to fight the spread of AIDS and famine and to govern migration flows to the campaigns against drugs and terrorism. They all require closer transnational cooperation since the problems of today’s world can only really be solved by working together.

By broadening and deepening its contacts with partners, incorporating economic, trade and political dimensions into those relationships, the European Union is adapting itself  continuously its external policies and priorities.. It can now count on a diversity of interregional partnerships and cooperation agreements with countries on all five continents.

Global commitment

Around a few years ago, the complete panoply of external relations was handled by just two Commission departments. Now there are six. Overall coordination is assured by the External Relations Commissioner, Chris Patten. He is helped by his colleagues who are in charge of sectoral policies – Poul Nielson (Development and Humanitarian Aid), Günter Verheugen (Enlargement) and Pascal Lamy (Trade). He also works in close contact with Javier Solana, the Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers and the first High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).

The Union has an widespread network around the world, which helps it to formulate and implement policy. With quite a lot of foreign embassies in Brussels accredited to the EU, the Commission has over 120 of its own delegations in third countries. Through this the Union’s bilateral links with nations of hugely differing size and wealth are improved, promoting the EU’s policies and values and keeping Brussels informed of developments on the ground.

The EU has regular summit meetings, once or twice a year, with its major partners such as the United States, Japan, Russia and Canada. Both trade oriented and political discussions take place, including ways to protect the environment, tackle international crime and drug trafficking and promote human rights. The Union makes its views known in various multilateral forums such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and works with them to better secure the common objectives of peace and security.

Common foreign and security policy

The European Union’s common foreign and security policy (CFSP) was introduced in 1993 by the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht Treaty), following over 20 years of political cooperation between the EU countries.

Since then, some 70 common positions have been adopted on foreign policy issues ranging from the Balkans to East Timor and from the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons to counter-terrorism. Once adopted, Member States are required to adhere to common positions, which the Presidency defends at the United Nations.

Trade: removing barriers, spreading growth

Since 1999, almost a fifth of all world exports accrues towards the EU making it the world’s biggest trading partner. Since its earliest days, the EU has been committed to removing trade barriers between its individual members on the grounds that this will stimulate economic prosperity and national and individual well-being. It has championed the same principles on the world stage.

The multilateral trading system has been progressively liberalised through a series of international negotiations over the past half-century. During that time, the following has happened

• world trade has grown seventeen – fold
• world production has more than quadrupled
• world per capita income has doubled and
• average tariffs applied by industrialised countries have dropped from 40 % in 1940 to under 4 %.

The EU believes that multilateral trade liberalisation can yield very substantial benefits for the global economy and that much of this should go to developing regions. This will in turn improve social conditions worldwide.

The Union is one of the strongest advocates of continuing this trend by pressing for as wide an agenda as possible in the next round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks involving 137 countries. Despite the setback at the ministerial meeting held in Seattle in December 1999, the EU is still committed to a broad agenda and is convinced the benefits will be significant.

Two European Commission studies conclude that further trade liberalisation could help sustainable development and bring about an annual welfare gain for the world of up to 420 billion euro. Economic growth translates into employment as the Union itself has shown with the creation of half a million new jobs after the abolition of its own internal trade barriers.

This could mean more business opportunities, more efficient allocation of resources and more wealth. Further reductions in tariffs will enable business to better exploit export potential because trade flows will be driven increasingly by quality, price and service and be less impeded by artificial obstacles like tariffs.

World Trade Organisation

EU believes that the next WTO negotiations should not be limited to the narrow agenda of agriculture and services left over from the last Uruguay round. It must cover both traditional topics and new issues to allow all participants to have an interest in the negotiations and meet the needs of the economy of the 21st century.

When a new round of WTO negotiations is launched, the Union believes it should cover at least four main areas if it is to be comprehensive and successful. In the EU’s view, the round should:

• improve market access across the board, including agriculture, services and non-agricultural products;
• set rules in a number of new areas such as investment, competition and trade facilitation;
• focus more on development
• address a number of civil society concerns, by clarifying WTO rules on trade and environmental agreements, labelling, public health and the application of the precautionary principle.

Japan

The second largest national economy after the United States, accounting for two thirds of Asian GDP and 14 % of the global economy, Japan is one of the Union’s major trading partners and its third largest foreign market. While there had been friction during the 1980s over trade imbalances and the difficulties European firms encountered in exporting to Japan 1991 saw a a constructive relationship between the two partners. There was an approval of an EU strategy in 1995 on Europe and Japan. This will launch a ‘decade of Japan-Europe cooperation’ beginning in 2001 in four key areas: promoting peace and security, strengthening the economic and trade partnership, coping with global and societal challenges and bringing people and cultures together.

One of the Union’s major concerns has been to ensure that European exporters and investors are not prevented from entering the Japanese market by unnecessarily restrictive red tape and bureaucratic regulations. They achieved this since 1995 through the regulatory reform dialogue aimed at removing structural and other obstacles facing exporters. The Union is also keen to see fewer obstacles to European investment in Japan. Japanese direct foreign investment is seven times greater in the EU than European investment in Japan.

Asia

During the past two decades, EU-China trade increased more than 20 fold and was worth 70 billion euro in 1999. China is the Union’s third largest non-European trading partner after the United States and Japan and the EU is China’s fourth largest source of imports. In 1999, the Union became the largest foreign direct investor in the country, excluding Hong Kong, with 4.5 billion euro. It has been a strong supporter of Chinese membership of the World Trade Organisation and has worked closely with the United States to help bring this about. In summer 2000, the two parties completed their lengthy bilateral negotiations on China’s accession to the WTO.

Under the terms of the EU-China WTO accession agreement, China agreed to substantial reductions on import tariffs for over 150 leading European exports, ranging from machinery to wines and spirits. This will make it easier for European distributors and companies to operate in China.

Relations with India too are also moving up a gear as they broaden from dialogue and cooperation to partnership. That shift was epitomised by major initiatives in 2000. These included the first EU-India Summit and wider contacts between officials, policy-makers, opinion formers and civil society.This is in addition to the extensive commercial contacts which already exist. The EU is India’s most important partner in trade, investment and development cooperation. Indian exports to the Union grew from 1.8 billion euro in 1980 to 9.8 billion euro in 1998. Similar growth can be seen in trade going in the other direction which has risen from 2.4 billion to 9.5 billion euro.

Latin America and Mexico

The EU has organised its relations with Latin American countries around the recognition of three sub-regional groups: Central America, the Andean Community and Mercosur, as well as individual countries like Chile and Mexico. The Andean countries enjoy easier access to the European market under the ‘generalised system of preferences’ and the EU works closely with them on a programme to tackle drug trafficking. Caribbean countries enjoy trade preferences with the EU, while Cuba is the only Latin American country not to have signed a cooperation agreement with the Union.

Promoting development, fighting poverty

The Union provides 55 % of all international official assistance, and is by far its biggest trader and foreign investor. It grants non-reciprocal trade preferences, along with more favourable arrangements for the least developed.

The marginalisation of many economies, the increase in poverty in the world, the need to manage better environmental interdependencies, the destabilising effects of migration, and the consequences of armed conflicts, natural disasters and pandemics are major concerns for everyone and Europe’s citizens understandably expect effective EU action in tackling them.

New emphasis on helping the world’s poor

The Union’s fights against poverty is the central thrust of the EU’s development policy efforts as it concentrates its attention on a more limited number of policy areas.

Foreign direct investment into developing countries has soared in the past decade, rising from 29 billion euro in 1990 to 185 billion euro in 1998. But it is unevenly spread. Some 55 % goes to the top five developing nations, while the 48 least developed, many of them in Africa, receive less than 1 %.

The EU limits its activities to those areas where it can offer comparative advantages and added value. It has selected six: trade for development, regional integration and cooperation, macroeconomic policies linked with poverty reduction strategies, reliable and sustainable transport, food security and sustainable rural development strategies, and institutional capacity building to consolidate good governance and the rule of law.

ACP-EU Partnership

The lynchpin of the EU’s development policy is the Cotonou Agreement which binds it with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and is the most ambitious and comprehensive agreement between developed and developing countries.

The Cotonou Agreement was signed in June 2000 in the capital of Benin, which is the origin for the informal name of the agreement. It sets out an integrated and comprehensive approach to development, poverty eradication, trade and a political dialogue that includes conflict prevention, human rights and democratisation and issues of mutual concern such as migration. The EU has agreed to implement an immigration and asylum policy founded on the principle of partnership with the originating countries and regions.

The Union has agreed special trade concessions for all least developed countries, of which 39 are signatories of the Cotonou Agreement.

Human rights

The importance which the European Union attaches to respect for human rights around the world was underlined by two developments in 1999. For the first time, responsibility for this area was given to one Commissioner – Chris Patten, the External Relations Commissioner. The second, was the publication of the first annual report on human rights documenting the EU’s policies, priorities and practices in this area.

This commitment to human rights and a legal framework are reflected in the Union’s common foreign and security policy provisions and in its development cooperation programme. Every new agreement between the EU and a third country includes a human rights clause allowing for trade benefits and development cooperation to be suspended if abuses are established.

Recent News

June 11, 2010

The E.U. has moved environmental standards for biofuels used in Europe, requiring biofuels to deliver “substantial reductions” in greenhouse gas emissions and not result in conversion of forests or wetlands, according to a statement from the European Commission.

The plan calls for industry, governments and NGOs to set up “voluntary schemes” which certify that biofuels used in the E.U. meet sustainability criteria. The “sustainable biofuel certificates” will be policed by independent auditors.

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