Outline for 11/7: The European Union

Deepening the EU

Widening the EU

Why do so many Countries want to join the EU? EU Programs

EU Institutions: Supranational or Intergovernmental?

Deepening : From the EEC to the EC to the EU

1952 European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)

1954 European Defense Community (EDC) failed

1957 European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom)

1957 European Economic Community (EEC)

1965 Merger Treaty: ECSC + Euratom + EEC = European Community (EC)

1970s Euro-stagnation

1985 Single European Act

1992 Treaty on European Union (EU) aka Maastricht Treaty

2004 Constitutional Treaty – ratification failed in France and the Netherlands

2007 Lisbon Treaty – initially rejected by Ireland, passed in a second Irish referendum in 2009

Widening the EU: from 6 to 27 (look at map on p. xxix)

1952 France, (West) Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg

1973 Britain, Ireland, and Denmark

1981 Greece

1986 Spain and Portugal

1991 German reunification (East Germany)

1995 Austria, Sweden, and Finland

2004 Poland, Czech Rep, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus

2007 Romania and Bulgaria

2008 Croatia

What European countries are not in the EU? What countries want to join the EU?

Why do so many countries want to join the EU?

EU Programs

Community Agricultural Policy (CAP)

Regional Development Fund

Social Fund

Cohesion Fund

How does this EU fund these programs?

Customs duties (i.e. tariffs on non-member countries)

Value-Added Tax (VAT)

Contributions from each member-state (based roughly on GDP)

net payers vs. net receivers

EU Institutions (p. 361)

European Council

Council of the European Union (formerly the Council of Ministers)

European Parliament

European Commission

European Court of Justice

European Central Bank

Questions about EU Institutions

Does this look like a United States of Europe?

Which institutions are supranational and which are intergovernmental?