Current Issues Facing the European Union
Executive Summary
The European Union is a composition of a growing number of stable nations both economically and politically. The Union’s goals are to create a body of successful countries that associate easily for their benefit. For this to take place, the union has to put in place policies that will drive their operations politically and economically. Currently, several steps have been taken in unifying the currency to euro, setting a foreign and security policy and creating a unifying document in a constitution. This process is not without problems in power play, interference with ideologies among others. This issues will model their future which both looks strong economically but negative in coming up with decisions among others. This paper will focus on these issues among others in an attempt to create a general picture of the European Union and what it faces and bound to face in the coming future.
Current Issues Facing the European Union
Introduction
The European Integration is a composition of 27 nations all located in European with headquarters in Brussels. The union undertakes its operations with the help of a supranational independent body and decisions arrived at by member states. The EU was stated in 1993 under the Maastricht Treaty and it comprises several bodies; European Commission, Council, Central Bank and varied Courts among others. The citizens of the member states take part in election of the leaders to this institutions.
The inclusion of new member states and policies has made the union grow with time in terms of power and size (European Union, 2010). The main objective of the European Union is to ensure free association between the member countries through trade and other economic activities. Companies and people are able to trade their goods and services, enact policies that benefit all of the member states among other issues. The European Union has been able to grow socially, economically and politically for the success of the member states[1]. This has not been without issues connected to the operations of the Union. This paper looks to assess these issues and what future prospects lie for the European Union.
Current Issues Facing the European Union
The first thing quite obvious for the European Union is its predictability. The operation carried out in the EU are distinct though conditioned in a way that it offers a platform and then goes according to it. The EU has operated like this for the past twenty years. Its operations has been based on acquiring massive projects in vital sectors like economy and monetary union, like the use of the euro as a currency in 12 countries and soon to the new countries (Abreu, 2004, 32). The Maastricht Treaty brought this into place.
Foreign and security policy is another issue facing the European Union. The union has been involved in foreign policy since the 70s. Focus on this issue has grown with time after Cold War. This model for this policy has been set up in the Maastricht Treaty. The foreign policy has since grown from a weak model to one that is able to meet the needs for all the member states[2].
Justice and home affairs arises to be a great issues in managing issues among member states. This can be a very tough issue if not well handled. Issues under this involve security and economic barriers[3]. This leads to the concerned nations to handle issues of security and set policies that would allow economic activities flow easily (Emanuela, and Maxime, 2012, 49). This has not been effective due to the slow pace of enacting policies.
The European Union effectiveness lies with the inclusion of citizens in its running. Debatably, the union most notable challenge lies in appealing to the local citizens in the member states. Similarly, the Maastricht Treaty incorporated the EU citizenship which allowed citizen from the member states to participate in the election of the union’s leaders. This involves consular representation. Citizen representation has led to a change in the union’s operations. The union has moved from an economic and diplomatic basis to a more effective cast and created in regards to politics.
Another issue is enlargement. In the past ten years, the European Union has significantly grown (since 1995 to 2004). Concurrently, the union has come up with a body of law that will enable it run effectively[4]. The European Union operates on freedom, democracy and rule of law for human (Piket, 2013, 23). The union allows members to join it so as to not undermine itself. It is morally obligated to allow countries with democratic and stable economic aspect join it (the Copenhagen model). The union opts for strong economies able to handle the pressure brought about by competitive nations.
The enlargement policy operates on stability and economic success but has since developed into a disruptive association. The policy has been used to appeal to stable countries from other parts of Europe. Its growth results to a much stronger union capable of being a super power. Countries that are strong economically like Turkey and Ukraine offers the union a good benchmark for operation. They cannot be left out as they have the ability to become a formidable force. Fiorella (2005, 29) agrees that new countries joining the union will allow it to grow in wealth. The Union ought to remain open for other nations as it offers varied levels of the valued flexibility and cultural diversification.
The value of new members joining the EU increases by small countries. This shows that the growth of consumer market is not substantial while allowing complex situations in communications. The main difficulty in third world countries lies in increasing their GDP to the level of the EU[5]. This has consequences as it affects how the union manages its finances in the coming future and the attributes of the marketplace.
A notable issue regarding the EU arises from the constant frameworks that the body uses to come up with decisions. Steps have been initiated to look into the Constitutional Treaty. With the growth, additional aspects of influence are created while making decisions (Fiorella, 2005, 65). This offers potential for the varied bodies of focus.
The issue on enlargement has been a project with no end. The issues lies on the limits on the growth of the EU. The union has no blueprint on how to hand enlargement. It may be challenged in the near future taking into consideration countries that look to join the union going through extensive inspection. This varies with what took place initially.
Another project still in progress and may be seen as ineffective is the creation of an effective economic body and making the EU a force in the market arena. The macroeconomic policy applied in the European Union aims to be modelled for Stability and Growth (SPG). This pact offers the grounds for debt and shortfalls in budgets (Piket, 2013, 25). The pact is still in operation due to absence of another option. The main problem arises from the three big countries in the EU breaching the pact. This has affected the leadership value intended by the SPG for the EU.
Another issue is the Union’s effort to meet the goals of the Lisbon Agenda of creating a strong economy in the near future. This may not be met due to the issues of reform in supply more so the European economies. Considering some countries are successful in technological development, some nations in the EU find it hard to handle the pressure presented by China. In this regard, the euro has bared the brunt of neglect form other nations external to the EU.
The third project in progress by the EU is the foreign and security policy. Here the progress can be seen. The Europeans have been able to create policies that guides the running of foreign and security issues in the union. The foreign policy tools in use involve Javier Solana and money for undertaking sanctions or issuance. Security policy guidelines have been created and ideas are growing in terms of geopolitics. Additionally, Europeans have been more involved coming up with able military bodies inside and external of the union (Bache and Stephen, 2006, 13). This military body aims to contrast the NATO. The union’s defence agency procures military facilities and it looks to be of more value in the future.
The European Union aims to create an all-inclusive document that will guide the union’s operations; Constitutional Treaty. The document aims to integrate citizens in the EU. However, three years has gone by with no significant progress noticed. The document is an agreement rather than constitution as governments settled on its components. [6]
The treaty looks to ease the process of decision making by the EU (voting, and appointment among others) in addition to aligning the body through creating a unified document from the four treaties formed[7]. In regards of citizen composition, it has allocated them rights with the help of Charter of Fundamental Rights and more duties to the parliaments when coming up with decisions.
The main issue here lies in ratification of the document. Ten countries have done so while two countries (France and Netherlands) have had the document rejected through referendum. In these two nations, the cry by the public was due to past initiatives by the union rather than the document. A good example is the euro causing price hikes, uneasiness in EU growth and lack of certainty in the economic framework to be used.
The next question lies on the next step. The issues do not result into a crisis but a potential for future success. There are a number of solutions for this. They have the option of disregarding the document altogether or go on with the ratification (Costas, 2006, 72). The UK government has the other option, it has opted to suspend the whole process leaving room first for clarification on the stand of the government. This has the possibility of resulting into contrasting opinions considering some governments opting not to proceed with ratification as others proceed. A third, though not popular, step lies in the member countries creating a document with improved expectations.
What may take place would be to re-motivate the whole process with consideration directed to France and Netherlands. The two countries should come up with decisions of whether to bring the treaty back in with changes.
Future Prospect of the European Union
In conclusion, considering where the European Union looks to be in the future, it will certainly grow. Romania and Bulgaria have assented to agreements that will include them into the union. However, the main question lies with Turkey. Its inclusion is bound to take place in the near future. Considering the progress of issues, the process will start bit may not progress as needed. Another country in focus is Croatia and the ruling body not doing enough to comply with the recommendation of Hague Court in surrendering war criminals. This trend of handling things in Croatia are a reflection of how things will be handled in the coming future. This may results to stricter policies being placed on member states prior to sitting down and talk. A worse case is the growth of stalls while has extensive impact on Europe’s politics to the southeastern part (Bache, and Stephen, 2006, 68). Through this the European Union has applied the appeal of EU access as a way of altering the government operation.
Another elements lies with the Constitutional Treaty. The decision making process may get quite complicated in the future. Currently, the introductions by minsters takes a long time (approximately one hour). This will have a great impact in the process of decision making and may result to decisions to be reached outside the boardrooms and assented in the boardrooms. On the other hand, massive deals would be far complicated to reach (Hubert, and Dür, 2012, 68). Leadership in the union will be hard to identify as all of the big nations will look to control others, hence, power play.
Thirdly, when it comes to competition, the future looks to be complicated for the member states to manage their economies. In reference to the French referendum debate, it looks to be far complicated for it to go after a liberalized goal. This will affect the other European nations in varied ways. The biggest negative impact would be, being that 75% of the union’s GDP lies in the service industry, it is barely liberalized[8]. This tends to affect the future operations of the union.
Lastly, taking to fact the active nature of the European Union, the member states are bound to be jointly involved in the global stage. This will take place multilaterally, from one region to another and with EU and third parties (Mick, 2005, 94). A good example is the China arms embargo situation which shows the way Europeans attribute themselves being they engage in activities with countries far from them. They currently take part in economic partnerships with other parts of the world.
Conclusion
The European Union and its leadership face a number of issues. The enlargement of the union based on its policies opts to include member of stable economic and political stature. This may however lead to power play that the nations will find hard to manage. Additionally, in an effort to make the union into an effective and successful body, coming up with decisions may be quite complicated. This may lead to frustrations and outside room deals. The Union has to similarly not affect the ideologies of a country, this has led to most citizens turning down the referendums on constitutional treaties. The future prospects, as discussed, looks to offer both positive and negative impacts to the EU. The union looks to face a difficult time ahead in coming up with decisions, on the other hand, the union looks to thrive economically considering the nations included in the union. The paper has been able to focus on the European Union as a body in progress from the 1993. The paper has focused on issues arising from the union and the future prospect arising from these issues.
References
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[1] Bache, I., and Stephen, G. Politics in the European Union. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 3.
[2] Abreu, L. European health and social welfare policies. (Compostela: Compostela Group of Univiersities, 2004).
[3] Emanuela, L., and Maxime, F. The Europeanization of gender equality policies: a discursive-sociological approach. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
[4] Piket, V. EU Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy. Russian Regional Perspectives Journal, 1(3) (2013)
[5] Fiorella, D. The Europeanization of citizenship: between the ideology of nationality, immigration, and European identity. (Burlington: Ashgate, 2005).
[6] Costas, M.Turkey’s Political Culture as a Necessary Condition for Decoding Its Policies toward Cyprus, Greece, and the European Union. Journal of Political and Military Sociology, 34(2) (2006).
[7] Hubert, Z., and Dür, A. Key controversies European integration. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
[8] Mick, C. Bridging the Gap between Collaborative and Realist Evaluation: A General Critique and Case Study of European Union Employment Policies. International Journal of Action Research, 1(3) (2005).
