The European Union began in 1951 and its membership reached 27 countries in 2023 (European News Agency)
A group whose membership is limited to European countries. It was founded by 6 countries in 1992, then the number of its members reached 27 countries in 2023. The total area of the union is about 4 million square kilometers, equivalent to 42.2% of the area of the European continent. It is home to about 450 million people who speak 24 official languages. Christians constitute about 72% of its population.
Idea and establishment
The Union was the result of a process that began after World War II (1939-1945) with the establishment of the “European Coal and Steel Community,” a grouping of European countries whose goal was to create a common market for coal and steel products.
This group, which was established under the Paris Agreement on April 18, 1951, formed the nucleus of the European Economic Community, then the Union, which took an economic approach as an alternative to political unity.
On March 25, 1957, the countries signed the Rome Agreement, which expanded areas of cooperation, and called itself the “European Economic Community.”
As for the actual birth of the union, it was based on an agreement known as the Maastricht Treaty (Dutch city), signed on March 25, 1992, and entered into force in early November 1993.
The treaty was designed to achieve and strengthen European political and economic integration, through unifying the currency (the euro), as well as unifying security and foreign policy, achieving citizenship rights, and cooperating in immigration, asylum and judicial affairs.
In 2012, the European Union received the Nobel Peace Prize “for its contribution to promoting peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.”
European Union countries have agreed to adopt the euro as their currency (Shutterstock)
Member States
The Union began in 1951 with six countries: France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Italy.
In 1973, the United Kingdom and Denmark joined it, then Greece in 1981, Spain and Portugal in 1986, then Ireland in 1993, then Sweden, Finland, and Austria in 1995.
Starting in 2004, the European Union expanded to the countries of Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as 10 new countries joined: Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Hungary. Cyprus and Malta also joined the Union in the same year.
Bulgaria and Romania followed suit in 2007.
Croatia was the last to join the Union on July 1, 2013, while Britain was the first country to leave it in early January 2021.
Until 2024, the number of member states has stabilized at 27, namely: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
Science and its implications
The European Union flag has a circle of 12 gold stars on a blue background, symbolizing union, unity and European identity.
The circle of golden stars represents “European cohesion and harmony,” while the number of stars has nothing to do with the number of member states, but rather symbolizes in many cultures mastery, perfection, and unity.
Union objectives
The Lisbon Treaty was approved in the Portuguese capital in 2007, and aimed to reform the Union's institutions and its decision-making process, and replaced the European Constitution.
The treaty defined the goals and values of the European Union, the most important of which are:
Promoting peace and well-being for European Union citizens and facilitating their movement between member states without restrictions.
Giving them freedom, security, and justice without internal borders, while controlling the external borders.
Working for the sustainable development of Europe.
Promoting equality, social justice, peace and earth security.
Establishing an economic union whose currency is the euro.
As for the values, they are: human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights.
Membership and conditions
A country wishing to join submits an application for membership to the European Council, which asks the European Commission to assess that country's ability to meet the Copenhagen Criteria.
If the Commission's opinion is positive, the Council agrees to a negotiating mandate, and negotiations are then formally initiated on an issue-by-issue basis.
Any country that meets the membership requirements can apply.
These conditions are known as the “Copenhagen Criteria”, and they are:
Political conditions:
The country nominated for membership must have independent institutions that guarantee democracy and the rule of law, and respect human rights and minorities.
Economic conditions:
The existence of an effective economic system based on the market economy, and capable of dealing with the competition existing within the union.
Legislative conditions:
The country nominated for membership must amend its legislation and laws in a manner consistent with European legislation and laws that have been established and adopted since the founding of the Union.
The economies of member states benefit from membership in the European Union, thanks to the single market and economic integration that leads to increased competition, efficiency and the volume of trade within the Union which allows countries to have a better relative position when it comes to international trade, so that they can access global markets thanks to agreements. Trade negotiated at EU level.
These factors have implications for employment, growth, and knowledge diffusion.
Principles and system of the "administrative triangle"
The European Union is based on a set of principles, the most important of which is the transfer of the powers of nation-states to European international institutions.
However, these institutions remain governed by the extent of the powers granted by each individual state.
Therefore, this organization (which includes more than half of the countries located in the European region) cannot be considered a federal union, as the European Union has a unique political system in the world.
In its organizational structure, the European Union relies on 3 administrative bodies (institutions) known as the so-called “administrative triangle”, which are:
European Parliament
He is directly elected by European Union citizens, and is considered their main representative and the union's supervisory and advisory body.
It has some legislative powers, as well as broad powers regarding the joint budget of the Union.
The European Parliament is headquartered in Strasbourg (France), but it also operates in Brussels (Belgium) and Luxembourg.
It consists of 705 members elected by the citizens of each member state through direct elections held every 5 years.
The number of seats specified for each country requires representatives from different countries to group into factions according to their political party affiliations.
Voting within Parliament takes place according to the majority principle.
Council of the European Union
It represents the executive governments of the member states that assume the presidency of the Council by rotating for a period of 6 months, the first starting from January until June, and the second from July until December.
Each Council member state has a number of votes proportional to its population.
The Council holds its meetings, as needed, in Brussels and Luxembourg, and is responsible for intergovernmental cooperation, cooperation in common foreign and security policies, and in the areas of justice and home affairs, including, for example, immigration and asylum matters, the fight against terrorism and drugs, and judicial cooperation.
European Commission
It is responsible for the interests of the European Union as a whole.
It has various responsibilities: judicial, administrative, executive, legislative and economic, as it possesses broad powers in terms of submitting law proposals and supervising the implementation of joint laws as it is responsible for protecting the concluded agreements.
The Commission sets the general budget of the Union and supervises its implementation, as well as representing the Union in international negotiations and signing agreements with countries outside the Union.
Voting within the Commission, which is headquartered in Brussels, takes place on a majority basis, so that each member state of the Union has the right to appoint one commissioner.
These three institutions work jointly and integrally together, through joint decision-making, which is the normal legislative procedure that includes all policies and laws implemented throughout the European Union countries.
The European Commission proposes to establish new laws, and the Council of the Union and the European Parliament adopt these laws, and the European Commission and member states are responsible for their implementation, and then the Commission ensures that the laws are applied and implemented properly.
The role of the heads of the “administrative triangle”
Each of the three agencies or institutions has a president who has specific powers:
President of the European Parliament:
Elected by the members of Parliament, he oversees the various committees of the legislative institution and various activities, and ensures that parliamentary procedures are conducted properly.
It also represents Parliament in various legal affairs and international relations, and finally approves the European Union budget.
President of the European Council:
He is chosen by national leaders, who are the presidents or governments of European Union countries, and represents the European Union externally on all issues.
It also enhances cohesion within the European Council, and leads all of the Council’s work in terms of determining political directions and all priorities related to the European Union, and this is done in cooperation with the European Commission.
President of the European Commission:
Appointed by national leaders with the approval of the European Parliament.
The President of the Commission contributes to key debates taking place in the European Parliament, as well as between EU governments within the Council of the Union, directs the Commission politically, and is responsible for leading the work of the European Commission in implementing all EU policies.
Schengen area
The European Union established the "Schengen Area", which allows freedom of movement between its countries with a single visa, which is the "Schengen Visa", while abolishing all forms of control at the internal borders of the area or checking passports at border crossings between member states.
The region was given this name based on the “Schengen Agreement,” which was signed in 1985 in the town of Schengen, located in Luxembourg.
Five countries initially signed it and agreed to abolish internal border controls between them.
During the following years, the “Schengen Area” continued to expand until the number of its member states reached 27 countries by the end of 2023, 23 of which are members of the European Union, namely: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, and Portugal. Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden, in addition to 4 countries outside the European Union: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.
More than 450 million citizens benefit from the agreement, and more than one billion trips are made annually between the countries of the “Schengen Area”, whose advantages also include: economic unity and increased competitiveness among member states, so individuals are able to transfer goods and services within the region without obstacles.
To ensure that security is not disrupted as a result of open internal borders, Schengen States share information on security threats and authorize and support cross-border monitoring, surveillance and policing.
The geostrategic and economic importance of the Union
The European Union enjoys geostrategic importance due to its important location between the continents of the ancient world (Asia, Europe, Africa) and the continents of the modern world (North and Central America), which has given it great strategic importance.
The Union represents a crossroads of land, sea and air transportation, and a two-way strategic crossing. The two American blocs are located on one side of it, while the African and Asian blocs are located on the other side, and international and regional political relations pass through it.
The international seas and straits in the European Union region have strategic importance on which maritime transportation depends to move between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the Arabian Gulf via the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, and to the western continent of Asia via the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.
The European Union region is endowed with diverse natural resources, the most important of which are:
Mineral wealth:
The most important minerals are iron, manganese, lead, phosphate, coal, and cement.
Oil:
The proven reserves in the European Union region are about 6 billion barrels, and daily production is about 2.7 million barrels.
Natural gas:
The proven reserves of natural gas in the European Union region amount to about 2.476 trillion cubic meters, and the annual production reaches about 197.8 billion cubic meters.
Water resources:
It includes a group of international and national rivers, rainwater, and groundwater basins.
All of this made the European Union occupy a great economic position on the global stage, as the gross domestic product of the Union countries in 2022 reached about 16.74 trillion dollars. The Union is also one of the most advanced regions in the world in the field of technological industries, and is considered the second agricultural and industrial power, and the first commercial power in the world. the world.
Major stations in the history of the European Union
Following the founding stages that lasted about 40 years between the emergence of the idea of the European Union in the early 1950s and the birth of the entity in its current form in the early 1990s, the Union went through a number of historical milestones, the most notable of which are:
January 1993:
The single market becomes a reality, with the freedom to exchange goods, services, people and capital.
Europeans waited until March 1995 to be able to travel without border controls.
January 1, 2002:
The euro entered the daily lives of about 300 million Europeans.
Only Denmark, Britain and Sweden chose to maintain their national currencies.
Spring 2005:
French and Dutch voters' rejection of the European Constitution pushes the EU into an institutional crisis.
It only came out with the Lisbon Agreement, which was supposed to allow the expanded European institutions to function better, and was ratified with difficulty in 2009.
2009:
Greece announced a large deficit in its finances, in the first indication of a widespread financial crisis. Greece, then Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Cyprus requested assistance from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which called for austerity measures.
This debt crisis led to the fall of European heads of government one after another, and reinforced doubts about European unity?
2014 and 2015:
Hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants arrived as a result of the war in Syria, and the European Union failed to develop a joint action plan.
June 23, 2016:
After a campaign focused on immigration and the economy, about 17.4 million Britons (51.9% of voters) voted for the United Kingdom to leave the Union (Brexit).
Source: Al Jazeera + websites