European Union (EU)

 It is an international organization comprising 27 European countries and governing common economic, social, and security policies.

• The EU was created by the Maastricht Treaty, which entered into force on November 1, 1993.
• The treaty was designed to enhance European political and economic integration by creating a single currency (the euro), a unified foreign and security policy, and common citizenship rights and by advancing cooperation in the areas of immigration, asylum, and judicial affairs.
• The EU was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2012, in recognition of the organization’s efforts to promote peace and democracy in Europe.

Members of EU

• Originally confined to western Europe, the EU undertook a robust expansion into central and eastern Europe in the early 21st century.
• The EU’s members are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.
• The United Kingdom, which had been a founding member of the EU, left the organization in 2020.

Background of EU formation

The EU represents one in a series of efforts to integrate Europe since World War II. At the end of the war, several western European countries sought closer economic, social, and political ties to achieve economic growth and military security and to promote a lasting reconciliation between France and Germany.

• To this end, in 1951 the leaders of six countries—Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany—signed the Treaty of Paris, thereby, when it took effect in 1952, founding the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).
• The ECSC created a free-trade area for several key economic and military resources: coal, coke, steel, scrap, and iron ore.
• To manage the ECSC, the treaty established several supranational institutions: a High Authority to administrate, a Council of Ministers to legislate, a Common Assembly to formulate policy, and a Court of Justice to interpret the treaty and to resolve related disputes.
• A series of further international treaties and treaty revisions based largely on this model led eventually to the creation of the EU.

Council of the European Union

The main decision-making institution of the EEC and the European Community (as the EEC was renamed in 1993) and the EU has been the Council of the European Union (originally the Council of Ministers), which consists of ministerial representatives.

• The composition of the council changes frequently, as governments send different representatives depending on the policy area under discussion.
• All community legislation requires the approval of the council.
• Council meetings are chaired by a minister from the country that currently holds the presidency.
• Established in 1974, the European Council meets at least twice a year to define the long-term agenda for European political and economic integration.
• The European Council is led by a president, an office that originally rotated among the heads of state or heads of government of member countries every six months.
• Upon the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, the presidency was made permanent, with the officeholder being selected by European Council members.
• The president of the European Council serves a term of two and a half years—renewable once—and functions as the “face” of the EU in policy matters.

Euro-zone debt crisis

The sovereign debt crisis that rocked the euro zone beginning in 2009 was the biggest challenge yet faced by the members of the EU and, in particular, its administrative structures.

• The economic downturn began in Greece and soon spread to include Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Spain (collectively, the group came to be known informally as “PIIGS”), threatening the survival of the single currency and, some believed, the EU itself.
• As confidence in the afflicted economies continued to erode, rating agencies downgraded the countries’ creditworthiness.
• Borrowing costs soared as government bond yields rose, and the PIIGS countries found it increasingly difficult to obtain financing.
• A series of stopgap measures were undertaken by the EU and the International Monetary Fund in an attempt to halt the spread of the crisis, but it soon became apparent that a larger, more-organized response would be required.