EUROPEAN UNION

European Union

Introduction

The Maastricht Treaty created the European Union (EU) in 1992 in order to make the nations united that have same goals and agendas. European Union is an international organization which comprises of several independent nations that share their autonomy to become stronger and influential as well as to share the common goals such as trade agreements, green environment, correspond national economies, gradually coordinate social policy, etc. Initially, 12 countries were become the part of European Union which includes Denmark, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Federal Republic of Germany, Netherlands and France. Since the emergence of European Union, several countries became the member of EU. For example, Finland, Austria and Romania became the member of United Nation in 1995, while Slovakia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Hungary, Latvia, Czech Republic, Estonia and Poland were incorporated in EU in 2004. Also, Romania and Bulgaria became a part of European Union in 2007 which made a total of 27 members. These members have a population of about 495 million and 4.2 million square kilometre land extension. (Gómez-Díaz, Donato, 2009, 1)

Discussion

European Union has emerged as a global economic power in last 50 years. However, EU does not represent a capability to set aligned and united economic goals as well as employment policies for its members. This is the major problem due to which frequent conflicts exist within the membership of EU. Several factors underline conflict between EU and its member states (Laitin, 1997, 279). The reasons for these conflicts include the poverty, economic stagnation, unequal distribution of resources, weak social structures, lack of good governance, systematic discrimination, oppression of minorities, the destabilizing effect of migration flows, ethnic antagonisms, religious and cultural intolerance, social injustice and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and small arms. This made an alarming impact on the member states that whether to continue with the EU membership or should left it. (Aggarwal, Vinod, Edward, 2004, 45)

As a proponent of integration, the EU maintains a special relationship for decades with its member states because they have maintained a high degree of stability and prosperity. But still there are many areas for improvement which are left behind and require attention on urgent basis. One of them is the coordination among the member states which has become a threat for EU. The coordination level among the member states has not been maintained by EU from several years. However, the European Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) and the Cooperation Council (GCC) have received support from the member states but still they not been treated in a manner in which they should have to be. The reason behind this disintegration is the lack of economic policies on broader levels. EU has not offered any economic policy for all of its member states to identify the factors of economic disruptions. On the other hand, there has been a need of this type of policy from a longer period of time by all states. (Smith, Steffenson, 2005, 348)

The member states of EU ...