Introduction
The European Union is one of the most united bodies in the world today. EU epitomizes unity and centres in the common good of its members. Obviously, the business interrelation and other working domains of the Union has gone a long way to garner success for its members. As a united body, the EU represents the most powerful force in the world that cannot be thwarted by external powers. Although this union can be labelled a success by all and sundry but it fails in some aspects especially in issues relating to the environment but not in toto. This paper takes a look at the history of the Union and also considers its current state especially as it relates to the environment, taking France as a case study.
History of the EU
The history of the European Union is well documented. European Union (2016) pointed out that the European Union was established in order to stop the continued and bloody wars among the Europeans that resulted to the Second World War. The treaty began in the 1950s with the six founders of the Union including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
The basic and primary aim of the treaty was to bind the countries together by introducing closer economic and industrial cooperation. However, the responsibilities of the Union have expanded over the years and a lot more other countries have joined the union. The Treaty of Paris was formed prior to the establishment of the European Union. This treaty was forged following the proposal made by Robert Schuman in 1950, the French Foreign Minister. The treaty included the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) which was carried out in 1951 by the 6 member states. The Treaty of Rome followed after in 1957, and this treaty ushered in the European Economic Community abbreviated as EEC and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). The Treaty of Rome encouraged the removal of trade restrictions and barriers between member states as well as the creation of ‘common market'. Furthermore, the three institutions (ECSC, EEC, and EURATOM) were merged to form the European Commission, European Council and European Parliament in 1967. Subsequently, this Treaty of Maastricht was signed in 1992. This was the treaty that gave birth to the European a Union and a new form of incorporation among member state governments in the Union, primarily on the issues of justice and home affairs. Consequently, the leaders of the Union agreed to the creation of an Economic and Monetary Union with a single currency managed by the European Central Bank. Subsequently, the EU’s single currency ‘the Euro’ was officially initiated in 1999. At the time it was launched, 11 member states adopted the currency and formed what is known as the euro zone. Interestingly, the EU was started by six countries but today it comprises 28 member states. The European Union has its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium (The European Union. 2009; Strasbourg l’europeene n.d).
France – EU Member State
France is one of the six member states that established the European Union. It has participated actively towards ensuring the success of the Union. France has experienced economic growth due to the union. However, there are some concerns as it relates to the environment. The Ministry of Ecology (2014) pointed out that the water courses and groundwater have been monitored for a number of years for health reason and to protect the environment. France as a member state of the European Union adheres to the directives and instruction of the water framework directive. The environmental concern has spurred France to adopt various regulatory measures in order to contain it. Some of the regulatory measures include the prohibition of certain products such as the use of phosphate in household fabric detergent in 2007.
The pollution of surface water and groundwater in France has garnered a lot of concerns. In spite of the regulatory measures brought in place, the ground and surface water have been polluted for various reasons. The primary pollutant of the groundwater is nitrate. As a matter of fact, the poor ecological condition of the groundwater can be attributed to nitrate. It is imperative to note that nitrate is very necessary for plant growth, however, due to their high concentration in some regions, they cause environmental problems (Menció et al., 2016; Pisciotta, Cusimano and Favara, 2015).
EU’s Water Framework Directive (WFD)
The European Union has set standards for protecting the aquatic ecosystem. The WFD adopted in the year 2000 is one of the directives put in place by the union for this purpose. The WFD is designed to set a legal framework whereby each of the Member State would be committed to the process of protecting and recovering the quality of the water in the aquatic environment. The policy is result driven, and its aim was to ensure a good water condition by the year 2015. To ensure that this directive is actualized, monitoring campaigns have been put in place towards this end and are conducted on a regular basis. Moreover, the biological (flora and fauna), chemical (phosphate and nitrate and so forth) and the hydromorphological (state of the ba.nks, etc.) quality of the water determine its ecological state, and these are the factors monitored against in the context of ensuring the success of the directive.
Difficulty in Complying with EU’s Directive
Of course, France has made substantial progress in attaining to EU’s directives and regulations, but it also faces some challenges. One of these is due to the complexity of the chemical reactions that occur in the atmosphere and the increase in the sources of emissions (Foust, n.d.). According to the Ministry of Ecology (2014), France has reduced the emission of nitrogen oxide by 47% since 1990. However, irrespective of this reduction, it is still exceeding the limit placed by the Union. The reasons for this are not farfetched and include among others the increase in traffic and the use of diesel in cars. France does not only default the EU regulation in Nitrogen oxide emission but also in the emission of particulate matters (PM10 and PM2.5). The Ministry of Ecology (2014) stated that France has decreased its particle emissions during a period of 1990- 2012, but it still exceeds the emission of these fine particles, especially in large cities. Obviously, these particles have a dangerous effect on health (Ren et al., 2016), but the effect is determined by their physical as well as chemical compositions and their sizes.
Climatic Effect of GHG emission in the EU
The member states of the EU contribute significantly to the emission of greenhouse gases. This is obviously due to the immense industrial and transportation activities that take place in the region. France as an EU member state is not excluded here as it has its own fair share of greenhouse gas emission. The Ministry of Ecology (2014) pointed out that between 1990 and 2012, the greenhouse gas emission of France and the EU was decreased by 12 and 18% respectively. However, the carbon footprints of the French as well as those of the residents of other EU states are not on the increase, and in fact exceed the carbon dioxide emissions in other parts of the world. This is significant as it has a great toll on the environment. Emissions can be traced to virtually every activity in the EU. Import is one such activity and research pointed out that emission due to import has increased by 62% since 1990, and this alone represents half of the carbon footprints of France in 2010. The increase of the greenhouse gas emission leaves a lot of challenges especially as the world aims at limiting the average temperature to 2oC by 2050. To achieve this target, it is necessary that the greenhouse emissions be reduced to half the value of 1990. Sadly, the EU and France, in particular, is heading to a clear opposite of this.
Climatic Change in France
The havoc of climatic change affects virtually every nation of the world, and France has no exemption here. In fact, France bears the brunt of climatic change, especially with its high industrial activities. According to the Ministry of Ecology (2014), the French metropolitan areas have been experiencing an increase in temperature since 1900. The increase in temperature here is up to +0.92 degree Celsius which is slightly higher than the world average of +0.85 degree Celsius. Experts project that by the end of the century, global warming could reach up to 1.7 to 5 oC in the metropolitan areas of France. This would obviously result to a lot of negative conditions such as increased frequency of heat waves, rise in sea levels and so forth. The aforementioned climatic change comes from various sources including the intensive industrial, agricultural and domestic activities in France. In 2013, the estimated average footprint of French people was 11.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Obviously, it cannot be argued that France’s EU membership has not done it much good especially as it relates to the environment. This is not to say that France has not benefitted immensely from the unionism, however, its environment still suffers drastically. There is obviously need to device better measures to contain the teeming environmental issues in France. The EU directives appear to be too heavy for France to contain and thus too often than not, it falls short of these directives. Of course, France is not left alone in this middle. Most other EU member countries have various issues to tackle especially as it relates to the environment. Obviously, environmental issues open doors to various other problems that initially were not prevalent. The increase in carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emission can be linked to varieties of health conditions.
Animal Use for Scientific Purposes
The EU adopted the directive 86/609/EEC in 1986 which was directed at the protection of animals used for experimental and other particular scientific purposes. The directive included standards for care and housing of animals as well as the training of personnel for handling animal experiments. Moreover, the directive stressed on the development of alternative techniques to replace animal experiments and also the leveraging of available techniques rather than experimenting on animals (European Commission, 2016). As a member state of the European Union, France adopts this directive and indeed the success of the directive has taken France as well as most other EU states a notch higher.
Other Environmental Issues and Concerns
France is one of the leading industrialized EU countries, and therefore, it fits in well with a case study in reviewing and evaluating the European Union. Industrialization has taken its toll on France over the years. Even though industrialization has done a lot of good to the nation's economy and the world at large, it has done more harm than good as per the environment. France’s EU membership gives it the favourable ground it requires to flourish industrially. However, as pointed out above, France is unable to cope with the union’s directives as per environmental laws. Of course, France is not left alone here as a lot of other EU countries find it difficult to cope with the directives of the union in environmental issues. Pollution is a very serious issue in France, and resultantly, a number of measures have been taken by the EU and also the French government to contain it. For instance, vehicles are taxed in France as per their pollution level.
Water is a limited resource in France and of course, it is one of the prime resources in daily demand. Moreover, water supply problem is raised by drought, but largely it increases pollution. Moreover, agriculture being an important activity in France, is also the greatest water consumer as it consumes 44% of the water resources. Besides water scarcity and drought issues, pollution issue due to agriculture is also a major concern in France. A great deal of fertilizers and manures are used in agricultural purposes, and these pollute the ground water with nitrates and other contaminants (Nations Encyclopedia, n.d).
The forest is an important resource in the world as it represents biodiversity in a number of ways (Felton et al., 2016). Industrialization is obviously one of the factors that destroy this important natural resource as well as biodiversity. The forest region in France covers up to 25% of the entire landmass, and it represents the most important forested area in the entire EU. However, the forest is subjected to a lot of threats in France. These threats are all directly or indirectly caused by industrialization and include acid rains, fires, and diseases. Pan-uk.org (n.d) rightly pointed out that France among the EU must bear responsibility for the lack of progress on agricultural issues.
Progress or Hindrance in The EU
There is no doubt that the union of the European states has brought about a lot of fortunes and progress. As a matter of fact, some states hitherto considered economically backward experienced exceptional economic improvement and growth as a result of their EU memberships. A good example of this is Greece. However, France has also experienced rapid economic growth as an EU member state. As a matter of fact, studies pointed out that France was one of the top industrialized countries in the EU and in fact, the largest exporter of agricultural products (France, 2009). However, when considered in the environmental context, it can be noted that there has been a significant decline in the EU. These declines can be seen by the failure of the EU member states to meet the directives of the union. Of course, these directives are set in order to help the member states to achieve improved environment. France, in particular has failed a number of directives especially as it relates to the carbon footprint and pollution.
Being a highly industrialized nation, pollution is a very serious issue in France. The burning of fuel to produce energy for driving automobiles is on the increase and France finds it difficult to meet the world average of carbon footprint. Climatic change issues are also a threating aspect to consider in France. Pollution from sources like agriculture and the industries is also on the increase. Being a top exporter of agricultural produces, pollution from agricultural means is rampant in France.
Obviously, on the note of the environment and some other issues, there is a significant decline and hindrance in the EU. The directives set by the EU appears to be limiting the member states to act in certain ways that suite them. This is not only limited to environmental issues, it also concerns the economy and otherwise. Some other members of the union suffer dearly due to some directives and strict rule of the union. The EU is not experiencing an absolute hindrance, though, because member states still have a lot of benefits from the Union. Such benefits like the exclusion of trade barriers, international relationship, the use of common currency and so forth is to be sought by any other country in the world, but the EU members have it on the platter of gold. However, while these aforementioned and seeming benefits appear to benefits to some of the member states, it is certainly a hindrance to some other member states.
Conclusion
The EU formed in the 1950s has made remarkable progress in various aspects. France as one of the EU member states has also made significant progress. However, this progress is not wholesome. France has experienced some hindrances as a member state. The hindrances mostly appear as directives of the EU. France is unable to meet some of these directives, especially those that have to do with the environment. The highly industrialized nation seems to be struggling to maintain its stance as a member state of the EU and inductively it is obvious that the EU is not entirely making progress.
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