Introduction
A lot of people think about what European Union really is. Majority of the people who speculate about this matter are Americans. On the one side, most of us would say that it is completely normal for us to be speculative about the matter but there are still those who do not believe studying or simple researching more about the European Union would be worthwhile. This paper will focus on a single topic which is the European Union. At some point, a comparison between the characteristics of the United States of America and the European Union could also be done to further judge what makes each Union unique from the other.
European Union: A Brief Background
History of the EU
It is known that some of the most bloody wars in history with catastrophic losses of human lives happened in Europe since the beginning of the middle ages or probably way earlier than that. European Union was formed with an objective of decreasing the likelihood of wars between neighboring European countries. This was one of the several reasons why the European Union was formed in the first place.
However, it seems that they have failed to reach this goal of existence because a second world war did occur just a few years after their foundation. The first six countries which founded the European Union were Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Luxemburg. During the early days of the European Union, they have fairly served their purpose.
There was a cold war between the western and the eastern countries. There were also existing and recurrent protests in Hungary against the harmful side effects of the communist regime. The said protests started as early as the 50’s and lasted up to 6 years when Soviet forces were ordered by the commanders to put such protests down. These are some of the problems that the European Union dealt with in their earliest times.
Nature of the EU
Even though the primary reason why the European Union was established was due to the rising tensions between neighboring European countries and even some Asian counties, it wasn’t just made a political body whose aim is to regulate peace and order for the European countries’ benefits. It also existed as an economic union. Years between the middle 50’s up to the end of the 60’s were marked as the period where economic growth of European countries was swinging.
There had also been a lot of revolutionary groups and movements present within the said timeframe. Overall, those years were highlighted by a rich period for the countries’ economies and the European Union contributed a lot to that. The European Union guided the countries how to make a establish a stable form of food production so that everybody could have the money to spend for food and have enough on their tables. There were even significant agricultural surpluses at those times in some rich countries. With these being said, the EU is not only a politically centered governing body in Europe but also an economically centered one.
Is the European Union a state or some other entity? How do member states of the EU perceive themselves? How do citizens of member states view the EU? If views are different, why do you think they are different?
The EU is just a governing body that regulates the actions of European countries to establish peaceful and orderly environment for all citizens of all European countries. It can’t be concluded that the EU is a state or some other kind of entity although it does have certain areas of limitation and boundaries—states are limited by their boundaries and they can’t exercise their authority outside those boundaries as well.
According to Julian Glover (2011) on a news article about Europe, it was said that Europeans see themselves as liberal. They conducted a simple survey and they ended up concluding that over 62% of the European population see themselves as liberal.
The member states of the EU as well as the citizens of those states should feel proud and with their chins up about the state of their country. Being a member of the EU isn’t an easy goal to attain after all; especially with all the hardships and difficulties that tore many countries in Europe apart even before the foundation of the European Union.
Of course, there is a great chance that views regarding this matter would be different because each people have their own beliefs. At some point, there may even be European citizens who are proponents of the communist regime even though majority are against the fact that it even existed as a regime.
Comparison of the EU to the United States
Persecution is quite common among the European government (List verse, 2007). At some point, such could also happen in the US government but only up to a minimal extent. So far, the different types of discrimination (age, sex, race, religion) have been seen in Europe even before the outbreaks of wars and protests against the communist regime.
In Europe, there is this entity they call the European Parliament which is a body that only the European Union could elect. According to the said source, such elected bodies together with the European Union Council forms one of the most powerful organizations in the world. The US on the other hand only has the federal government as its main governmental body. Its main tasks include carrying out its roles that are in turn derived from the individual states federations based on their constitutions. For additional information, it’s good to know that the federal government has a total of three branches.
These are the legislative, executive and the judicial branches. What’s good about the federal government of the US is the fact that each of its branches could act on its own. There are existing treaties and bilateral agreements present between the US and the EU as of today. This also aims to establish peace and order between the two great governing bodies. Some of these agreements are centered on issues such as transportation safety, energy security, economic growth and trade.
The United States is currently one of Europe’s leading partners in aviation and other types of technology (European Commission, 2011). So far, there isn’t much difference between the way economy is run between the US and the EU except for the fact that most European countries use the currency Euro as their currency even though Europe isn’t really a country but a continent. The same actually goes for the US but it’s only a state.
References
Glover, J. (2011). Most Europeans see themselves as liberal, Guardian Poll shows. Guardian.co.uk. Accessed January 2012. Available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/13/european-union-immigration-survey.
Listverse. (2007). Top 10 differences between Europe and America. Listverse.com. Accessed January 2012. Available at http://listverse.com/2007/11/25/top-10-differences-between-europe-and-america/.
European Commission. (2011). The European Union and the United States. European Commission. Print.
