Political Science

Europe is one of the most influential and powerful continent today. Exercising an expansive financial and economic authority in most global commercial activities, Europe has proven its capacity to develop a unified community in further pursuing its political progress and economic advancement. One of the major movements that greatly affected the shaped present-day Europe is the establishment of the European Union. Starting as a simple economic forum and community for active European member states, the European Union progressively and rapidly developed itself as a major governing body in the entirety of Europe, addressing political, economic, financial, and diplomatic activities done in the region. The European Union is substantial and vital in shaping the economy of Europe as well as in most part of the world.

Many have dreamed of having a unified Europe but it took quite some time before this dream became a reality. It was just after the World War II in 1945 that European leaders and government became serious in creating an integrated European community and government. They believed that Europe can achieve more stability in terms of peace, order, and security by means of exterminating nationalism and economic autarky that has been imposed during the Nazis occupation of Europe. An establishment of a unified Europe will then bring economic prosperity be means of more extended and expansive partnerships and free movements of products, people and information across the entire region, thus creating more opportunities for Europeans making it much easier for them to rebuild their post-war nations. Several countries have created alliances and clustered integrations depending on their location. France and Britain first ratified the Treaty of Dunkirk in 1947, while Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg allied followed the next year, thus creating the Western European Union. The United States also played an important role in creating the European Union by extending its capacity to encourage Europes political leaders and strengthening the benefits of creating the Union (Tiersky, 2004). It was in 1993 that the Treaty of Maastricht was signed which further created and formally established the European Union (EU).

The EU developed an integrated market by means of imposing a standardized system of laws that apply to all member states. This ensured the free movement of products, people, services, and capital. It also established common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries, and regional development. In further exercising its political and economic roles, 16 EU states adopted the regional currency Euro and have themselves be represented in major international organizations such as the WTO, G8, G20 and the United Nations. It also has the capacity to exercise legal and judicial rights with its justice and home affairs, which also has the ability to disable passport controls by the Schengen agreement.

The EU manages its international affairs with a mixture of supranationalism, having its power be transferred or delegated to a particular authority by the governments of member states, and intergovernmentalism, in which member states exercise authority and power and oftentimes create decisions that affects the organization. Most activities of the Eu are being controlled by a number of institutions and organizations that implement the tasks and policies set out in the Treaties. These are still subject to the idea of subsidiarity that requires actions to be taken only at the EU level such that an individual member states cannot achieve alone. Foreign policy cooperation has been expansive upon the establishment of the EU allowing the promotion of EUs interests and objectives as well as the observance of international policies as well which includes human rights respect, encouragement of democracy and the application of the due process and rule of law.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) makes it sufficient to compensate the military and defensive needs of the region. Most of the EU states are also NATO members while others remain militarily neutral.

Economically speaking, the EU proved itself to be worthy and competitive with other international economies such as the United States, Australia, Canada, China among others. Almost 40 of the 500 largest corporations in the world are situated in EUs member states and that the EU was able to generate a combined GDP of 18.39 trillion as of 2008. EUs unemployment rate remains at 7 and a lower inflation rate of 2.2 as registered in 2008 (International Monetary Fund, 2009).

European member states enjoy the benefits of regional development among other aspects of improvement. The allocation of funds for infrastructure development as well as more investments in order to decrease unemployment rate are also part of the European Unions main objectives.

Italy is one of the major and active participants in unifying and integrating Europe. It actually hosted several significant events in order to establish the current EU. Italy have changed rapidly from the fascist movement of Mussolini and Nazism of Hitler and transformed itself as a more developed and improved country in terms of government and economy.

Scandinavia on the other hand, have become inconvenient in participating on EU although some of its member states were pioneers of the European Union. Only Norway experienced a more crucial situation in deciding to join the EU due to their fear of being overpowered in terms of their agriculture, fisheries, regional policies, offshore oil and gas, and even independence.

European Union is a vital organization in shaping the current economy and development of Europe by means of adhering on the ideals and principles of cooperation and unity despite their regional diversity.