What is European Union?

 European Union is the political and economic union of 27 member states

primarily in Europe.

 The 27 member states are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech
Republic, France, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary,
Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom.
Purpose
 The European Union was formed to bring together the individual member
states and integrate them for better economic and political power

 To strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of the nationals of

its Member States through the introduction of a citizenship of the Union.
 HISTORY OF EUROPEAN
UNION

 In 1951 Treaty of Paris paved way for the

formation of European Coal and Steel
Company.

 Belgium, Italy, Luxemberg, Netherlands and

West Germany, France were its founder
members.

 In 1957 these six countries went ahead and

signed Treaty of Rome which paved the way
for European Economic Community and
European Atomic Energy Community.
 In 1967 the Merger Treaty merged all the three communities together
to form one single institution called European Community (EC)

 In 1973 Denmark, United Kingdom, Ireland joined European

Community.

 In 1981- Greece

 In 1986- Spain and Portugal

 Finally on November 1, 1993 the “Treaty of Masstricht” paved the

way for the formation of European Union
 1995-2007

 1995 Austria, Finland and Sweden

 2004 Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary,

Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland

 2007 Bulgaria and Romania

European Union Flag
1) It was designed by Arsène
Heitz and Paul Lévy in
1955.

2) It symbolises Europes
Identity and unity in wider
sense.The cricle of golden
stars symbolises harmony
and solidarity between
people of Europe
EUROPEAN ANTHEM
 The popularly used European anthem is a
work of legendary German composer
Ludwig van Beethoven.

 It is his 9th Symphony called ‘Ode to Joy’

Single Market
 Single market facilitates free movement of goods, capital, people, services
between member states.

 The free movement has ensured that

1) Citizens can move freely between member states to live, work, study or retire
in another country
2) Capital is freely available for property purchases, making investments in other
member states
3) Self employed people can provide their services on temporary or permanent
basis in other member states
Customs Union

 The custom union involves application of common external tariff on all the
goods entering the market.

 This means that once the goods enter the EU market these are not subject
to any customs duties or any other levy for the trade between member
states.
Common
Currency
 Euro is the official currency of 16 out of 27
member states of European
Union.

 Euro has helped to ease travel of goods and

people, eliminate exchange rate problems,
price stability, low interest rates.

 Euro is today the worlds 2nd reserve

currency after US dollar.
Legal System
 Court of Justice – one judge
from each member state
 Interprets and applies EU legislation
Agriculture
 CAP – Common Agricultural Policy
 Sustainablility of Agriculture
 Food Quality
 Animal Welfare
 Food Safety
 Control
 Farmers welfare/incomes
 Employment in agriculture
Euoropean Union parliament
 It is the directly elected European Union
body

 It represents the people of the EU unlike the

Council of Ministers, which represents
governments.

 Elections held every 5 years since 1979

 The European parliament's powers have

steadily increased with each change of the
EU treaties. Most new laws in member states
are to implement European legislation which
is amended and adopted by the European
Parliament.
 EDUCATION

 Education and science are areas where the EU's role is limited to supporting
national governments.

 In education, the policy was mainly developed in the 1980s in programmes

supporting exchanges and mobility.

 The most visible of these has been the ERASMUS programme, a university
exchange programme which began in 1987.
 RESEARCH

 Scientific development is facilitated through the EU's Framework

Programmes, the first of which started in 1984.

 16 EU countries are members of the European Space Agency.

 The aims of EU policy in this area are to co-ordinate and stimulate

research.
 RELIGION
 The EU is a secular body with no formal connections to any religion and no
mention of religion in any current or proposed treaty.

 Christianity is the largest religion of European Union.

 Islam and Judaism are also represented in European population.

 Other significant religions present in the EU territories are Buddhism, Sikhism

and Hinduism with the latter two having a strong presence in the United
Kingdom.
 CULTURE
 Policies affecting cultural matters are mainly set by individual member states.

 Cultural programmes undertaken by EU are

 Culture 2000- 7 year programme.

 European Cultural Month Event.

 Media Plus programme.

 European Union Youth Orchestra.

 European Capital of Culture- one or two cities in EU are selected for a year to
assist in cultural development of that city.
 Web portal has been formed dedicated to Europe and culture
 SPORTS

 Sport is mainly the responsibility of individual

member states or other international
organisations rather than that of the EU.

 However EU policies have had an impact on

sport, such as the free movement of workers
which was at the core of the Bosman ruling,
which prohibited national football leagues from
imposing quotas on foreign players with
European citizenship

 Under the proposed Treaty of Lisbon sports

would be given a special status which would
exempt this sector from much of the EU's
economic rules.
LANGUAGE
 German is the most widely spoken mother tongue (about 88.7 million
people as of 2006), followed by English, Italian and French.

 English is by far the most spoken foreign language at over half (51%)
of the population, with German and French following.

 23 official languages and 150 regional and minority languages

REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

 There are substantial economical disparities

across the EU.

 There are a number of Structural Funds and

Cohesion Funds to support development of
underdeveloped regions of the EU.

 TACIS (Technical Aid to the

Commonwealth of Independent States)
has now become part of the worldwide
EuropeAid programme.
 JUSTICE & HOME AFFAIRS
 Over the years, the EU has developed a wide competence in the area of
justice and home affairs.

 For this many agencies have been set up

 Europol- Co-operation of police forces
 Eurojust- Co-operation between prosecutors
 Frontex- Co-operation between border control authorities
 Schengen Information System- provides a common database for police and
immigration authorities
 FOREIGN POLICY

 The EU participates in all G8 summits.

 In WTO (WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION) all the 27 member

states of EU are represented by Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton
(TCCA)
REFERENCES
 www.europa.eu.int
 www.google.com