The European Integration
Foreword
The European Union is a unique model of integration among European national
states.
The European Union is the outcome of a process of integration, which started in 1950
with six original states: France, West Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and
Luxembourg.
It is a unique model of integration based on treaties among member states which
created an institutional framework.
The European Institutions - the Commission, the Council and the Parliament - are
defining the aims and policies of the Union and conduct the management of the
Union.
The idea behind the European integration process was to create an institutional
framework of shared sovereignty in different sectors of the economy.
The ultimate goal of the process is the economic integration of the member states
which will call for a political union in the final stage.
While the immediate concern the founders of the Union was to avoid another war in
Europe but establishing an economically integrated space in Europe which was called
European Economic Communities, the ultimate goal was to create a European
Political Union. It is only in 1993 that the European Economic Communities (EEC)
became the European Union by the Treaty of Maastricht.
While deepening their integration via Intergovernmental Conferences the member
states were interested in enlarging, the space of their integrated policies to new
member states so that today the European Union includes 15 member states and
prepares itself for new memberships in the years to come of all the European
democratic states (twelve in number) which share the values of the European Union.
At the same time the member states of the Union are working hard to deepen their
integration by amending their institutional framework and enlarging their scope to
political matters.
This brief outline of the European Union from the origins until today includes:
- the European Integration,
- an analysis of the Institutional framework,
- an outline of the policies pursued by the Union and
- a note on the EU in the world.
Ambassador C. LYBEROPOULOS
Copyright
This site was created by the Institute
of Language and Speech Processing and the Mediterranean Cooperation Research Center,
as part of a Greek government (General Secretariat for Research and Technology) funded
project to promote cooperation between EU member states and Mediterranean partners.
The information in this site is based on official EU sources and more information may
be obtained from the European Commission and/or other EU
institutions.
The information on this site is purely educational and we do not accept any
responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the material on this site.
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