EUROPEAN UNION SOLIDIFIES CONTINENTAL STRENGTH AND COOPERATION
by Frank Tridico
The European Union is the framework for economic and political cooperation between 15 European countries. Those in the union represent some of the most industrialized, economically and technologically progressive in Europe. Union members include the nations of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and England.
The European Union serves as an executive and legislative body that deals with environmental, transport and emplyment concerns, human rights and constituional freedoms and defence and foreign policy. While it respects the sovereignty and jurisdiction of each member state, it seeks to oversee issues to preserve continental unity and progressiveness.
The European Union's mandate serves five specific criteria. It is designed to promote economic and social progress, to assert the autonomous identity of the European Union in the international community, to introduce and recognize European citizenship, to preserve and promote freedom, security and justice within the continent and to create, preserve and enforce established European Union principles and laws.
There are three recognized pillars of the European Union body: the European Community, Common Foreign and Security Policy and Justice Affairs. The first pillar is managed by the state institutions within the European Union council. The latter two are managed through voluntary inter-governmental co-operation. The first pillar (European Community) is accorded exclusive jurisdiction over matters of a common market which includes freedom of movement across borders. It also oversees issues of agriculture, the environment and economic trade between continental nations.
In the first pillar, member states have given up some of their sovereignty and EU institutions can act independently of the national governments. This affords the Union expanded executive and legislative power which affords the body efficiency and effectiveness in the issues it oversees. While non-member European nations and some in the international community see such allocation of power and legal leverage as a reduction in national sovereignty, member states do not see it in that manner. Member states cite substantial growth in the European economy, free trade and movement across borders and greater diplomatic,political and economic ties between nations as specific examples of its success.In the second pillar, member states hold common positions and take joint action on foreign and security affairs. The third pillar integrates member states' policies on asylum and immigration, customs, drugs and crime. The second and third pillars afford members greater sovereignty while maintaining membership within the Union. It represents the issues most member states have agreed need individual national jurisdiction. Member states, thus, operate within inter-governmental cooperation. Member states are not bound by specific policies but work together to discuss issues that benefit individual nations as well as the continental community.
There exist many international bodies to preserve, promote and protect common interests. The United Nations is the largest of all international bodies but there are many others that are restricted within and across continents. NORAD is restricted to North America while NATO combines both North American and European membership. Integral to all entities is a central concern of wider cooperation between member states to preserve, promote and protect common interests. With the advent of globalization, unions represent actualized entities to afford progression in other realms: economic, legal, political, and social. It is the face of the new reality. They have become increasingly recognized and legitimized to ensure the sum of all parts benefit all member states.
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