European Union

• Treaty of Paris 1951

  European Coal and Steel Community established

  High Authority to supervise the market - competition and price

  Only formed of 6 countries - France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg
• Treaty of Rome 1957

  European Economic Community - only France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium

  An attempt at creating a wider common market

  Laid the foundations for a closer union in Europe - led to agriculture and common tariffs policy
• Enlargement Round 1 - 1973

  First significant expansion in EEC membership

  Denmark, UK and Ireland joined; later Greece (1983), Spain and Portugal (1986) joined
• Single European Act passed in 1985, meaning votes relating to the EEC only required a qualified majority instead of a unanimous vote
• Schengen Agreement 1985

  Removed internal border controls - single travel area

  UK and Ireland opted out of the agreement
• Maastricht Treaty 1992

  Created the 'EU' and established a timetable for economic and monetary union

  Increased cooperation between member statesin foreign and security policies
• Amsterdam Treaty 1997

  Extended the role of the EU to include immigration and security
• 1999 - Eurozone created

  11 countries abolished their national currencies to adopt the euro - complete economic integration for members that chose to do so as the European Central Bank was in charge of monetary policies such as interest rates

  Since 1999, 8 other countries have joined the Eurozone but the UK did not
• Nice Treaty 2001

  Created a European security and defence policy
• Lisbon Treaty 2007

  Qualified majority vote extended to over 45 policy areas in the Council of Ministers

  Created important posts: President of the European Council, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, etc.
• Aims of the EU

  Stimulate economic growth

  Peace and stability

  Create and ever closer union

  Protect and promote individual rights and freedoms
• The EU has been successful in stimulating economic growth as the single market has boosted trade across the union (500 million consumer)

  Poorer nations have benfitted most from this as it has reduced disparity across the EU and all member states benefit from the single market
• The EU is becoming a closer union as they have a unified front on foreign policy (Lisbon Treaty) and economic policy in most countries (Eurozone)

  EU citizenship sometimes comes before nationality in customs

  By having similar foreign and economic policies, it is likely countries have other values in common so it is likely that the EU would become closer
• The EU promotes individual rights and freedoms through the lack of borders between countries and has enhanced workers rights by limiting the number of hours they can be made to work.

  People in the EU can go anywhere else in the EU as the laws are the same so all workers should have the same protections
• It could be argued that an ever closer union has not been achieved as the UK wanted to leave and was able to relatively easy

  Some countries like the UK could opt out of policies they didn't like (Schengen Agreement)
• Hungary is a member state of the EU, yet refuses to comply to the EU's human rights standards

  The EU can't act as member states cannot war against other members
• The EU failed to implement the Eurozone in each country as the UK, Hungary, Finland and Denmark chose not to use the euro, and not integrating their economies into the EU - made it easier for the UK to leave
• The UK opted out of the Eurozone and didn't use the euro as their currency, keeping the EU at arms length. By not integrating their economies, the UK was independent enough that Brexit was possible. Had the UK been part of the Eurozone, it would have been much more difficult to leave and Brexit likely wouldn't have happened.
• The UK opted out of the Schengen Agreement, maintaining its border controls and immigration policies. EU citizens could still enter without a visa but the UK tried to keep minimal closeness to the EU while trying to keep the benefits of being in the EU. Euroscepticism grew in the UK, making it an unpopular decision to follow the Schengen Agreement.

  Schengen Agreement would have allowed for passport free travel
• The Uk's late entry to the EU meant they could be exempt from policies they didn't like

  Common Agricultural Policy - UK secured a deal to reduce their contributions. The UK could pick and choose a lot more and as a stronger European economy they could get what they wanted from the EU and Brexit showed that they had not been fully integrated into the EU as it was very much still its own country independent of the EU