EU

• The European Union (EU) was established on November 1, 1993, with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty by twelve countries.
• . The European Union is an international organization that aims to promote economic, political, and military cooperation among its member states.
• often considered to considerably breach the sovereignty of its member states e.g. through the Eurozone, open borders
• Eurozone = based on the GDP of all member states thus weakens power of countries as if one members economy shrinks it could lead to all the members in the Eurozone facing recession, this interdependence weakens power of states
• open borders - allows free movement of people between member states which can be seen as a threat to national security
• the EU has been criticized for being too bureaucratic and lacking transparency in decision-making processes
• 2005 = ECHR ruled that the UK was in breach of Article 3 of Protocol 1 of the Convention of Human Rights concerning UK denying prisoners the right to vote
• Abu Qatada was arrested in 2002 and extradited to the UK in 2004, UK said that he was a threat to national security and thus sovereignty but EU court issued ruling saying they cannot send him back as he would face torture
• 1 Feb 2020 = Brexit becomes effective and means that the UK is no longer a member of the EU
• UK voted to leave the EU in June 2016 referendum with 52% voting Leave and 48% Remain
• Another reason why the UK left the EU was due to concerns about democracy and sovereignty, some argued that decisions made by the EU undermined the democratic process within individual member states.
• The main reason why the UK wanted to leave the EU was because of immigration, many Britons felt that immigrants were taking jobs away from British citizens and putting pressure on public services such as schools and hospitals
• EU membership benefits include access to single market, freedom of movement, funding from EU budget, influence on international affairs, protection against external threats, and shared responsibility for global issues such as climate change
• EU membership costs include loss of sovereignty, financial contributions to the EU budget, restrictions on immigration control, and potential economic consequences of leaving the EU.