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Power?
The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 28 member states
that are located primarily in Europe. European Union has launched a single European
Currency – the Euro.
There is an African Union. However, it does not have the political character of the
European Union.
Will there be United States of Europe (USE) just like the United States of America
(USA)?
Europe was a united entity during the era of Rome Empire. However, it got
disintegrated into smaller units later. The situation changed when the rise of
nationalism led to the unification of countries in the 1870s (eg: unification of
Germany, unification of Italy etc). Nonetheless, this was not without conflicts.
The first steps were to foster economic cooperation: the idea being that countries that
trade with one another become economically interdependent and so more likely to
avoid conflict.
The result was the European Economic Community (EEC) created in 1958. It
increased the economic cooperation between six countries: Belgium, Germany,
France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
Since then, 22 other members joined to create a huge single market (also known as the
‘internal’ market). It continues to develop towards its full potential, under a new
banner – European Union (since 1993).
The process acquired a political dimension with the creation of the European
Parliament.
What began as a purely economic union has evolved into an organization spanning
policy areas, from climate, environment and health to external relations and security,
justice and migration.
Its currency, the euro, can pose a threat to the dominance of the US dollar.
Its share of world trade is three times larger than that of the United States allowing it
to be more assertive in trade disputes with the US and China.
Its economic power gives it influence over its closest neighbours as well as in Asia
and Africa.
Its use of diplomacy, economic investments, and negotiations rather than coercion and
military force have been effective as in the case of its dialogue with China on human
rights and environmental degradation.
It is also the world’s second most important source of space and communications
technology.
Some do not believe that the EU will achieve superpower status. They cite the
following reasons:
No Hard Power: European Union does not have enough hard power (it lack a strong
European military). With just soft power, it is not easy to emerge as a superpower.
Lack of unified foreign policy: EU also lacks a unified EU foreign policy. In many
areas, its member states have their own foreign relations and defence policies that are
often at odds with each other. For example, UK was America’s partner in the
Iraq invasion, whereas Germany and France opposed American policy.
No common constitution: All members of the EU must pass the constitution for it to
take effect. At a time when the idea of a common constitution was proposed, even
though most of the countries voted for the constitution, France and Netherlands voted
against it.
Euro Crisis: The EU and the European Central Bank (ECB) have struggled with
high sovereign debt and collapsing growth in Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain
since the global financial market collapse of 2008.
Brexit: The UK even earlier prefered to be out of the European Market, now She is
planning to leave the EU (Brexit).