The European Union: 500 million people – 27 countries - Member states of the European Union
23 official languages Enlargement: from six to 27 countries - Formal agreement on enlargement in 1998; 10 new EU members in 2004: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia; plus Bulgaria and Romania in 2007
- candidates: Croatia, FYRoM and Turkey
The treaties – basis for democratic cooperation built on law - 1958 The treaties of Rome:
- The European Economic Community
- The European Atomic Energy Community
- (EURATOM)
- 1987 The European Single Act: the Single Market
- 1993 Treaty of European Union – Maastricht
How does the EU spend its money? - 2010 EU budget: €141.5 billion = 1.20% of gross national income
- Citizens, freedom,
- security and justice
- 2%
- Sustainable growth:
- jobs, competitiveness, regional development
- 45%
- Natural resources:
- agriculture,
- environment
- 41%
Climate change – a global challenge - To stop global warming, EU leaders decided in 2007 to:
-
- reduce greenhouse gas emissions
- by 20% by 2020 (30% if other developed
- countries do likewise)
- improve energy efficiency by 20% by 2020
- raise the share of renewable energy
- to 20% by 2020 (wind, solar, hydro
- power, biomass)
- Challenges:
- Demography: Europeans live longer, have fewer children [500 million population]
- Globalisation: European economy faces competition from other parts of the world
- Climate change: Emission of greenhouse gases must come down
- Solutions:
- European leaders have therefore agreed on a joint strategy for:
- More research and innovation
- A more dynamic business environment
- Investing in people
- A greener economy
Research - investing in the knowledge society - Spending on research and development in 2006 (% of GDP)
Solidarity in practice: the EU cohesion policy - 2007-2013: €347 billion invested for infrastructure, business, environment and training of workers for less
- well-off regions or citizens
- Regional fund
- Social fund
- Cohesion fund
- Convergence objective: regions with GDP per capita under 75% of the EU average. 81.5% of the funds are spent on this objective.
- Regional competitiveness and employment objective.
The euro – a single currency for Europeans - EU countries using the euro EU countries not yet using the euro
- The EU – a major trading power
- Share of world trade in goods (2007)
- Share of world trade in services (2007)
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