The European Union

Going back as far as 1957 there were efforts to try to unify Europe into one identity. In 1985 there was a meeting in Schengen, Luxembourg, that established an area of 28 European Countries that banded together to eliminate passports and border control between them. The land area became known as the Schengen Area. It had a population of over 400 million people and land area of 1,664,911 square miles. This area was to be a free trade zone and allow workers to cross borders for employment.

It took ten years to perfect this agreement but it was signed and put into practice in 1995. In 1993, the Maastricht Treaty formed the European Union. The strength of the EU was the original six countries which were Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. They had begun cooperating since 1957 in a number of areas under the umbrella of the European Communities or the Common Market. In 1999, 19 members of the European Union agreed to combine their currencies into one with one money called the Euro as its base. Originally, the value of the Euro was close to the value of the USA dollar. The smallest printed Euro is the five Euro note. All values less than five Euros are coins. There is a one Euro and a two Euro coin. Coins less than one Euro are designated as Euro cents. Coins for one, five, ten, and fifty Euro cents are available.

The United Kingdom consisting of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland did not participate in the new currency. They chose to stay with the British pound. The United Kingdom and Ireland were the only two nations who retained the right to leave the European Union.

The United Kingdom recently voted to leave the European Union and are taking steps to leave at this time. Ireland did not join in the passport free zone because they have an agreement with Northern Ireland for open borders and Northern Ireland does not participate in the passport free zone.

The European Union is not established with a Constitution. It and all of its different parts were established by treaties. The European Council, with its President Donald Tusk, serves as the Executive Department of the European Union. It is made up of the leader or president of each of the 28 separate nations that make up the European Union. They deal with any conflicts between the member nations and each leader operates his position in his own country based on leadership from the European Council.

The European Commission is the active executive arm of the EU and is responsible for running the EU on a day to day basis. The European Commission is made up of 28 members with one member coming from each member nation. The jobs are not related to their home nation but rather they are assigned areas of business responsibility. All new legislation must be initiated through this group. This group is directed by the Commission President Jean- Claude Juncker.

The Council of the European Union is a separate group that serves in the Legislative Branch. There are twenty eight members of this Council with each member coming from a different nation and it is equivalent to the U. S. Senate. They are also known as the Council of Ministers. The second group in the Legislative Branch is the European Parliament in Strasbourg. There are 751 members in this group and each country has a specific number of members based on their population. The legal arm of the EU is called the Court of Justice of the European Union and it is located in Luxembourg.

The European Central Bank determines the monetary policies of the EU and ensures price stability by controlling the money supply. They are the equivalent of the Federal Reserve in the USA. There is a Court of Auditors that maintains all of the records of the EU and advises both the Legislative and Executive areas with evaluations of their proposals.

The EU has a very limited military and sets aside a small portion of funds for this purpose. Most of the EU members are also members of NATO which provides the military protection for them. Each nation maintains its own police forces for protection of its citizens. Each nation maintains its own highways and utilities. Education is an area that is the responsibility of each nation. While the EU can control some areas of education by general directions these must be agreeable to all of the twenty eight nations.

The EU cannot operate with a deficit. They are only allowed to spend the amount of money that comes from taxes and import tariffs. Individual nations in the EU are not bound by the balanced budget provision. Of the 28 members of the EU, only 19 member states are in the Eurozone which uses only the Euro as their currency. The world’s total global wealth is $ 280 trillion. The USA owns $ 92.4 trillion of this and the EU owns $ 72 trillion of this. The average annual salary of an employed person in the EU is $ 30,000. In the USA, the average annual salary is $ 42,857.

Today’s population in the European Union is approximately 400 million. The United States is approximately 325 million. In 2017, the GDP of the EU was $ 20,850 Billion. The GDP of the USA for the same period was $ 19,360 Billion.

Sir Winston Churchill said that one day the countries of Europe would band together as one and he wanted them to be called the United States of Europe.