...------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- European Integration: ------------------------------------------------- An Illegitimate child? http://www.economist.com/node/21555927 BAS 2013 Nicole Ogorzałek Words: 955 ------------------------------------------------- European Integration: an illegitimate child? The European Union is facing hard times ahead. With each new treaty or another political agreement, the discontent with the European Union seems to be growing. While the Eurobarometer shows that the citizens still believe it to be beneficial to be part of the EU, the dissatisfaction is rather directed at EU policy (London School of Economics and Political Science, 2013). Whether it’s the question of enlargements, social policy or country bail-outs, the Europeans seem to be disagreeing more and more with the top of the European politics. However, nowhere is the Eurosceptism as marked as it is in Britain. And it doesn’t seem to lessen. On the contrary, organising protest against new EU-initiatives has never been easier (The Economist, 2012). Of course, looking back at Britain history it’s not hard to understand why words like “United States of Europe” or “the European Superstate” fire up the public indignation (Donnelly, 2012). Those trying to appease the opponents try to point out the benefits Britain’s EU membership brings, like political and economic stability and developments. Furthermore, the...
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...I. Introduction According to European Commission (2011a), a new common currency in Europe was announced on the first day of January 1999. At that time, there were eleven European countries decided to join the Euro and the Euro was introduced instead of their own currencies. The Euro has been adopted as a main currency of the country members, including Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. In order to be accepted to use the Euro, these countries had to agree with the conditions called “convergence criteria” about the price and exchange-rate stability, long-term interest rates, total government debt, government budget deficits, and central bank independence. These aspects will be discussed specifically in this essay. In the early stages of announcing and using the Euro, four members of the EU still remained separate from the Euro, namely Denmark, Great Britain, Greece, and Sweden. Later, in 2000, Greece changed its decision to accomplish the agreement. In 2001, it started adopting the Euro. At the present time, there are 17 out of 27 EU countries using the Euro as an official currency, which makes it become one of the most important currencies in the world. In the future, apart from Denmark and Britain, all other members of the EU will adopt the Euro. It should be known that only Latvia and Romania have a target date for joining the Euro in 2014 and 2015 respectively (European commission, 2011b). This essay...
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...Ladies and gentlemen and honoured attendees, I welcome you to this European Union Youth Conference. I am Melad Safi from London School of Economics and Political Science. The topic of this speech of mine is, “is immigration good for Britain?” I will address four main areas, where immigration is believed to have an impact. Those areas are as follows economic, social, cultural and political. However before we continue, I will give you a short introduction to immigration in Britain. Since the European Union decided to include several East European countries, the level of immigration has soared in Britain. 150.000 Rumanians are believed to live in London alone, and the net immigration to Britain between 1991-2012 was more than three million.1 The massive level of immigrants has left a negative opinion about immigrants. According to surveys, 60% believed that immigrants did more harm than good, and 77% believed that a dramatic reduction in immigration would benefit the economy.2 The government of the UK has been criticised for not doing their job well enough. The public opinion is that immigration is a burden to public service and the country but that they may still be important for some parts of the national economy. Immigrants are believed important in order to take jobs that native British people do not want. According to new researches, the public opinion is mostly wrong. OECD presented a report back in 2011 stating that immigration was neither beneficial nor harming...
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...Directive of the European Union. It gives EU workers the right to a minimum number of holidays each year, rest breaks, and rest of at least 11 hours in any 24 hours; restricts excessive night work; a day off after a week's work; and provides for a right to work no more than 48 hours per week. It was issued as an update on earlier versions from 22 June 2000 and 23 November 1993.Since excessive working time is cited as a major cause of stress, depression and illness, the stated purpose of the Directive is to protect people's health and safety. Background Like all European Union directives, this is an instrument which requires member states to enact its provisions in national legislation. Although the directive applies to all member states, in the United Kingdom, it is possible to opt out of the 48 hour working week and work longer hours. However, it is not possible to opt out of the other requirements. After the 1993 Council Negotiations, when the Directive was agreed to after an 11-1 vote, UK Employment Secretary David Hunt said "It is a flagrant abuse of Community rules. It has been brought forward as such simply to allow majority voting - a ploy to smuggle through part of the Social Chapter by the back door. The UK strongly opposes any attempt to tell people that they can no longer work the hours they want." (2)From the beginning of the establishment of the European Community, the United Kingdom to take the attitude of conflict in European pulled the European Free trade Association...
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...REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION IN EUROPE Europe has two block-EU trade and the European Free Trade Association. Of the two, the EU is far more important, not only in terms of membership (EU currently has 27 members, EFTA has 4), but also in terms of economic and political influence in the world economy. Many now see the EU as a growing economic and political superpower same order as the United States. Therefore, we will focus our attention on EU.7. EVOLUTION OF UNI EROPA The European Union (EU) is the product of two political factors: (1) the destruction of Western Europe during the two world wars and the desire for a lasting peace, and (2) the desire of European countries to hold their own in the top of the political and economic world. In addition, many Europeans realized the potential economic benefits of close integration of the country's economy. The predecessor of the European Union, European Coal and Steel Community, established in 1951 by Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The aim is to remove barriers to intragroup deliveries of coal, iron, steel, and metal. The signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957, the European Community was founded. The name changed again in 1994 when the European Community became after the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty the European Union (discussed later). Rome Treaty provided for the creation of a common market. Article 3 of the agreement put the main purpose of the new community, called...
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...to the Social Market Foundation in London The Guardian, Thursday 19 April 2001 Tonight I want to celebrate Britishness. As Foreign Secretary I see every day the importance of our relations with foreign countries to the strength of our economy, to the security of our nation, to the safety of our people against organised crime, even to the health of our environment. A globalised world demands more foreign contacts than even Britain has experienced in the past. 5~ I also know that we are likely to make our way more successfully in the world if we are secure in our British identity, and confident about its future. (...). Sadly, it has become fashionable for some to argue that British identity is under siege~ perhaps even in a state of terminal decline. The .threat is said to come in three forms. First, the arrival of immigrants who, allegedly, do not share our cultural values and who fail to support -'10 the England cricket team. Few dare to state this case explicitly, but it is the unmistakable subliminal message. Second, our continued membership of the European Union, which is said to be absorbing member states into 'a country called Europe'. Third, the devolution of power to Scotland, Wales...
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...MINI CASE: Will the United Kingdom Join the Euro Club? When the euro was introduced in January 1999, the United Kingdom was conspicuously absent from the list of European countries adopting the common currency. Although the current Labor government led by Prime Minister Tony Blair appears to be in favor of joining the euro club, it is not clear at the moment if that will actually happen. The opposition Tory party is not in favor of adopting the euro and thus giving up monetary sovereignty of the country. The public opinion is also divided on the issue. Whether the United Kingdom will eventually join the euro club is a matter of considerable importance for the future of European Union as well as that of the United Kingdom. The joining of the United Kingdom with its sophisticated finance industry will most certainly help propel the euro into a global currency status rivaling the U.S. dollar. The United Kingdom on its part will firmly join the process of economic and political unionization of Europe, abandoning its traditional balancing role. Investigate the political, economic and historical situations surrounding the British participation in the European economic and monetary integration and write your own assessment of the prospect of British joining the euro club. In dong so, assess from the British perspective, among other things, 1) potential benefits and costs of adopting the euro, UK is a country characterized by a conservative and stable economy...
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...be. With that being said, this is an informative essay that is an attempt to discuss the plight of the British colonies in the Caribbean in terms of the rise and fall of the ‘West Indies Federation’ and its future replacements CARIFTA and CARICOM because of the Federation’s failure. This was all done in an effort to propel West Indian nations from colonialism to self-governance and economic self-sufficiency. There was no significance to the Caribbean until the year 1492, when Christopher Columbus set sail to the east on behalf of his country Spain. Columbus set sail in search of wealth, specifically gold and a better trading channel between Spain, China and Japan. His mother land Spain, was at that time, one of the four principal European powers to colonize the Caribbean by the early seventeenth century. The other three principal powers were the Dutch, the British and the French. While on his journey, which should have been easterly, Christopher Columbus somehow ended up in the west where he stumbled upon some islands; his search for the country in the East was unsuccessful. On the islands, situated in the west, he found natives which he called, “Indians”; most of them met their death through war and disease brought on by the Spaniards. In addition to this, because the islands were found in the west, he decided to call the area the “West Indies”. Columbus did not find what he set out to get as mentioned earlier because the natives did not have gold or anything of value...
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...‘’opted out’’ of the European Monetary and Economic Union (EMU). In retrospect, was this a good decision for British business? The European Monetary and Economic Union A giant step in the history of a unified Europe has been the creation of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Coordination of national economic policies is anticipated to be fair to all EU member states in terms of them all sharing a single market and being part of the EU trading block. As stated on the official website of the EU , ‘’coordinated policies reinforce the EU’s unique mix of market dynamism, social cohesion and environmental responsibility to deliver more growth and jobs’’. Launched at the Hanover Summit in June 1988, chaired by the President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, the EMU has started off as an encouragement of practical and realistic way of achieving an even more united Europe with a single currency as one of its main targets. In the rather positive view of the European Union, the EMU is said to mutually reinforce the national policies of member countries resulting in ‘’more growth, more jobs and a higher level of social welfare for all’’ (Europa, 2008). However, several countries have chosen to opt out of the EMU, notably the United Kingdom of which is going to be the key note of this essay. It is important to look into the reasons for which the UK has decided to opt out of the EMU and evaluate the results of that decision. Why do European countries choose...
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...security of our nation, to the safety of our people against organised crime, even to the health of our environment. A globalised world demands more foreign contacts than even Britain has experienced in the past. I also know that we are likely to make our way more successfully in the world if we are secure in our British identity, and confident about its future. That security and confidence is important for the inner strength it gives us in our conduct of business with others. I want to argue the case why we can be confident about the strength and the future of British identity. Sadly, it has become fashionable for some to argue that British identity is under siege, perhaps even in a state of terminal decline. The threat is said to come in three forms. First, the arrival of immigrants who, allegedly, do not share our cultural values and who fail to support the England cricket team. Few dare to state this case explicitly, but it is the unmistakable subliminal message. Second, our continued membership of the European Union, which is said to be absorbing member states into ‘a country called Europe’. Third, the devolution of power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which is seen as a step to the break-up of the UK. This evening, I want to set out the reasons for being optimistic about the future of Britain and Britishness. Indeed, I want to go further and argue that in each of the areas where the pessimists identify a threat, we should instead see developments that will strengthen...
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...Extension: What is Regional Integration? [pic] Map of EU Countries Using the Euro Source: European Community, 2004 Regional integration is the process by which two or more nation-states agree to co-operate and work closely together to achieve peace, stability and wealth.Extension. Usually integration involves one or more written agreements that describe the areas of cooperation in detail, as well as some coordinating bodies representing the countries involved. This co-operation usually begins with economicintegration and as it continues, comes to includepolitical integration. We can describe integration as a scale, with 0 representing no integration at all between two or more countries. Ten would represent complete integration between two or more countries. This means that the integrating states would actually become a new country — in other words, total integration. We could also say that on the table below, 1-4 represents economic integration while 6-10 represents political integration. The halfway stage, 5, represents the single market, or the completion of economic integration. |0 |5 |10 | |No integration |Single Market |Total Integration | |Economic Integration |Political Integration ...
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...The cultural challenges that Europe is facing now Subject: Cultural challenges coming from European integration and globalization processes current in European Union. Introduction In the post war period Europe started to go through many processes of integration. With the time passage this processes started to have a bigger geographical range as well as they started to be present in more dimensions of social, economic and political life. On the top of that strong globalization processes are taking place all over the world, which also has its strong reflection in shape of Europe. Economy, culture and educational become one of the main issues for Europe in globalization and integration processes. The creation and expansion of European Union a form which never was present in any other place in the history is a significant and irreversible creation. European Integration – does it really concern also the way in which we perceive or will perceive our culture? Some scholars started to use term of Europeanization as the less inclusive and less biased than European Integration itself. Will next generations and new European perceive themselves as European? We can multiply such a questions. This short essay will attempt to answer the main question stated in the title in prism of cross-cultural aspects. What is national culture? In a scientific sense it means a certain class of objects, phenomena and processes, or definite ways of behavior. However, in the philosophical sense the...
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...designed to protect the EU market for bananas produced in former EU territories and in the ACP countries (developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. As part of its 1992 integration program the EU established, effective July 1, 1993, an EU-wide banana trade regime. Under this complex system banana imports were subject to one of two two-tier tariff rate quota systems based on their country of origin. ACP bananas received duty-free entry up to a ceiling of 8577000 metric tons, allocated to each of the banana-producing countries on the basis of their historic exports to the EU. ACP imports in excess of this amount paid 750 ECUs per metric ton. Non-ACP bananas were subject to a duty of ECU 100 per metric ton on imports up to 2 million metric tons, and ECU 850 on imports above that amount. Thirty-three and a half percent of the 2 million tons of non-ACP bananas subject to the lower duty of ECU 100 was reserved for European marketing firms, most of which historically had marketed only ACP bananas. Implications on Chiquita Sales Following World War II, Chiquita became Europe’s main banana provider, exporting to Germany (its principal European market), as well as to Great Britain and other countries. While Germany permitted free inflow of Latin American bananas, Great Britain and France gave preference to bananas from their former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific (the ACP...
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...Chapter 2: International Monetary System Question in the test bank follow the order of the chapter outline: Evolution of the International Monetary System The Current Exchange Rate Arrangements European Monetary System The Euro and the European Monetary Union The Mexican Peso Crisis The Asian Currency Crisis The Argentine Peso Crisis Fixed versus Flexible Exchange Rate Regimes Evolution of the International Monetary System 1. The international monetary system can be defined as the institutional framework within which a) international payments are made. b) movement of capital is accommodated. c) exchange rates among currencies are determined. d) all of the above Answer: d) 2. Corporations today are operating in an environment in which exchange rate changes may adversely affect their competitive positions in the marketplace. This situation, in turn, makes it necessary for many firms to a) carefully manage their exchange risk exposure. b) carefully measure their exchange risk exposure. c) both a) and b) Answer: c) 3. The international monetary system went through several distinct stages of evolution. These stages are summarized, in alphabetic order, as follows: (i)- Bimetallism (ii)- Bretton Woods system (iii)- Classical gold standard (iv)- Flexible exchange rate regime (v)- Interwar period The chronological order that they actually occurred is: a) (iii)...
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...Traditions of the 3 Main UK Parties Conservatism Conservatism - a political and social philosophy that promotes retaining traditional social institutions. A person who follows the philosophies of conservatism is referred to as a traditionalist or conservative. A political or theological orientation advocating the preservation of the best in society and opposing radical changes. Opposition to state interference in private enterprise is one of the party’s core beliefs. Free trade and sound finances are the foundation of modern conservatism. British unionism - a political ideology favouring the continued union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. (Term can also be used in historical context, to describe an ideology favouring the creation of political unions between the constituent states in the British Isles). Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others, called reactionaries, oppose modernism and seek a return to "the way things were". The term, historically associated with right-wing politics, has since been used to describe a wide range of views. There is no single set of policies that are universally regarded as conservative, because the meaning of conservatism depends on what is considered traditional in a given place and time. Thus, conservatives from different parts of the world—each upholding their respective traditions—may disagree on a wide range of issues. "Conservatism is not so much a philosophy...
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