Global, Social and Economic Groupings Have Significant Beneficial Effects for Their Members.
Discuss to which extent you agree with this statement.

Global groupings are where countries, come together in order to attain the same objective, primarily economic growth. Or in the main case peace, that resulted in the formation of the EU post world war two. The European Union is an economic and political grouping of 27 member nations, which are located in Europe. It was first called the EEC that was founded in 1957, but now formally known as the EU which was fully established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force on 1st November 1993. The original objective of the EU was to create such single market, so that there was the free circulation of goods, capital, people and services within it. The integration of the economies was largely thanks to the introduction of the Euro in 1999.
Every grouping for the countries can hold consequences both positive and negative. To analyse this in depth, we can use Austria who joined the EU in 1993, with the aim of gaining greater security for its borders by being able to rely on military support . Along with security, quotas would be removed by becoming a member of the EU which is only an added benefit considering the majority of EU’s trade is with EU members and as a result greater access to the prosperous markets of West Germany. By contrast Norway became the first nation to reject membership to the European union in 1994. This result came amid growing concern that membership to the EU would result in a decrease in farming subsidies that they currently receive from the Norwegian government therefore jeopardising the farming industry. In addition to farming, only 4% of the population work on land which suggests that Norway’s fishing industry is incredibly powerful, most likely the main factor in the no vote to EU membership.