The European Union - past, present and future

Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 1,8, Edinburgh Napier University (Napier University Business School), course: International Trade Finance, 18 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction The following report shows the financial impact the EU ,and the EMS had on growth and development from a macroeconomic and microeconomic point of view. The report is divided into three main parts. The first part gives an overview of the development and emphasises the key elements of European integration. The second part is a closer look at the impact and influence of the Euro and the third part refers to the development of the European trade growth. 2. The long way towards European integration.1 2 3 Focus is in this part is on the European Union. Paris, Rome, Haque, Maastricht, Amsterdam,Madrid and Nizza. The names of European cities that became famous as milestones of European development is long. Although the integration process recently faced a setback in the ratification of the European constitution, the supranational-project ‘European Union‘ is a success story. Most obvious through the fact that so many countries were and still are keen to join the Union and become a Member State. The EU enlargement on May 2004 were ten Eastern European countries joined the EU is a very good example. However, the enlargement from the so called EU 15 to EU 25 implies also the turn away from the old idea of the ‘United Nations of Europe‘. The idea first mentioned by Winston Churchill after the second World War in 1946 was in mind of many pro-european political characters from French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman to former German Chancelor Helmut Kohl.