Is the EUs decision-making process best characterized as federal or Essay

Is the EUs decision-making process best characterized as federal or intergovernmental - Essay Example The member states make up such organizations, which are the sovereign states. United Nations, European Union, Council of Europe, World Trade Organization, the Council of Europe and many more are examples of intergovernmental organizations. However, the European Union is a prime example of supranational organization where the governments of the member states delegate the negotiated power to the member states. It is often referred to as a federation. This paper will closely observe the works of the European Union, and whether it is best characterized as federal or intergovernmental. The founding members of the European Union held the same ideals of a peaceful, united and prosperous Europe. They belonged to diverse backgrounds. In the Second World War, bloody wars culminated between neighbors. The purpose behind the establishment of the European was primarily to end these wars. In order to secure the lasting peace, European Coal and Steel Community began to unite the European countries economically and politically. There are six main founders, including France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Luxemburg and Netherlands. There was a cold war between the East and the West in 1950’s. In 1956, the Soviet tanks had put down the protests in Hungary against the Communist regimes. In the following year, Soviet Union had launched their first man made space satellite, Sputnik 1. This is when they took the lead in the space race. The European Economic Community or ‘Common Market’ was created due to the Treaty of Rome.... With the establishment of the common market, goods and services were to move freely within the six nations in Europe (Europea n.d. n.p) In 1962, the newly formed European Union began the common agricultural policy, which gave the nations within the union joint control over all the food produced within these nations (Matthew J 2011 n.p). In 1968, the six nations decide to remove custom duties on goods, which were imported from one another and allowed free cross border trade. Trade between the nations rapidly increased due to this. In 1973, three more nations joined the union making it a total of nine. The three newly joined nations were United Kingdom, Denmark, and Ireland. In 1974, the leaders in European Union established a European Regional Development Fund. The purpose for the funds were to transfer money from the richer region to the poorer regions help improve roads and communications, later on down the road this funding takes up one third of the unions spending. Citizens of the union were involved in the election of the union in 1979, when they were given the right to elect the members of the Parliament of the union. Previously, the members of the parliaments were delegated by the national parliaments. In 1981, Greece joined the union and the tally of nation within the union hit double figures. Spain and Portugal joined the union in 1986. The union launched the Erasmus programme in 1987 to fund for students who were interested in studying for up to 1 year in another European country. This scheme ended up benefiting more than 2 million young students (European Union Background 9 Jan 2012.n.p) The Treaty on European Union was signed in 1992, this set a rule for a future